Lillehammer 1994 - NRK ORTO '94 Broadcast Opening Sequence
Copyright (c) 1994 Olympics Radio and Television Organization
42 years after Norway first welcomed visitors for the Winter Olympics, the Nordic country took the opportunity to invite everybody back, as the tiny ski resort town of Lillehammer sets stage to the XVII Winter Games held from 12 to 27 February 1994. This Winter Olympiad ushered itself to a new era of the modern Games; the IOC, during its session at Lausanne in 1986, had voted to alter the Olympic schedule so that the Summer and Winter Games would be held in different alternating years, and as a result of this adjustment, the 1994 Games were held just two years after the previous Games in Albertville, instead of the usual four-year gap.
The Games were also notable in that they were organized under a banner of total respect for the environment. Well-organized and supported by the Norwegian people with their natural love of winter sport, the Games featured such architectural wonders as the Gjøvik Olympiske Fjellhall for ice hockey, which was carved out of a mountain, and the Vikingskipet in Hamar, a speed skating venue that appeared to look like an upside-down Viking ship.
A total of 1,738 athletes representing 67 countries took part at the Lillehammer Games, that also includes ex-Soviet countries of Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, all of which are making their debuts at the Winter Olympics as independent sovereign nations.
Not to mention, this was also the first time that the Russian Federation competed independently at the Winter Games, and the first time since the 1912 Stockholm Summer Games that they competed as Russia at any Olympics. For a major ex-Soviet republic that's still young at the time, the Russians topped the medal standings with 11 golds and 23 medals of any color. However, hosts Norway won the most medals overall with 26, though, they placed second after collecting 10 gold medals. Germany finished the Lillehammer Games at third, with 24 medals - 9 were golds.
The 1994 Games featured 61 events across 12 disciplines of six sports. These Games were the first to implement stricter qualifying standards that prevented low-performing athletes from competing without meeting minimum requirements. As a consequence, 11 "warm-weather countries" that signed up to take part in the Games were mostly absent because very few of their athletes succeeded in qualifying; the number of African athletes fell from nineteen in 1992 to only three in 1994. But these rules were, not applied to bobsled events, enabling the US Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica to compete in that sport.
These Lillehammer Games were the first in the modern era to observe the Olympic truce, a tradition originating from ancient Greece that dates back to 776 BC, stating that the truce ensures the host city state was not attacked and athletes and spectators could travel safely to the Games and peacefully return to their respective homelands. The IOC renewed this tradition in 1992, and it was revived through UN Resolution 48/11 of 25 October 1993, which urges Member States to observe the Truce from seven days before the start of the Games until seven days after the closure.