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 Olympics 1940, but the Sino-Japanese incident caused the Winter Olympic Games 1940 to be reassigned and later canceled due to World War II.
In April 1966, at the 64th IOC session in Rome, the Winter Olympics 1972 was 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 seven votes each.
It was the first Winter Olympics in Asia.

Emperor Hirohito officially opened the 11 Winter Olympic games 1972.
Austrian skier Karl SCHRANZ was banned from competing for receiving payment from ski product manufacturers.
When IOC and IIHF did not permit to include NHL players in hockey teams while full-time players from the Communist countries, who officially were 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 golds in Speed skating with a wide margin and became a national hero in the Netherlands. That a flower was named in his honor: Crocus chrysanthus Ard Schenk.