Nagano 1998 Olympic Games

The 1998 Nagano Olympic Games, officially known as the XVIII Olympic Winter Games, were an international multi-sport event held in Nagano, Japan, from 7 to February 22, 1998. In this edition, 2,176 athletes participated —1,389 men and 787 women— from 72 National Olympic Committees, who competed in 68 events from 14 sports.

The 18th Winter Olympics was the second organized in Japan after Sapporo 1972, and the third Olympic event if we count the summer event in Tokyo 1964. Most of the competitions took place in four mountain resorts in Nagano Prefecture, while in the capital were the Olympic stadium and the covered pavilions. There were two new additions to the Olympic programme: curling - which had debuted in Chamonix 1924 - and snowboarding, as well as the first women's ice hockey tournament.

In terms of sports, there were outstanding performances such as Russian Larisa Lazutina winning five medals in cross-country skiing, a sport in which Norwegian Bjørn Dæhlie would also shine with three golds. In ice hockey, an agreement was reached so that professional players could attend the event, with the victory of the Czech Republic over the great favorites. Austrian Hermann Maier overcame a hard fall to win two gold medals in alpine skiing; Japanese ski jumper Kazuyoshi Funaki made a perfect score on the giant springboard, and American Tara Lipinski became the youngest Olympic champion ever—14 years old—with gold in figure skating. In addition, the innovations introduced in speed skating made it possible to break up to five world records.

Germany once again led the medal table both in number of medals and in gold, followed by Norway and Russia. The hosts were in seventh position.

Bad weather conditions forced the delay of nine tests, seven of alpine skiing. Despite this, Nagano 1998 is considered an organizational success.

Choice

Panoramic Nagano, Japan.

After having organized the Olympic Games in Tokyo 1964 (summer) and Sapporo 1972 (winter), the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) submitted Nagano's candidacy with a view to the 1998 winter edition. the central part of the island of Honshū, is a mountainous region that had already applied for the Winter Games in 1940 and in 1968, being rejected in both cases in favor of Sapporo.

After the JOC announced its intention to bid for the 18th Winter Olympics, the prefectural government and the local private sector came together to defend a proposal. On June 1, 1988, Nagano prevailed in the Committee's vote with 34 votes out of 45, against Asahikawa, Morioka and Yamagata. The Japanese government not only backed them, but saw an opportunity to develop the economy and infrastructure of Nagano and its surroundings.

The candidacy bet on the concentration of tests in a radius of 40 kilometers and on the largest budget, as well as on the Japanese experience in staging sporting events. However, the vast majority of the planned infrastructures were pending construction, for which reason it faced both opposition from environmental movements and criticism of the organizational cost overrun.

The final vote took place at the 97th IOC Session, held on June 15, 1991 in Birmingham, with two favorite bids: Nagano and Salt Lake City (United States). The cities of Aosta (Italy), Jaca (Spain) and Östersund (Sweden) also participated, all of them with very limited possibilities. Although the Salt Lake City delegation had gained options as the session approached, it weighed more among the members from the IOC the fact that the American Atlanta would host the 1996 Olympic Games. It was necessary to reach the last round, in which the Japanese defeated the capital of Utah by only four votes difference.

97.a Session of the International Olympic Committee 15 June 1991, Birmingham, United Kingdom
City	Voting
Nagano(JPN)	21	-	30	36	46
Salt Lake City(USA)	15	(59)	27	29	42
Östersund(SWE)	18	-	25	23	-
Jaca(ESP)	19	-	5	-	-
Aosta(ITA)	15	(29)	-	-	-

Organization

Organizing Committee

The Nagano 1998 Organizing Committee (NAOC) was established on November 27, 1991, just five months after the IOC election, with a total of 35 members on the executive council; 14 specific commissions, and up to 22 subcommittees for greater specialization. Its head was Eishiro Saito, president of the Japan Sports Investment Foundation and former director of Nippon Steel. The general direction would be the responsibility of the Vice Minister of the Interior, Tadashi Tsuda (1991-1993) and Makoto Kobayashi (1993-1998). In addition, four vice presidents were appointed: Hironoshin Furuhashi, president of the Japanese Olympic Committee; Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, President of the Japan Ski Federation; Goro Yoshimura, Governor of Nagano Prefecture, and Tasuku Tsukada, Mayor of Nagano.

The NAOC had established three basic principles for its operation: encourage the participation of children, respect the environment, and promote world peace between peoples. The first point contemplated numerous national programs to involve children with their environment. And since the environmental impact had been one of the most controversial aspects, the organizers focused efforts on the reuse of venues after the Games, including the Olympic stadium. The basic plan included eight sections: «sports», «culture», «media», «logistics», «Olympic village», «telecommunications system», «operational structure and personnel», and «public relations and design».

At the request of Japan, the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1997 approved a resolution for the fulfillment of the Olympic truce during the event.

