Quick Intro: 1994 Winter Olympics

The 1994 Winter Olympics games were opened on February 12, 1994 in Lillehammer Norway. This would be the first and only time that two Winter Olympics would be held just two years apart. This anomaly happened because in 1986 the International Olympic Committee decided to hold the summer games and winter games in different years. The games most affected by this decision would be the 1994 Winter Olympics games.

There was 1,737 athletes that took part in 61 events at the 1994 Winter Olympic games. Norway beamed with pride as their star speed skater, Johann Olav Koss, won three Winter Olympics medals. Koss not only won three medals, but set world records in each race. Americans everywhere stopped to watch Bonnie Blair as she skated to win her third consecutive 500 meter speed skating gold medal. Russian pairs skaters Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov skated their way to a gold medal. Meanwhile, female biathlete Myriam Bedard of Canada, shot and skied her way to two gold medals at the 1994 Winter Olympic .

One of the best stories to come out of the 1994 Winter Olympics was not about winning a medal, but about being a team. During the 1994 Winter Olympics, the Bosnian war was pulling apart the countries of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Croatia. While this war raged on in the Balkans, a team of four bobsledders took to the track. These four bobsledders consisted of a Croatian, a Serbian and two Bosnians. These are the same nationalities, that were fighting each other in the Balkans. This team may have not won a medal, but what they did meant much more. Four young athletes, from a nation at war, showed the world how to get along.
The 1994 Winter Olympic games were closed on February 27, 2009. Lillehammer was able to show the world all of the great things Norway has to offer. At the end of the closing ceremony Lillehammer passed on the 1994 Winter Olympic flame to Nagano, who would host the 1998 Winter Olympic Games.

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Lillehammer '94