Home > 2002 Winter Olympics

The XIX Olympic Winter Games were held in 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Other candidate cities were Quebec City, Quebec, Canada; Sion, SwitzerlandThe Swiss Confederation or Switzerland is a landlocked federal state in central Europe, with neighbours Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. The country has a strong tradition of political and military neutrality, but also of international c; and Östersund, SwedenThe Kingdom of Sweden Konungariket Sverige in Swedish) is a Nordic country in Scandinavia, in Northern Europe. It is bordered by Norway on the west, Finland on the northeast, the Skagerrak and the Kattegat on the southwest, and the Baltic Sea and the Gulf.

1 Highlights

Prior to these Olympic Winter Games, a number of I.O.CAlternative meanings at IOC (disambiguation The International Olympic Committee is an organization created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1894 to reinstate the Ancient Olympic Games held in Greece, and organize this sports event every four years. The IOC recei members were forced to resign after it was uncovered that they had accepted inappropriately valuable gifts in return for voting for Salt Lake City to hold the Games. New IOC president Jacques RoggeJacques Rogge (born May 2, 1942) is a Belgian orthopaedic surgeon and has been the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2001. Born in Ghent, Rogge competed in yachting in the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics, and played on the B and new CEO of the Salt Lake Games Mitt RomneyWillard Mitt Romney (b. March 12, 1947) is an American Republican politician from Massachusetts, who has served as Governor of Massachusetts since 2003. Biography The son of Michigan Governor George Romney, Mitt Romney received his B. from Brigham Young U then staged the Games and contended with the public opinion backlash due to the scandal.

For full details, see: 2002 Winter Olympic bid scandal.

The September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack also required a higher level of security than ever before provided for an Olympiad.

Controversies continued into the Games. In the first week the pairs figure skating competition resulted in the French judge's scores being thrown out and the Canadian team of Jamie Salé and David Pelletier being awarded a second gold medal. Athletes in short-track speed skating and cross-country skiing were disqualified for various reasons as well (including doping), leading Russia and South Korea to file protests and threaten to withdraw from competition.

Competition highlights were biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen, winning gold in all four men's events (10 k, 12.5 k, 20 k, 4 x 7.5 relay), Simon Ammann of Switzerland taking the double in ski jumping, and alpine skier Janica Kostelic winning three golds and a silver (the first Winter Olympic medals ever for an athlete from Croatia).

A feature of these Games has been the emergence of the so-called "extreme" sports, such as snowboarding, moguls and aerials, which appeared in previous Olympic Winter Games but have captured greater public attention this year.

One of the most memorable stories of the event occurred at the short-track speed skating. Australian skater Steven Bradbury , an honest competitor who had previously won a bronze as part of a relay team but well off the pace of the medal favourites, cruised off the pace in his semifinal only to see his competitors crash into each other, allowing him through to the final. Bradbury was again well off the pace, but lightning struck again and all four other competitors crashed out in the final, leaving a jubilant Bradbury to take the most unlikely of gold medals, Australia's first in a Olympic Winter Games event.

Finally, the Canadian men's ice hockey team defeated the American team 5-2 to claim the gold medal and end a drought that lasted 50 years to the day. The Canadian women's team also defeated their American counterparts 3-2 after losing to them at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano and at all 8 exhibition games prior to the Salt Lake Games.