Funding

Commemorative currency of the Nagano Olympic Games 1998.

The 18th Winter Games were the most expensive to date. Although there is no official figure because the NAOC refused to provide it and documentation was even destroyed, it is estimated that the total expense was more than 12,500 millions of dollars. Most of it had to do not with sports facilities, on which $914 million was spent, but with accommodation and new means of transport such as the bullet train line (shinkansen) between Tokyo and Nagano, referred to in the accounts. Another destabilizing factor was the bursting of Japan's financial bubble and the devaluation of the yen, which forced the organizers to rethink the entire budget.

The expenses were covered with state subsidies, ticket sales, lottery, merchandising, sports sponsorships and the sale of television rights. The investment of Nagano 1998 would not be surpassed until the celebration of the JJ. oo. of Sochi 2014.

Ticket sales

The organizing committee put on sale 1,286,000 tickets for the various competitions and ceremonies. At the end of the JJ.OO. 1,149,615 seats had been sold, representing 89.4% of the total. If we add up the invitations and reserved tickets, there were 1 275 529 viewers in the accumulated of all tests. The data was better than those registered in Lillehammer 1994, and without exceeding Calgary 1988 in number, they did represent a higher percentage. In fact, the total profit was 8.5 billion yen, higher than expected. Part of the success is due to the good reception of the Japanese public; Season tickets were sold for several tests, and children enjoyed a 50% discount.

The events with the best reception were ice hockey, with 295,802 localities representing 26% of the total; alpine skiing (166 092), ski jumping (96 000) and speed skating (93,000). Eight of the fourteen disciplines were sold out, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies. The only weak spot was cross-country skiing, which only sold 56.6% of the 146,000 tickets available.

Transportation

"Tren bala" of the E2 series covering the line between Tokyo and Nagano (1998).

The biggest challenge for the organizers was to develop an efficient transport network in a very hostile environment, marked by mountains and heavy snowfall in winter. One of the main difficulties was connecting the Olympic village, 7 km from the center of Nagano, with the venues located in five different locations. The geographical situation of the Nagano prefecture limited the construction of roads, so it was foreseeable that there would be traffic jams, and also had to work with forecasts because the exact number of athletes and public would not be known until the previous months.

The State financed the construction of the high-speed train: the Shinkansen Nagano line, inaugurated on October 1, 1997, connects the 221 km that separate Nagano from Tokyo in less than two hours thanks to the "bullet train". On the other hand, two new highways were built and the 114 km of roads inside the prefecture were improved. The airports that would receive the delegations were Narita (Tokyo), Kansai (Osaka) and Nagoya; almost all the visitors landed in the capital.

The transport plan covered from the opening of the Olympic village (January 24) to the closing ceremony (February 25). Approximately 64% of the participants had arrived in the first week of February, while 74% had left in the last three days of the JJ. OO. The organizing committee had managed to get the authorities to extend the hours and the fleet of vehicles available, many provided by neighboring prefectures. Despite the efforts of spectators to use public transport, traffic jams in the metropolitan area were inevitable.

The JJs. oo. of 1998 stood out for the use of intelligent transport systems to indicate traffic restrictions. Approximately 1,520 vehicles were equipped with this navigation model.

Media

The International Broadcast Center (IBC) was located in a former textile factory 2 km from downtown Nagano, while the Media Center was located in a nearby building that was right next to the ice hockey arena (Big Hat). A total of 8,329 people received accreditations to cover the Olympics. oh.

The person in charge of producing the international signal of the Olympic Games. oo. was the Olympic Radio and Television Organization (ORTO'98), made up of the public broadcaster NHK and several private Japanese networks. The contestants shared out the tests based on their input, and there were even collaborations with foreign media in sports such as ice hockey or curling. More than 1,600 employees and 380 cameras were responsible for producing more than 10,000 hours of live broadcast and reports, resulting in a 55% increase in television coverage compared to Lillehammer 1994. The JJ. oo. could be seen in 160 countries, forty more than in the previous edition. For the first time, fiber optics had been used for image transmission.

The cost of the broadcast rights was 513 million dollars, more than double what was obtained in 1994. Internationally they were sold to CBS for the United States, CBC in Canada and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in Europe.

Offices and facilities

Nagano Olympic Stadium.

Sports facilities

15 venues were used for the 18th Winter Olympics, all in Nagano Prefecture. The arena events would be held in Nagano, while the mountain events would take place at stations in nearby cities: Iizuna (20 km to the north), Yamanouchi (30 km to the northeast), Hakuba (50 km to the west) and Nozawaonsen (50 km north).

