Salt Lake City 2002 - Olympic Games Winners

Start:

08 Feb 2002

End:

24 Feb 2002

Countries:

Athletes:

2399

Sports:

Events:

City:

Salt Lake City, USA

After a 30-year-long campaign, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA was finally selected to host the 2002 Winter Olympic games.
In June 1995, at the 104th IOC session in Budapest, Salt Lake City received 54 votes on the first ballot.
The other candidate cities for the 2002 Winter Olympics were Oestersund, Sweden, Sion, Switzerland - 14 votes each and Quebec City, Canada - 7.

The President of the USA, George Bush, officially opened the 19 Winter Olympic Games 2002, and players from the US ice hockey team, who won the olympic gold medal in 1980, lit the olympic flame.
In pairs figure skating, Yelena BEREZHNAYA and Anton SIKHARULIDZE of Russia have been crowned champions, with Canadian Jamie SALE and David PELLETIER placing second. However, an investigation revealed that Marie Reine Le Gougne, a French judge, had given the Canadian pair low scores, and duplicate gold medals were presented to Sale and Pelletier.
Norwegian Ole Einar BJOERNDALEN won gold medals in all four events in Biathlon, and Samppa LAJUNEN from Finland took all three gold in Nordic combined. Croatian alpine skier Janica KOSTELIC won three gold and one silver medal and became one of the stars of 2002 Salt Lake City.
American bobsledder Vonetta FLOWERS became the first African-American athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Games.
In Cross-country, gold medalists Johann Muehlegg of Spain, Olga DANILOVA, and Larissa LAZUTINA from Russia were stripped of their medals after doping scandals.