th Winter Olympic Games
| Where? | Nagano |
| Which Olympics? | The eighteenth (winter) |
| How long was it? | From 7 February till 22 February |
| Joining countries: | 72 |
| Athletes + officials: | 3500 |
| Whereof women: | ? |
These Olympics are still fresh in the memory. These were last year. They cost 103 billion yen. That's about 850,000,000,000.-- dollar. About 165,000,000 dollar was spent at the biggest item, media and public relations. The other big item was information and telecommunication, with about 152,000,000 dollar. The stadiums cost nothing, because they were rent-free made available through the host cities (where the stadiums stand).
The NOC*NSF (National Olympic Committee of the Netherlands) made 460,000 dollar available for the Dutch team. More than the half of this was for the journey, residence and clothes of the skaters, the skier and sleigh-driver with their companions (altogether from 45 to 50 men).
The NOC*NSF paid for one gold medal 27,500 dollar, a silver one 18,000 dollar and for a bronze medal 9,000.
There was immediately a problem (at snowboarding): the Canadian Ross Rebegliati won a gold medal. But he had to send in his medal when it clear that he had smoked a joint. The IOC thought that a joint was forbidden. One day later he got his medal back again. The international snowboard association said that a joint didn't stand at the list of forbidden drugs.
Tara Lipinski (USA) is the youngest figure-skater that ever won a gold Olympic medal. A whole time, Kwan was number one, but the figure of Lipinski was faultless, so she was better thought the jury. Kwan didn't understand well why she had lost. When the medals were given to the three best figure-skaters, it was funny to see that Lipinski was smaller than the numbers two and three, despite the podium (she is only 1.47 meter (about 4 feet and 10 inches)).
At speed skating was there an accident: Wennemars (the Netherlands). He received a Norwegian in the second round. Wennemars and Bos had calculate before his race where Gunde Njøs would fall (he is famous through his falls). Then Njøs fell in the second curve (yes, the famous Njøs-curve) Erben Wennemars could jump over him (in the first instance), but his left foot hitted a cube. He made an unfortunately crash in the pads of the track-protection. He was thrown back through the pads on the ice. His left arm shooted out his socket. For minutes he lay on the ice, screaming from the pain. Hans Smid (team-doctor) had needed 20 minutes to put his arm back in his socket. Over and out for Wennemars.
The next day he received a sweater from the Norwegian team, as comfort. Wennemars had to do something, so he held up the lap time-board for the other Dutch speed-skaters.
We give a lesson cross-country skiing: how will I finish as first? Take the good wax, so don't do it like the Norwegian Bjørn Daehlie. He used the wrong wax: he used one so he had more grip. He finished as 20th. The Finnish Myllylae finished as 1st because he used the good wax, that worked as lubricant. Because you have to slide at cross-country skiing.
Again speed skating: Andrea Nuijt (the Netherlands) fell very strange (this time no ambulance). You have to fall in the curve, everybody knows, but Andrea had to do special. She fell with legs wide apart in her 500 meters race against the Belorussian Kotijoega.
The Japanese Harada had been much better at ski-jumping than in Lillehammer (1994). He had blown the golden medal for teams through a really bad jump (they had enough at a moderate jump). Now he had jumped good. And there he was before the camera: crying, crying. And, of course, there was the stereotype block that the team did it together. Look, if he said that in Lillehammer, he was wrong: the rest of the team did it good. He blew it. They did it good now, and Harada jumped good too, so he had done it.
At last again speed skating. Gianni Romme (the Netherlands) the long-distance skater had driven 2 World Records: at the 5 kilometers (about 3.1 miles) a time of 6,22.20 and at the 10 kilometers (about 6.25 miles) a time of 13,15.33. So he won 2 golden medals. This bath superintendent from Made hadn't put away his 2 medals save in a save at the bank (the medal of Ellen van Lange (the Netherlands) was stolen at the bank), but he had them 'normally' in two plastic bags in the kitchen-drawer.
The medals of these Olympics
Previous Olympics
Next Olympics