The five venues in Nagano were built specifically for the event and with a view to being reused. The Nagano Olympic Stadium, designed to host the opening and closing ceremonies, has been the home stadium for baseball since 2000. The same has happened with the Aqua Wing Arena, which has gone from hosting ice hockey to ice to be an Olympic swimming pool, and with the White Ring, today converted into a gym. The Big Hat and M-Wave ice rinks would maintain their original use. The curling was held in Karuizawa, 80 km from the prefectural capital.

As for the mountain venues, the organizing committee made several changes to accommodate the demands of both the sports federations and the Japan Environment Agency. The biathlon event, for which a track had been planned in Hakuba, had to be moved to Nozawaonsen, in compliance with the CITES protocol on protected species. And in 1996 the NAOC had a dispute with the International Ski Federation over the size of the men's downhill run at Happoone, which was eventually enlarged at the request of the skiers. Similarly, no permanent facilities could be built on the hills. Higashidate and Yakebitai due to their status as national parks.

The Iizuna bobsleigh and luge track was the first in Asia to be certified to host international competitions for both sports.

Mountain Venues

Happoone Ski Station.

Hakuba

• Happoone Station – Alpine skiing (descense, super giant, combined).
• Hakuba ski jumping stadium – ski jumps, Nordic combined (salts).
• Snow Harp – cross-country skiing, Nordic combination (fund)

Iizuna

• Iizuna Kogen Station – acrobatic skiing.
• Spiral – bobsleigh, luge.

Nozawaonsen

• Nozawa Onsen Station – biathlon.

Yamanouchi

• Mount Higashidate – Alpine skiing (the giant stage).
• Monte Yakebitai – Alpine skiing (slalon), snowboarding (the giant stage).
• Kanbayashi – snowboard (half tube).

Offices in the city

Outside the Aqua Wing Arena.

Nagano

• Nagano Olympic Stadium – opening and closing ceremonies.
• Big Hat – ice hockey.
• Aqua Wing Arena – ice hockey (preliminary only)
• M-Wave – speed skating
• White Ring – Art Skating, Short Track Speed Skating

Karuizawa

• Kazakoshi Arena – curling.

Olympic Village

The Olympic village was inaugurated on January 24, 1998 and was located in the Imai district, 7 km from downtown Nagano. It was a residential complex, made up of 1,032 apartments in 22 buildings, which would house more than 3,200 athletes, coaches and referees throughout the event. In addition, two additional villas were enabled in Hakuba and in Karuizawa. At the end of the JJ.OO. all the apartments went on the real estate market.

Symbols

Corporate image

Logo of Nagano 1998 on a bridge of the city.

The emblem of the Nagano 1998 Summer Olympics is a snow flower symbolizing Nagano's natural environment. Each petal is made up of the colors and shades of six winter sports pictograms, all in energetic shapes. At the bottom are the name of the city, the year of the event and the Olympic rings.

The organizing committee worked closely with the IOC to implement the corporate image in charge of the Landor Associates studio, responsible for the image of Atlanta 1996. In addition, several artistic posters were designed: the main one was in charge of Masuteru Aoba and reflects a thrush perched on some ski poles. The whole theme focused on respect for the environment and harmony with nature.

The 1998 Olympic Winter Games was also the first to have a website. The organizing committee collaborated with IBM to design an information portal in Japanese, English, and French.

Pets

The official mascots of Nagano 1998 were four abstractly designed owls, known as Snowlets: Sukki, Nokki, Lekki and Tsukki. Each animal symbolizes the elements of antiquity: fire, air, earth and water. In turn, the owl represents the "wisdom of the forest" in Greek mythology and is also a characteristic animal of the forests of Nagano Prefecture, which is why it was chosen to reflect the link between nature and winter. The agency responsible for the design is Landor Associates and the name came out by popular vote among Japanese schoolchildren.

Medals

The medals were worked with Japanese lacquer and for the first time included colors other than the metal. The obverse features a rising sun in lacquer maki-e and the inscription “The XVIII Olympic Winter Games”, surrounded by laurels and bearing the Nagano logo in honeycomb enamel. On the reverse, the same emblem is depicted in maki-e against a background of Mount Shinshu. All lacquerwork was done by artists from the Kiso region, southwest of Nagano.

Olympic Torch

Official Olympic Torch of Nagano 1998.

According to tradition, the Olympic flame was lit with the sun's rays in a ceremony organized in the Temple of Hera (Greece) on December 19, 1997. The organizers picked it up three days later to take it by plane to Tokyo, with an official reception by Prime Minister Ryūtarō Hashimoto, and then exhibited it to the public in the Ginza district and Yoyogi Park.

So that the Olympic flame could cover all corners of Japan in a short time, on January 4 three torches were lit that would travel three different routes:

• Route 1: Sapporo, Hakodate, Aomori, Fukushima, Tokyo, Nagano.
• Route 2: Kagoshima, Oita, Tokushima, Osaka, Nagano.
• Route 3: Okinawa, Nagasaki, Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, Tottori, Fukui, Niigata, Nagano.

