|
|
 |
XVI Olympics
Political upheaval caused dramatic changes in the Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union during 1991. At the 1992 XVI Olympic Winter Games, the USSR was no more; athletes from the world's largest country now competed as a "Unified Team." With the fall of the East German regime, German athletes once again competed together under one flag, while the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia returned to the Olympics as sovereign nations after more than half a century.
Freestyle skiing, men's and women's short-track speed skating and a three-event women's biathlon were added to the Winter Games. France also joined the United States as the only nation to host an Olympic Winter Games three times. |
|
|
|
|
- VITAL STATS
Attendance: 64 nations
Male athletes: 1,313
Female athletes: 488
Most-medaled country: Germany (26)
U.S. rank: 5th
|
|
|
|
- HIGHLIGHTS
ï Kristi Yamaguchi returned the gold medal to the United States in women's figure skating for the first time in 20 years. Fellow team member Nancy Kerrigan made a surprising third-place finish in the competition.
ï Lyubov Yegorova (Unified Team) was Albertville's most decorated athlete, as she medaled in each of the women's cross-country events. She picked up gold medals in the 10km combined, 15km cross-country (classical) and 4 x 5km team relay, and silvers in the 5km cross-country (classical) and 30km cross-country (freestyle).
ï Bonnie Blair (USA) won her second and third gold medals in the 500- and 1,000-meter speedskating events. She won her first gold medal in 1988.
ï Nordic skier Bjorn Daehlie (Norway) picked up three gold medals in the cross-country combined, 50km (freestyle) cross-country and the 4 x 10km relay, and a silver in the 30km (classical) cross-country ski event. His eventual eight medals in two Olympic games (1992 and 1994) would place him one medal behind the all time Winter Games medal winner, nine-time medalist Sixten Jernberg of Sweden.
ï Donna Weinbrecht (USA) became the first winner of an Olympic gold medal in freestyle skiing.
ï Viktor Petrenko (Unified Team) became the first male skater from the lands of the former Soviet Union to win a gold medal in men's figure skating.
|
|
|
