1964 Winter Olympics

The 1964 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IX Olympic Winter Games (French: Les IXes Jeux olympiques d'hiver) (German: Olympische Winterspiele 1964), was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Innsbruck, Austria, from January 29 to February 9, 1964. The Games included 1091 athletes from 36 nations, and the Olympic Torch was carried by Joseph Rieder,[1] a former alpine skier who had participated in the 1956 Winter Olympics.

IX Olympic Winter Games
Emblem of the 1964 Winter Olympics[lower-alpha 1]
Host cityInnsbruck, Austria
Nations36
Athletes1,091 (892 men, 199 women)
Events34 in 6 sports (10 disciplines)
Opening29 January
Closing9 February
Opened by
President Adolf Schärf
Cauldron
Josl Rieder
StadiumBergisel
Winter
← Squaw Valley 1960 Grenoble 1968 →
Summer
← Rome 1960 Tokyo 1964 →

The Games were affected by the deaths of Australian alpine skier Ross Milne and British luge slider Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski, during training, and by the deaths, three years earlier, of the entire US figure skating team and family members.

Host city selection

Innsbruck competed against Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and Lahti, Finland, for the right to host the 1964 Winter Olympics. Here is the resulting vote count that occurred at the 55th IOC Session, in Munich, West Germany, on May 26, 1959:[2]

1964 Winter Olympics bidding result[3]
City Country Round 1
Innsbruck Austria48
Calgary Canada12
Lahti Finland1

Games highlights
  • The games was opened by a concert performed by Vienna Philharmonic, under the baton of Karl Böhm. Beethoven's 7th Symphony and Mozart's 40th Symphony were performed in the opening concert.
  • Normally snowy Innsbruck was threatened by a lack of snow. The Austrian army carved out 20,000 ice bricks from a mountain top and transported them to the bobsled and luge runs. They also carried 40,000 cubic meters of snow to the Alpine skiing courses. The army packed down the slopes by hand and foot.[4] (A heavy snowfall occurred immediately after the Games.)[5]
  • Lidia Skoblikova won all of the women's speed skating events.
  • Italian bobsleigh pilot Eugenio Monti distinguished himself by helping Britain's Tony Nash and Robin Dixon to win the gold medals when he loaned them an axle bolt to replace one that was broken. The Italians took bronze, but Monti was honored as the first recipient of the Pierre de Coubertin medal for sportsmanship.
  • Egon Zimmermann of Austria took the gold medal in the men's downhill alpine skiing event.
  • In the 4 man bobsled, the Canadian team won the gold medal with a total winning time of 4:14.46.
  • Norway's Knut Johannesen won the men's 5,000m speed skating event in an Olympic record time of 7:38.40.
  • Klavdiya Boyarskikh of the USSR earned three gold medals in cross-country skiing and, on the men's side, Finnish Eero Mäntyranta won two and earned the nickname "Mr. Seefeld" after the venue because of his domination.
  • In alpine skiing, French sisters Christine and Marielle Goitschel finished first and second in both the slalom and the giant slalom.
  • Ski jumping gained a second event, and the sport of luge made its Olympic debut.
  • Politically, the Games were notable because East and West Germany entered a combined team for the last time.
  • For the first time the Closing Ceremonies were held at a different place than the Opening Ceremonies.

Medal winners

Medals were awarded in 34 events contested in 6 sports (10 disciplines).

Demonstration sport

Venues
Eisschnellaufbahn
Main article: Venues of the 1964 Winter Olympics

Participating nations

36 nations sent athletes to compete in Innsbruck. India, Mongolia, and North Korea participated in the Winter Games for the first time. Athletes from West Germany (FRG) and East Germany (GDR) competed together as the United Team of Germany from 1956 to 1964.

Participating National Olympic Committees

Number of athletes by National Olympic Committees

Medal count
Main article: 1964 Winter Olympics medal table

These are the top ten nations that won medals at these Games:

  *   Host nation (Austria)

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Soviet Union118625
2 Austria*45312
3 Norway36615
4 Finland34310
5 France3407
6 United Team of Germany3339
7 Sweden3317
8 United States1247
9 Canada1113
10 Netherlands1102
Totals (10 nations)33372797

Podium sweeps
Date Sport Event NOC Gold Silver Bronze
30 January Speed skating Women's 500 metres  Soviet Union Lidiya Skoblikova Irina Yegorova Tatyana Sidorova
1 February Cross-country skiing Women's 10 kilometre  Soviet Union Klavdiya Boyarskikh Yevdokiya Mekshilo Mariya Gusakova
4 February Luge Men's singles  United Team of Germany Thomas Köhler Klaus-Michael Bonsack Hans Plenk
5 February Speed skating Men's 5000 metres  Norway Knut Johannesen Per Ivar Moe Fred Anton Maier
6 February Alpine skiing Women's downhill  Austria Christl Haas Edith Zimmermann Traudl Hecher

Prior fatalities

Two fatal events before the 1964 Winter Olympics affected the outcome and mood of the Games:

  • Australian alpine skier Ross Milne and British luge slider Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski died during training shortly before the Games. The organising committee said that Ross crashed into a tree during a training run. The IOC suggested that inexperience might have played a role in Ross's death. Manager John Wagner suggested that overcrowding played a role, saying that Milne had tried to slow down "on a spot which was not prepared for stopping or swinging" to avoid a crowd of contestants. His brother Malcolm Milne competed at the 1968 and 1972 Winter Olympics.
  • On February 15, 1961, the entire United States Figure Skating team and several family members, coaches, and officials were killed when Sabena Flight 548 crashed in Brussels, Belgium, en route to the World Championships in Prague. The accident caused the cancellation of the 1961 World Championships and necessitated the building of a new American skating program.
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See also

Notes

Notes

  1. The emblem represents the coat of arms of Innsbruck, which shows the bridge on the Inn River that connects the old town and the Hötting district.

Citations

  1. "Olympic Winter Games Innsbruck 1964" (history), kiat.net, webpage: KIAT-Innsbruck Archived 2006-11-09 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. the International Olympic Committee Vote History
  3. "Past Olympic host city election results". GamesBids. Archived from the original on 17 March 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  4. www.Olympic.org
  5. "Athletes quit Olympics site". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). Associated Press. February 11, 1964. p. 15.
Preceded by
Squaw Valley		 Winter Olympics
Innsbruck
IX Olympic Winter Games (1964)		 Succeeded by
Grenoble
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