The three relays started on January 6 from their respective cities; on January 23 they reached Nagano Prefecture to pass through all of its 120 municipalities, and on February 5 they converged on a single torch in Nagano, where the final leg took place. The last reliever and in charge of lighting the cauldron was the figure skater Midori Itō, silver medalist in Albertville 1992.

The Olympic flame relay in Japan, sponsored by Coca-Cola, lasted 33 days with a total distance of 1,162 km in 162 stages. A total of 6,901 relays participated, divided into teams of six: a runner, a companion and four support people. The design of the torch, 55 centimeters and hexagonal in shape, was inspired by traditional Japanese torches (taimatsu).

Sports

The sporting event included 68 events —seven events more than in the last edition— in 14 sports. Two new sports were added to the Olympic programme, curling and snowboarding, as well as the women's ice hockey tournament.

Calendar

February	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	Total
Opening	A
Biathlon			1		1				1			1	1		1		6
Bobsleigh									1						1		2
Nordic combination								1						1			2
Curling									1								2
Acrobatic skiing					2							2					4
Alpine skiing					1		2			2	1		2	1	1		10
Background ski		1	1	1		2		1		1		1		1		1	10
Ice hockey												1				1	2
Luge			1		1		1										3
Artistic landscape				1				1		1				1	GE.GE		4
Speed skate		1		1	1	1		1	1	1	1		1	1			10
Short track speed skate											2		1		3		6
Ski salts					1				1		1						3
Snowboard		1		1		2											4
Closure																C
February		8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	Total

Postponements

The Organizing Committee had to postpone nine tests due to weather conditions, seven in alpine skiing. During the first week there were intense snowfalls, gusts of wind and fog in several stations, especially in Hakuba, which delayed the scheduled ski schedule for several days. This affected not only the athletes but also the displaced public, of So the NAOC had to modify its ticket return policy. Despite all these difficulties, the tests were able to be held on schedule thanks to the collaboration of the Japan Meteorological Agency and volunteers from the Defense Agency.

Participants

In this edition of the Olympic Winter Games, 2,176 participants registered - 1,389 men and 787 women. This number represents five countries and 439 more athletes than in Lillehammer 1994, a new record of participation in the Winter Games. Five committees took part in the winter edition for the first time: Azerbaijan, Kenya, Republic of Macedonia, Uruguay and Venezuela. In addition, there were the reappearances of Iran after twenty years of absence and of North Korea, India, Ireland and Serbia. Instead, five nations that had participated in the previous edition were left out here: Fiji, Mexico, San Marino, American Samoa and Senegal.

Development

Opening Ceremony

The inauguration took place on February 6, 1998 at the Nagano Olympic Stadium in front of more than 50,000 people. At 11:00 a.m. (UTC+9), the monks at Zenko-ji rang the Buddhist temple bell to mark the beginning of a gala focused on Japanese culture. There were demonstrations of Onbashira ("Festival of the honest pillars"); a performance by sumo wrestlers led by Akebono Tarō, and a children's musical number accompanied by the voice of Ryoko Moriyama. The athletes paraded with Japanese folk melodies in the background: Greece started according to tradition and then the rest of the countries followed. by order of the katakana syllabary: from Andorra to Yugoslavia. The hosts from Japan brought up the march to the beat of Shinano no Kuni ("Shinano Province"), a traditional song associated with Nagano.

After the official speeches by the president of the NAOC and the president of the IOC, in which respect for the Olympic truce was stressed, Emperor Akihito declared inaugurated «the XVIII Olympic Winter Games of Nagano 1998». With the entrance of the Olympic flag, the Olympic anthem and the national anthem of Japan ("Kimigayo") were sung and later the last relay of the torch arrived; the cauldron was lit by figure skater Midori Ito. And after the oath, given by Kenji Ogiwara for the athletes and Junko Hiramatsu for the referees, 1,998 balloons shaped like doves of peace were released. The ceremony concluded with a performance of symphony no. 9 by Beethoven conducted by Seiji Ozawa, in which choirs and orchestras from five continents participated simultaneously.

Biathlon

Ekaterina Dafovska got Bulgaria's first gold in a Winter Games.

The six biathlon competitions were held at the Nozawa Onsen ski resort in northern Nagano prefecture. A total of 183 athletes participated —96 men and 87 women— from 32 countries. Norway and Germany dominated the medal table with five metals each.

The event was opened with the women's events. In the 15 km individual category, the Bulgarian Ekaterina Dafovska won the first winter gold in the history of her country, followed on the podium by the Ukrainian Olena Petrova and the German Uschi Disl (Germany), triple medalist in this event. The next final was the 7.5 km sprint, with the triumph of the Russian Galina Kúkleva. The German skiers were able to get even with gold in the relay final thanks to an outstanding performance by Katrin Apel, silver in sprint and the athlete with the best time on her team.

