The , officially known as the '''XVIII Olympic Winter Games,''' were celebrated in
1998 in
Nagano ,
Japan . Other candidate
Cities were
Aosta ,
Italy ;
Jaca ,
Spain ;
Östersund ,
Sweden ; and
Salt Lake City ,
USA . The selection was held in
Birmingham ,
United Kingdom in
1991 .
- Ice Hockey for women was contested at the Olympic Games for the first time ever, and the U.S. beat the Canadians 3-1 for the gold medal. USA went undefeated in the women's tournament, while the men had just a single win over Belarus and lost every other game. Czech Republic faced Russia for the men's gold medal, while Finland won both the men's and women's bronze medals for ice hockey.
- XC Skier Bjørn Dæhlie of Norway won three gold medals in Nordic skiing to become the first winter Olympian to earn eight career gold medals and twelve total medals.
- Curling returned as an official sport, after having been demoted to a demonstration event after the Inaugural Winter Games in Chamonix in 1924
- Snowboarding debuted as an official sport and women's Ice Hockey was introduced to the Olympic program.
- Players from the NHL were able to compete in men's Ice Hockey due to a three week suspension of the NHL season.
- Tara Lipinski , 15, narrowly beat Michelle Kwan in women's figure skating to become the youngest champion in an individual event in the history of the Winter Olympics.
- Alpine Skier Hermann Maier ( Austria ) survived a fall in the downhill and went on to gold in the super-g and giant slalom.
- Speed Skaters Gianni Romme and Marianne Timmer won two gold medals each for the Netherlands ; 5 out of 10 titles in speed skating went to the Netherlands.
- Snowboarder Ross Rebagliati won the gold medal, after initially being disqualified for Marijuana usage.
- Azerbaijan , Kenya , the Republic Of Macedonia , Uruguay , and Venezuela made their first appearance at these Olympic Winter Games.
See the medal winners, ordered by sport:
Hakuba
Iizuna
Karuizawa
Nagano
Nozawaonsen :
Yamanouchi
(''Host nation is highlighted.'')
The games were covered by the following broadcasters:
