Winter Olympic Stories 1994 XVII Lillehammer Winter Olympics

Since the Winter Olympics were held in 1924, they have gradually become a hot spot like the Summer Olympics. It is in the participating countries and regions, competition projects, venue equipment and other aspects, with the trend of the times in progress. Many of these events, such as figure skating, ice hockey, speed skating, jumping and snow jumping, slewing, etc., can attract a wide audience, and are also the objects of television, radio, newspapers, magazines and other media competing to capture cameras and publicity reports. In order to achieve good results in the Winter Olympic Games, various countries and regions have also invested more and more manpower and material resources, especially the energy spent by the host countries.

In view of the fact that the Olympic year holds both the Winter and Summer Olympic Games at the beginning of the year and the middle of the year, and the burden of selection, training and competition on the International Olympic Committee, the international sports federations, especially the national and regional Olympic committees, the IOC held its 93rd Annual Meeting during the 15th Winter Olympic Games held in Calgary, Canada, in 1988, and the annual meeting decided that from the 17th Winter Olympic Games onwards, the Summer Olympic Games would no longer be held in the same Olympic year as the Summer Olympic Games. Thus, from 1994 onwards, the Winter Olympics changed the 70-year tradition of holding the Summer Olympics two years apart, which was an epoch-making improvement, and in the last Olympic history, in addition to the Summer Olympic years, there will be another Winter Olympic year.

The separation of the Winter and Summer Olympics and the fact that they are not held in the same year has reduced a lot of burden on the countries and regions bidding for the Winter Olympic Games, and has also provided opportunities for many bidding countries and regions. Lillehammer in Norway is a very representative city.

Ice and snow sports have a long history in Lillehammer. As early as 1867, Lillehammer held its first ski games. Good winter sports facilities and beautiful natural environment have made this small city of only 23,000 people a norwegian winter sports center and tourist mecca, and one of the cities that bid for the 1994 Winter Olympics. It was also sponsored by Sweden's Östersund, The United States' Anchorage, Bulgaria's Sofia and Aure. Because Of Norway's tradition of snow sports and experience in hosting the Winter Olympics, Lillehammer easily won the historic right to host the 17th Winter Olympics, making Norway the second country to host the Winter Olympics.

In fact, as early as 1952, when the Norwegian capital Oslo hosted the 6th Winter Olympic Games, many exemplary systems were established for the Winter Olympic Games, such as the torch relay of the Winter Olympic Games, the weight regulations of the bobsleigh racing car, the addition of new sports such as men's and women's giant slalom, 10 km cross-country skiing, the use of the Winter Olympic flag, etc., as well as the seriousness and enthusiasm of the Norwegians, which also won international praise.

On this basis, the organizing committee and the host city of Lillehammer have made efforts, and even the Norwegian green environmental protection organization with 430,000 members has also given support to the preparation of the Winter Olympics, which is one of the most prestigious organizations in Norway. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the Olympic Games, the organizing committee recruited 8,000 volunteers and 2,500 military personnel, and arranged 2,000 police officers to be on duty to ensure the safety of the Olympic Games. They have created comfortable conditions for athletes from all over the world, so that the Way the Winter Olympics operate and the results of the competition have been a great success.

What's more worth mentioning is that this Winter Olympics also set a ticket sales record that surprised everyone. More than a million visitors from all over the world come to Lillehammer, and Lillehammer's stadiums are 88% of the total attendance. That compares to 82 percent at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. A total of 1.4 million tickets were sold at all the venues of the Winter Olympics, and about 500,000 people stood on both sides of the forest track to watch the ski races. A related miracle is that the televised rights to the Winter Olympics were purchased by CBS Television for $295 million, which is the highest number since the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

In addition to the Mongolian style, two new items have been added to the competition, and two male and female aerial skills styles have been added to the freestyle skiing. The men's 500m and women's 1000m events have also been added to the short track speed skating, so that the number of events in the Winter Olympics has increased to 61 sub-events.

In the competition, the first gold medal of the freestyle skiing aerial skills women was won by Cherjadsova of Uzbekistan. Although cheljazova's aerial movements and landings are not very ideal, the choice of actions is very difficult, especially the first jump, with a forward flip of 180 degrees, and the action of the group's body flipping a week of free posture flips of 180 degrees, making it a far ahead of the score, laying the foundation for winning the championship.

In the men's aerial skills competition, although the difficulty coefficient of the movements completed by Schönbergerel in Switzerland is not higher than that of other players, the aerial movements and landings are very good, and the championship is won with a total score of 234.67 points.

In the two new additions to the sprint track speed skating, South Korean athletes dominated, with the men's 500m gold medal being won by South Korea's Choi Ji-hyun with a time of 43.45 seconds, while the women's 1000m was won by South Korea's Jeon Li-ching with a time of 1:36.87. It shows that the ice and snow sports in Asian countries have made great progress.

The speed skating competition for the Winter Olympics took place at the newly built "Pirate Ship" skating hall on the shores of Lake Moyosa in the town of Lillehammer Hamar. The ice pouring is a reference to the 100-meter-deep groundwater of Lake Moyoosa, the cleanest lake in Europe, so the ice quality is excellent, the ice surface is white and bright, and it provides good conditions for athletes to create excellent results. Because this Winter Olympics is only two years away from the previous session, some veterans have postponed their retirement, coupled with the qualification tournament implemented in this tournament, so that the level of participating athletes is both high and very close.

In the long distance races, the excellent results achieved by skaters were remarkable, with male speed skaters setting Olympic records for all events, and the stars of the competition first promoting Norwegian speed skater Kos. The Norwegian star won three gold medals in speed skating in the 1500m, 5000m and 10000m and set new world records in each event. After the Winter Olympics, Kos donated about $32,000 in prize money from his games to the residents of Sarajevo, where the 1984 Winter Olympics were held. In addition, Coase auctioned his own ice knives for 600,000 crowns and donated all the proceeds to the Olympic Solidarity Foundation, which trains young athletes.

In addition to Kos's outstanding performance, the Norwegian delegation led by him won a total of 10 gold medals, 11 silver medals and 5 bronze medals at the Winter Olympics, ranking second in the gold medal table, but it became the country with the most medals this year.

After Chinese athletes won three silver medals for the first time at the 16th Winter Olympics in 1992, a 57-member delegation of 27 athletes (8 men and 19 women) and 30 coaches and staff members was selected for the Winter Olympic Games. Yuan Weimin served as the head of the group, and Zhao Zhangli and Tu Mingde served as deputy leaders. In the competitions of speed skating, short skating, figure skating, modern otudetathlon and other events, a total of 8 Chinese athletes won the top 8 in 5 events, of which Zhang Yanmei won the silver medal in the women's 500-meter short track speed skating with a time of 46.44 seconds, in the women's 1000-meter speed skating competition, Ye Qiaobo won the bronze medal in 1 minute 20 seconds 22 seconds, and Chen Lu won the bronze medal in the women's figure skating singles competition. Liu Hongbo, the men's 500-meter speed skater, Xue Yanghong, the women's 500-meter speed skater, and Zhang Yanmei, the women's 1000-meter speed skater, all achieved fourth place.

Among them, the bronze medal of figure skating obtained by Chen Lu is particularly valuable. She won the first Winter Olympic figure skating medal for China with a smooth, graceful and difficult three-and-a-half week jump in the women's single competition, and since then, the three events on Chinese ice have fully entered the world's advanced level.