The men's finals were dominated by skiers from Norway. In the 20 km individual, Halvard Hanevold won gold with a long distance over the Italian Pieralberto Carrara, who despite everything did not miss a single target. The 10km sprint, marked by a postponement due to fog, also saw world champion Ole Einar Bjørndalen win over compatriot Frode Andresen. The last test was the relay, in which Germany revalidated the gold for the third consecutive edition over Norway and Russia.

Bobsledding

From the Spiral de Iizuna track, north of the capital, two bobsleigh events were held in the men's category with the registration of 156 athletes from 28 countries, all of them men. Everything was marked by the maximum equality between the participants, since there were two shared medals and only Germany was able to get something out of both competitions.

In the double bobsleigh an unprecedented situation occurred: the teams from Italy and Canada shared the gold by setting the same time (3:37.24), beating the German couple who had just won the world championship. The Teutons they did climb to the top of the podium in the quadruple event, with a narrow victory over Switzerland. The bronze went to the United Kingdom and France, also shared.

Nordic Combined

Bjarte Engen Vik's Dorsal in the 1998 Nordic combination.

For the Nordic combined, ski jumping took place in Hakuba and cross-country skiing in Snow Harp. Norway became the first country to win both the individual and team events. A total of 53 athletes competed, all of them men.

The individual competition was held from February 13 to 14, with the participation of 48 athletes. The Norwegian Bjarte Engen Vik, leader of the classification in the Nordic Ski World Cup, fulfilled what was expected and hung the gold medal thanks to his leadership in two tests. Although the Russian Valeri Stoliarov was second in ski jumping, he would end up relegated to bronze after being surpassed in the final ranking by the Finnish Samppa Lajunen, by just seven tenths of a second.

The team test took place between February 19 and 20 with eleven teams. The Finnish team took the lead in the jump, with a minimal advantage over the Austrians and Norwegians. However, the Scandinavians came back in cross-country skiing practically from the beginning; Finland finished in second position and France took bronze. A good showing for Japan had been predicted given their 1992 and 1994 Olympic victories in the same event, but this time they missed out on the podium by finishing fifth.

Curling

Curling returned to the Olympic program after a 74-year absence, and its debut at the 1924 Chamonix Olympics had not been recognized until 2006. Both the men's and women's events were held in the neighboring city of Karuizawa, with the participation of 80 pitchers from nine countries.

Each tournament consisted of eight teams and two phases: a group of all against all, and a knockout round for the medals. In the men's final, Switzerland beat Canada 3:9 while Norway took bronze. And in the women's category, the Canadians led by their star Sandra Schmirler prevailed over Denmark after a close final (5:7), while third place fell to Sweden.

Acrobatic skiing

A total of 110 skiers—58 men and 52 women—from 25 countries showed up for four events held at Iizuna Kogen Resort. The United States was unrivaled, taking three of the four gold medals up for grabs.

The biggest joy for the home crowd was the victory in the women's bump event for Japanese Tae Satoya, a native of Nagano, thanks to her comeback victory over Tatjana Mittermayer and favorite Kari Traa in the final. jumps, were marked by an adverse storm and the American Nikki Stone had to do an inverted triple jump to win. In the men's category, victories for his compatriots Jonny Moseley (bumps) and Eric Bergoust (jumps).

Alpine skiing

Hermann Maier overwhelmed a fallen apparatus to win two golds.

The alpine skiing calendar consisted of ten events, with a total of 249 registered skiers —141 men and 108 women— from 49 countries. The sprint events (downhill and super giant) and the combined were held at Happo-one, while the technical events (slalom and giant slalom) were held at Shiga Kogen. Several tests had to be postponed due to weather conditions. The medal table was dominated by Austria and there were two two-time champions: the Austrian Hermann Maier and the German Katja Seizinger.

The men's downhill event, scheduled for February 8, had to be postponed three times due to bad weather until February 13. The gold went to Jean-Luc Crétier, the first French skier to achieve it since Grenoble 1968. The delays also affected the combined event because his slalom took place before the downhill: the Austrian Mario Reiter obtained the best times in the first test and it made useless the efforts of the Norwegian Lasse Kjus (silver) and Christian Mayer (bronze) in the second. With both disciplines coinciding that day, Kjus was the first Olympian to win two ski medals—both silver—in one same day. Three days later Hermann Maier, who had suffered a grueling accident downhill, was able to recover in time to win both the super-G (February 16) and the giant slalom (February 19). Lastly, the slalom, postponed Also due to an earthquake, it led to the victory of the Norwegian Hans Petter Buraas over his compatriot Ole Kristian Furuseth and the Austrian Thomas Sykora.

The Olympic Games. from Nagano also meant the farewell of the Italian Alberto Tomba, who would retire months after being eliminated in the two modalities in which he appeared.

