The emblem represents a snow crystal, with the Olympic rings and “SALT LAKE 2002” below. The colors; yellow, orange and blue; represent the Utah landcape.
The 2002 Salt Lake City games became the most populated area to have ever hosted a Winter Olympics, at the time of the Olympics its metropolitan population was 1,516,227[1].
Contents
1Highlights
2Controversies
3Security measures
4Medals awarded
5Venues
6Medal count
7Participating nations
8See also
9External links
Highlights
The opening ceremonies included Grammy Award winning artist, LeAnn Rimes singing "Light the Fire Within", the official song of the 2002 Olympics.
During the opening ceremonies, just before the parade of nations, there was a segment honoring all Olympic Winter Games. [1]
The Olympics marked the first time an American president opened a Winter Olympic games held in the United States.
These were the first Games under the presidency of Jacques Rogge.
Competition highlights included 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 Kostelić winning three golds and a silver (the first Winter Olympic medals ever for an athlete from Croatia).
Skeleton returned as a medal sport in the 2002 Games for the first time since 1948.
The Women's Bobsled Event had its debut at the 2002 Games after several years of World Cup competition.
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 in recent years.
American Sarah Hughes won the gold medal in figure skating. American and heavy favorite Michelle Kwan fell during her long program and receives the bronze medal.
China won its first and second Winter Olympic gold medals, both by women's short track speed skater Yang Yang (A).
One of the most memorable stories of the event occurred at the men's short track. Australian skater Steven Bradbury, a competitor who had won a bronze in 1994 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 three of his competitors crash into each other, allowing him to finish second and go 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 turn, leaving a jubilant Bradbury to take the most unlikely of gold medals, the first for Australia – or any other country of the Southern Hemisphere – in the Olympic Winter Games.
Finally, the Canadian men's ice hockey team defeated the American team 5-2 to claim the gold medal, ending 50 years without the hockey gold. The Canadian women's team also defeated the American team 3-2 after losing to them at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano.
Prior to the beginning of the hockey matches, the tournament's Canadian icemaker, Trent Evans, placed a Canadian one dollar coin (a loonie) underneath the center ice faceoff spot; he did this to give good luck to the Canadian hockey teams. After the Canadian women's and men's teams both won Gold medals, Team Canada executive director Wayne Gretzky dug the coin out of the ice. The coin now rests in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Prior to these Olympic Winter Games, a number of IOC 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. IOC PresidentDr. Jacques Rogge and new CEO of the Salt Lake Games Mitt Romney then staged the Games and contended with the public opinion backlash due to the scandal.
In the first week the 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 by two Russians and one Spaniard in cross-country skiing), leading Russia to file protests and threaten to withdraw from competition.
When he spoke during the opening ceremonies, Rogge, presiding over his first olympics as IOC president, told the athletes of the host country: "Your nation is overcoming a horrific tragedy, a tragedy that has affected the whole world. We stand united with you in the promotion of our common ideals, and hope for world peace." [2]
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