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2002 Winter Olympics logopng
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The emblem represents a snow crystal, <br> with the Olympic rings and “SALT LAKE 2002” below <br> The colors yellow, orange and blue <br>represent the Utah landscape
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Salt Lake City, Utah , United States
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77
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2,399 (1,513 men, 886 women)
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78 in 7 Sport s
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February 8 , 2002 Opening
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February 24 , 2002 Closing
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President George W Bush
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Jim Shea
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Allen Church
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Members of the 1980 USA<br> Men's Ice Hockey Team , led by <br>team captain Mike Eruzione
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Rice-Eccles Stadium
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The '''2002 ,
Quebec ,
Canada ;
Sion ,
Valais ,
Switzerland ; and
Östersund ,
Sweden . Salt Lake City was selected as the host city on
June 16 ,
1995 at the 104th IOC Session in
Budapest . Olympic venues were scattered around Salt Lake City, as well as in the mountains at
Park City ,
Ogden ,
Provo ,
Kearns and
West Valley City . Athletes were housed in the Olympic Village at the
University Of Utah .
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
Salt Lake population figures by the
United States Census . It will be true until 2010, when Vancouver will be become the most populated area to have ever hosted a winter olympiad.
- 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. {Link without Title}
- The Olympics marked the first time an American President opened an Olympic Winter 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 received 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.
- 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 President Dr. 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 .
- Athletes in short-track speed skating and cross-country skiing were disqualified for various reasons (including Doping by two Russians and one Spaniard in cross-country skiing), leading Russia to file protests and threaten to withdraw from competition.
These Olympic games were the first since
September 11, 2001 , which meant a higher level of security than ever before provided for the Games. The
Office Of Homeland Security (OHS) designated the Olympics a
National Special Security Event (NSSE).
When he spoke during the opening ceremonies, that has affected the whole world. We stand united with you in the promotion of our common ideals, and hope for world peace."
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during the opening ceremonies.]]
77 National Olympic Committees sent athletes to the Salt Lake City games.