The women's opening was the super-G final on February 11, in which the American Picabo Street beat the Austrians Dorfmeister and Meissnitzer after having recovered from a serious injury. Although the favorites of the German team were left out from that podium due to a poor choice of materials, they did not fail in the rest of the tests; world champion Katja Seizinger won two gold medals in the downhill and combined, as well as bronze in the giant slalom, and Hilde Gerg was the winner in the normal. Italian Deborah Compagnoni defended the Lillehammer 1994 title in the last test of the giant slalom, becoming the first skier to win three golds in three Olympic Games. different.

Cross-country skiing

The ten cross-country ski events, held at the Nozawa Onsen resort, included 228 skiers —126 men and 102 women— from 37 countries. Two names shone with their own light: the Norwegian Bjørn Dæhlie added four medals (three gold) to retire from the Games with the record of twelve medals, while the Russian Larisa Lazutina climbed to the podium of the five women's events: three gold, one silver and one bronze.

The men's category began on February 9 with the victory in 30 km individual of the Finn Mika Myllylä, triple medalist in Lillehammer 1994 and who had not won until that date. In that test Bjørn Dæhlie had fallen to twentieth position for various reasons, but he did not concede a single error in the following ones: he won the 10 km individual and 50 km freestyle, and helped Norway come back in the 4x10 relay. In the 15 km pursuit alone, Dæhlie finished behind his teammate Thomas Alsgaard. Many of the tests were affected by bad weather.

All the women's competitions were dominated by Russia in general and Larisa Lazutina in particular. The skier was only surpassed by two compatriots in two tests: in the first of 15 km classic by Olga Danilova —winner of the first medal in Nagano 1998—, and in the 30 km group start by the young Julia Chepalova. However, Larisa won with solvency in the 5 km classic, five seconds behind the Czech Kateřina Neumannová, and in the 10 km pursuit after beating Danilova. In the 4x5 km relay, the podium of the last edition was repeated: victory for Russia, silver for Norway and bronze for Italy thanks to the comeback driven by Stefania Belmondo.

Ice Hockey

Male ice hockey final between the Czech Republic and Russia.

Olympic ice hockey was marked by two milestones: the inclusion of the women's category in the program and an agreement with the National Hockey League (NHL), the North American professional league, to loan them their best players. Venues for this sport were the Big Hat pavilion and the Aqua Wing Arena.

The men's tournament, made up of fourteen teams, implemented a new competition format. The eight weakest countries played a preliminary phase, and the two best classified —Belarus and Kazakhstan— went on to a second round in which they were already the six seeded teams: Canada, the United States, Finland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Sweden. The result of said phase determined the positions for the direct elimination for the medals. Against all odds, the Czech Republic team - featuring the likes of Dominik Hašek and Jaromír Jágr - eliminated the heavy favorites (USA and Canada) to clinch the gold medal, thanks to a narrow 0:1 victory over Russia. In the match for bronze, Teemu Selänne's Finland beat the Canadian team led by Wayne Gretzky.

A total of six teams competed in the women's category. The United States defeated Canada (3:1) in the grand final, while Finland defeated China (4:1) for bronze.

Luge

Iizuma's Spiral track hosted three luge events with the participation of 93 athletes—64 men and 29 women—from 24 countries. Germany was unrivaled, taking five medals in total, including three golds.

First of all, the individual men's event was held. The defending champion Georg Hackl was coming off a losing streak in world titles, but for the Olympic Games. he was able to improve his times thanks to a redesigned sled and aerodynamic boots, climbing to the top of a podium shared by Italian Armin Zöggeler and German Jens Müller. Thus, Hackl became the sixth athlete to win three consecutive Olympic golds. The world leader at the time, the Austrian Markus Prock, had to settle for fourth place. In the women's category there was a duel between the Germans Silke Kraushaar and Barbara Niedernhuber, with the former victorious by just two thousandths of a second.

The doubles competitions allowed mixed duos, but they were all made up of men. Stefan Krauße and Jan Behrendt, who had been competing together for fourteen years, beat the two teams from the United States, silver and bronze respectively, in the final. For the first time since the luge's inclusion in the Olympic programme, there were medals for athletes who were not German, Austrian, Italian or from the former Soviet Union.

Figure Skating

Tara Lipinski became the youngest Olympic champion.

Figure skating maintained its program in four events plus the exhibition, with a total of 145 participants—73 men and 72 women—from 37 countries from the Nagano White Ring. As had happened in Lillehammer 1994, it was allowed the participation of professional skaters who had been in tournaments of the International Skating Union.

The competition was opened with the pairs event: the Russian duo formed by Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev obtained the highest score in the technical program and endured the type in freestyle. Dmitriev had already won gold in Albertville 1992 with another skater, becoming the first to win this discipline with two different partners. Then came the men's category, with the victory of the Russian Ilia Kulik in both the short and the free; the Canadian Elvis Stojko repeated the silver from 1994, and Philippe Candeloro did the same with the bronze.

