1998 Nagano, Japan
The weather played havoc with the Winter Games' skiing events
Last Updated: Friday, December 18, 2009 | 3:41 PM ET
CBC Sports
The team relay winners in the mens 4x7.5k biathlon during the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. (Aflo Photo/Allsport/Getty Images)
The Olympics returned to Japan for a second time in 1998, and, as in Calgary a decade earlier, the weather played havoc with the skiing events.
The usual suspects — Germany, Norway, Russia — finished atop the medal standings while Canada finished fifth with its best total ever. In Calgary, Canadian athletes took home just five medals, and failed as host nation to capture a single gold. In Nagano, Canadian athletes returned with a record haul of six gold medals and 15 overall.
Team Canada received a shot in the arm four years earlier when a new collection of sports was added to the Winter Olympic program.
On the ski slopes, rain, fog and snow caused multiple postponements. Hermann Maier, who lived up to his nickname, The Herminator, survived the elements and a spectacular crash in the downhill event — the Austrian broke through two retaining fences — to win gold medals in both the Super-G and giant slalom events.
Norway's Björn Dæhlie became the most decorated Winter Olympian in history when he claimed four medals in cross-country skiing to boost his career total to 12 medals, including eight gold.
American Tara Lipinski, 15, also grabbed headlines by becoming the youngest winner of the women's figure skating title by edging fellow countrywoman Michelle Kwan for the gold.
Ski jumping was the one event the Japanese had high hopes for and the Japanese jumpers measured up to the lofty expectations. Led by Kazuyoshi Funaki, Japanese jumpers captured four of the nine medals up for grabs, including a gold in the team event.
Björn Dæhlie
Daehlie has won eight Olympic gold medals. (BORIS HORVAT/AFP/Getty Images) Cross-country skier Björn Dæhlie of Norway became the most decorated Winter Olympian when he took home three gold medals and one bronze home from Nagano, bringing his career total to 12 medals, eight of them gold.
His ninth individual medal, and his last Olympic medal, was won in the 50km classic race. Sprinting to the finish, Dæhlie's lead over Swede Niklas Jonsson was only eight seconds, a margin narrow enough to cause Dæhlie to collapse at the finish line, gasping for air.
Nagano victories aside, Dæhlie had already reached celebrity status. He and teammate Vegard Ulvang were the animated co-hosts of the hit Norwegian television show "Men on Adventure," a series about travel and outdoor life.
Dæhlie began his Olympic legacy in Albertville 1992. The "Nannestad Express" (a nickname that pays homage to his hometown) and Ulvang teamed up to sweep the five men's events. Each won three gold medals and a silver. Their dominance in cross-country gave a needed spark to Norway's national pastime, and became the beginning of a new era in Nordic skiing.
The Norwegians came head to head with the Italian relay team in Nagano, yet this time, Norway took the gold. And with that victory, Dæhlie became the first Winter Olympian to win seven gold medals. He would later earn a legendary eighth gold.
Canada's performance
Canada's women, skipped by Sandra Schmirler, captured gold in curling's debut as an official medal sport. Mike Harris' men's rink wasn't as fortunate, having to settle for silver after being upset by the Swiss in the final.
Ross Rebagliati made snowboarding's debut unforgettable and became an unlikely celebrity after capturing the event's first gold medal.
Rebagliati was temporarily stripped of his medal after testing positive for marijuana. But Canada appealed the ruling on the grounds that marijuana isn't a performance-enhancing substance. They argued the positive test was precipitated by second-hand pot smoke inhaled at a party. Rebagliati got his medal back and the controversy and subsequent media attention made the snowboarder an even bigger star.
Catriona Le May Doan won a pair of medals on the speed skating oval, a gold in the 500-metre event and a bronze in the 1000. In recognition of her efforts, she carried the flag in the Games' closing ceremonies.
Susan Auch took second in the 500 behind Le May Doan, a repeat of her result in Lillehammer four years earlier.
On the men's side, Jeremy Wotherspoon and Kevin Overland took silver and bronze in the men's 500 event. Aside from gold-medal winner Hiroyasu Shimizu of Japan, Canada dominated the event, sweeping second through fifth place, and set a world record in the process.
The recent addition of short-track speed skating in Lillehammer continued to pay dividends for Canada. Annie Perrault captured the gold medal in the women's 500 event, and the men's 5000 relay squad was also victorious. Eric Bedard won bronze in the 1000 short-track event, as did the women's 3000 relay team.
Pilot Pierre Leuders and brakeman Dave MacEachern captured Canada's first bobsleigh medal since 1964, actually sharing the gold in an astonishing dead heat with an Italian sled. After nearly 5.5 kilometres of sledding, the two teams finished with identical aggregate times of 3:37.24.
Despite dominating men's figure skating since the Lillehammer Games, Elvis Stojko was relegated to his second straight silver medal. It was a disappointing result for Stojko, who competed despite a severe groin injury that had hampered him for more than a month.
Canadians had high hopes for men's hockey gold after the NHL decided to suspend its schedule to allow its players to compete in Nagano. Things went well for Canada early on, as they defeated Belarus, Sweden, the United States and Kazakhstan.
But in the semifinals, Canada ran into red-hot goaltender Dominik Hasek and a talented Czech Republic team. The Czechs defeated Canada and went on to beat Russia in the gold-medal final. The dispirited Canadians fell to Finland in the bronze-medal match.
There was also disappointment for Canada in the inaugural women's hockey tournament. Everybody knew that the gold medal final would be a face-off between Canada and the U.S.; the two teams were light years ahead of the rest of the world.
Canada had defeated the U.S. in all the big competitions leading up to the Games, including all four world championships. Canada led the U.S. 4-1 in the third period of the final round-robin game. But the American women exploded for six goals in 13 minutes en route to a 7-4 triumph. The Canadian women's collapse showed the U.S. could no longer be counted to be the one to roll over in big games.
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Germany | 12 | 9 | 8 | 29 |
| 2. Norway | 10 | 10 | 5 | 25 |
| 3. Russia | 9 | 6 | 3 | 18 |
| 4. Austria | 3 | 5 | 9 | 17 |
| 5. Canada | 6 | 5 | 4 | 15 |
