Sapporo 1972 - Olympic Games Winners

Start:

03 Feb 1972

End:

13 Feb 1972

Countries:

Athletes:

1006

Sports:

Events:

City:

Sapporo, Japan

For the first time, Sapporo, Japan was selected as the host city of the 1940 Olympics. Still, the Sino-Japanese incident led to the Winter Olympic Games 1940 being reassigned and later canceled due to World War II.
In April 1966, at the 64th IOC session in Rome, the 1972 Winter Olympics were finally awarded to Sapporo, Japan, with 32 votes. The other candidate cities were Banff, Canada, with 16 votes, Salt Lake City, USA and Lahti, Finland, with 7 votes each.
It was the first Winter Olympics in Asia.

Emperor Hirohito officially opened the 11th Winter Olympic Games in 1972.
Austrian skier Karl SCHRANZ was banned from competing for receiving payment from ski product manufacturers.
When the IOC and IIHF did not permit NHL players to compete on hockey teams, while full-time players from Communist countries, who were officially not professionals, were allowed to compete, Canada boycotted the 1972 Olympic hockey tournament.
Galina KULAKOVA of the USSR won all three women's events in Cross-country.
Ard SCHENK of the Netherlands won three gold medals in Speed skating by a wide margin and became a national hero in the Netherlands. That a flower was named in his honor: Crocus chrysanthus Ard Schenk.