In dance in pairs, the Russian world champions Oksana Grishuk and Evgeni Platov revalidated the victory of Lillehammer 1994. There was controversy in the jury, as the Canadian Jean Senft accused two of her European colleagues of "political voting" to leave the Canadian couple was off the podium. The complainant came to provide telephone conversations from a Ukrainian judge and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) agreed with her, but the International Skating Union would end up suspending both for conflict of interest.

In the women's category, there was an expected duel between the two favorites, the Americans Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan. The skater of Hong Kong origin led the classification at the end of the short program by a narrow margin. However, Lipinski came back from free with a highly technical exercise, superior to Kwan's triple jump combinations. Seven of the nine judges gave Lipinski full marks, for which she became the youngest Olympic champion of the history (14 years), surpassing the record held until then by the Norwegian Sonja Henie in Sankt Moritz 1928. The bronze went to the Chinese Chen Lu.

Speed Skating

Clap skates were first used in Nagano 1998.

A total of ten tests were held in the recently built M-Wave with the registration of 171 athletes —92 men and 79 women— from 25 states. In total, five world records and twelve Olympic records were broken thanks to two technological innovations: the Netherlands team had debuted aerodynamic suits and innovative clap skates (with a hinge) to extend the leg without losing contact with the ice, immediately emulated by the other delegations.

The Dutch dominated the men's discipline with nine of the fifteen medals up for grabs. Gianni Romme broke the world record in the 5,000 and 10,000 meter final, while Ids Postma did the same in 1000m and came second in the 1500m The host nation's great hope, record holder Hiroyasu Shimizu, took gold in the 500m and bronze in 1000 m Finally, Norwegian Ådne Søndrål claimed the world record in 1500 m, above the Dutch Postma and Rintje Ritsma, triple medalist of this edition.

The female category had greater equality. In the 500 m, Canada's Catriona Le May Doan, who had broken the Olympic record in both races in the final, was victorious. Marianne Timmer of the Netherlands broke the world record in the 1000 m and 1500 m In the longer distance categories there was a duel between the Germans Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann and Claudia Pechstein: the former won the victory in 3000 m, but the second one was able to make up for it by defeating her in 5000 m with another record in the world, only four hundredths away. At the end of Nagano 1998, Niemann would retire with eight Olympic medals, three of them gold, which equaled Karin Enke's milestone.

Short Track Speed Skating

From the Nagano White Ring, some 94 skaters —49 men and 45 women— from 18 countries took part in the six tests included in the event. The traditional South Korean dominance was joined this time by the Chinese, who won six of their eight medals in this modality.

Women's events were held first; South Korea's Chun Lee-kyung retained the Lillehammer gold medals in the 1000 m and 3000 m categories span> of the team relay, as well as a bronze in the 500 m event where Canadian Annie Perreault was the winner. For its part, the men's events were led by the Japanese Takafumi Nishitani, surprise winner of the 500 m, and the South Korean rookie Kim Dong-sung in the 1000 m Canadian world champion Marc Gagnon, who had been disqualified from the previous final, was able to redeem himself with Canada's gold in the 5000m relay.

Ski jumping

Kazuyoshi Funaki was gold on the long trampoline with a perfect score in style.

The ski jumping competitions filled the stands of the Hakuba stadium with the presence of 68 athletes - all men - from 19 countries. For the first time in an Olympic event, qualification for the second round was restricted to thirty best jumpers.

In the normal springboard the podium was taken by the Finn Jani Soininen, followed by the Japanese Kazuyoshi Funaki and the Austrian Andreas Widhölzl. Four days later, the long springboard was held, where Funaki made history by overcoming a distance of 132.5 meters and, something unprecedented in the Olympic Games until then, the perfect score in style. In this way, the Japanese surpassed Soininen and hung a gold that his country had not won since Sapporo 1972. Finally, the team event was reached, with a Japanese victory thanks to Takanobu Okabe's Olympic record (137 meters); Germany signed the silver and Austria obtained the bronze.

Snowboarding

Snowboarding made its debut on the program with a total of 125 athletes —69 men and 56 women— from 22 countries. Both the giant slalom and the half pipe, both with their corresponding division by gender, were organized by the Federation Ski International, the only organization recognized by the International Olympic Committee.

The men's giant slalom final was held on Mount Yakebitai on February 8, with Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati victorious. Three days later, the medal was withdrawn for testing positive for cannabinoids, being the first case of suspension for drugs not linked to sports performance. However, after the Canadians appealed to the TAS, the IOC had to return it to them because marijuana did not it was on his list of prohibited substances. The women's test, scheduled for the 9th, brought the victory of the French Karine Ruby. This modality of slalom was replaced in Salt Lake City 2002 by the parallel giant.

Both halfpipe finals were held on February 12 at the Kanbayashi Snowboard Park. The men's event witnessed the conquest of the Swiss Gian Simmen, who until then had not prevailed in another major event, over the favorites Daniel Franck (Norway, silver) and Ross Powers (USA, bronze). And in the women's category, the victory went to the young German Nicola Thost, by a narrow margin over the Norwegian Stine Brun Kjeldaas. The American Shannon Dunn-Downing had the best score in the first heat, but in the second she made several mistakes that relegated her to bronze.

Closing Ceremony

In front of more than 50,000 spectators at the Olympic Stadium, the 18th Winter Games closed on February 22. Emperor Akihito and his wife launched the gala at 18:00 (UTC+9), after which the athletes made an appearance carrying the flags of the 72 committees. Traditional dances from Nagano Prefecture gave way to a delegation from the next venue, Salt Lake City 2002, represented by an escort of cowboys. And after all the formal acts, the flame was extinguished to the rhythm of the traditional song Furusato ("My home"), performed by Anri, to finally conclude with a fireworks display.

Medal table

A total of 24 countries finished the Winter Olympic Games with a medal, of which 15 won at least one gold medal. Germany was in first position both in number of golds (12) and in total count (29), four above Norway. In third place was Russia, the previous winner of Lillehammer 1994, with 18 metals. No Spanish-speaking country managed to get on the podium.

Bulgaria (biathlon) and the Czech Republic (ice hockey) won their first Winter Olympic gold medals, while Denmark made their silver medal debut in curling.

The most successful athlete was the Russian skier Larisa Lazutina, with three golds and at least one metal in each of the five women's cross-country ski events. The only athlete who could match her victories was the Norwegian Bjørn Dæhlie, retiring with a total of 12 Olympic medals in three editions. American figure skater Tara Lipinski became the youngest person to win a Winter Games event.

No.	Country				Total
1	Germany (GER)	12	9	8	29
2	Norway (NOR)	10	10	5	25
3	Russia (RUS)	9	6	3	18
4	Canada (CAN)	6	5	4	15
5	United States (USA)	6	3	4	13
6	Netherlands (NED)	5	4	2	11
7	Japan (JPN)	5	1	4	10
8	Austria (UT)	3	5	9	17
9	South Korea (KOR)	3	1	2	6
10	Italy (ITA)	2	6	2	10

Top medalists

Board

Athlette	Country	Sport				Total
Larisa Lazutina	Russia Russia	Background ski	3	1	1	5
Bjørn Dæhlie	Norway Norway	Background ski	3	1	0	4
Olga Danilova	Russia Russia	Background ski	2	1	0	3
Kazuyoshi Funaki	JapanJapan	Ski jump	2	1	0	3
Chun Lee-kyung	South KoreaSouth Korea	Skating on short track	2	0	1	3
Katjaizing Seizinger	GermanyGermany	Alpine skiing	2	0	1	2

Legacy

Olympic park in the center of Nagano.

The 1998 Summer Olympics had a positive impact on Nagano and the rest of the prefecture. In addition to turning it into a tourist destination for winter sports, the new transport network reduced territorial inequality with other regions of the island of Honshū, largely thanks to the high-speed train (now Hokuriku Shinkansen) and the two highways In general terms, it is considered that they were an organizational success despite the weather problems and the traffic jams.

The Japanese authorities have had to manage the maintenance of sports venues. Some venues were transformed into new facilities, including the Olympic Stadium into a baseball field (2000) and the Aqua Wing Arena into a swimming center (1999).. The ski resorts, the M-Wave pavilion (speed skating) and the Big Hat (figure skating) have retained their original use. However, not all facilities have suffered the same fate: the Iizuna Spiral track is deficient and has had to close on several occasions due to lack of maintenance.

The NAOC used part of the proceeds to create a "1998 Olympic Games Commemorative Fund," the money to be invested in training Japanese athletes and funding subsequent winter sports competitions to be held at the NAOC. archipelago.

Some of these competitions have been the 2000 World Speed Skating Championship, the 2000 U-20 Ice Hockey World Cup, the 2002 Figure Skating World Cup, the 2004 Short Distance Speed Skating World Cup, and several qualifiers of the world series of skating.

Controversy

At the end of the Games, the Japanese Olympic Committee opened an investigation into the expenses of Nagano's candidacy to guarantee the election in 1991. The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper revealed that the delegation had spent 740 million yen in different concepts, including an additional cost of 24 million yen to transport the Japanese delegation (of 180 members) to Birmingham, site of the 97th IOC session. During the evaluation of candidate venues, Nagano even paid for first-class stays, gifts and tourist routes to 62 IOC members, including President Juan Antonio Samaranch. However, the NAOC had destroyed all the documentation related to these expenses, according to them "to save space", so the figure could never be quantified. exact.