1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan

Answer 1

In 1998, Nagano, Japan hosted the 18th Winter Olympics.

** 1. Basic information of the competition **
1. ** Scale **
- 2176 athletes from 72 countries and regions (including 788 female athletes) participated in the Winter Olympics. The countries that attended the Winter Olympics for the first time were Azerbaijan, Moldova, Kenya, uruguay and ecuador. The number of participating countries and regions and athletes exceeded the previous years.
2. ** Event Items **
- There were a total of 14 major events and 68 minor events. The newly added events were women's ice skating, snowboarding, and curling. Snowboarding became an Olympic event for the first time, and curling became an official Olympic event again. In this Olympic Games, ice skating was opened to professional athletes for the first time.
3. ** Emblem and Mascot **
- The logo was named "Colorful Snowflakes", symbolizing the competition for the ice and snow event. The mascots were four oddly-shaped owls, named Inuki, Nojo, Kaki, and Touki.
4. ** Medal design **
- In order to highlight the local characteristics, the medals were painted.
5. ** High-tech applications **
- High-tech applications were widespread, such as high-speed trains, watch-type mobile phones, digital cameras that could store a large number of images, protection systems that worked according to the principle of iris scanning, and buffet restaurants that pressed buttons to order dishes. The athletes 'Olympic Village had set up a computer network control center, and athletes could communicate with their relatives, friends, and sports reporters through the Internet.
6. ** Match Record **
- In total, he set 7 world records and 20 Olympic records.

** II. Information about the venue **
1. ** Location and natural conditions **
- Nagano was located in the middle of Japan's Honshu Island, northwest of Tokyo. It occupied the fourth largest area in Japan and had a population of more than two million. It was surrounded by mountains and was known as the "roof of Japan." There were many mountains at an altitude of about 3000 meters above sea level, and there was plenty of snow in winter. The average temperature in February was 0.3 degrees Celsius. It was an ideal place to carry out ice and snow sports. It was also the earliest area in Japan to carry out ski sports and develop ski resort. In 1921, Japan's first ski resort was built. Nagano Prefecture was closer to Tokyo, and the number of ski slopes and cable cars ranked first in Japan. Every year, more than 8 million people went to Nagano to ski.
2. ** Humanistic Situation **
- Since ancient times, it has been known as a religious, cultural, and commercial center. The Zenkouji Temple, built 1400 years ago, is still one of the world's major Buddhist holy places. In preparation for the Winter Olympics, Japan set up special courses on foreign knowledge in middle schools, which made many children have an international mindset. Before the Winter Olympics, nearly one-third of the city's total population could communicate with foreigners.

** 3. The results of each country **
1. Germany
- He won 12 gold medals and ranked first on the gold medal rankings.
2. ** Japan (Host)**
- He won five gold medals and was ranked seventh.
3. [China]
- He won six silver medals and two bronze medals, which was the most medals he had ever won in the competition. Among them, Li Jiajun won the silver medal in the 1000m sprint (the first men's medal in the history of the Winter Olympics in China), and Yang Yang broke the world record in the women's 1000m sprint speed skating.

** IV. Other noteworthy performances of athletes **
1. Chen Lu (China)
- The figure skater shocked the world at the Nagano Winter Olympics with the song "Butterfly Lovers."
2. ** Norway athlete Bjorn Dahlie **
- He won three gold medals in the Olympics and became the first athlete to win eight gold medals in the Winter Olympics. He had a total of 12 Winter Olympics medals.
3. ** Tara Lipinski of the United States **
- She won the women's individual figure skating gold medal at the age of 15 and became the youngest individual gold medalist in the Winter Olympics.
4. ** Austrian athlete Hermann Maier **
- He slipped in the middle of the downhill race, but three days later, he won gold medals in the super slalom and giant slalom.
5. ** Republic of Korea **
- She won the first gold medal in women's ice skating.

** 5. Opening and Closing Ceremony **
1. ** Opening Ceremony **
- February 7th, 1998, 11:00 local time, held at the arena of Nagano City's Minami-Nagano Sports Park. Emperor Akihito of Japan announced the opening ceremony. The famous nordic athlete Kenji Ogihara and the figure skating referee Junko Hiramatsu took the oath on behalf of the athletes and referees respectively. The main torch was lit by the famous figure skater Ito Ryu. Under the command of the world-class Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, singers from five cities around the world sang "Ode to Joy" via satellite.
2. ** Closing Ceremony **
- Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee, highly praised the success of the games, describing it as "the best Winter Olympics ever". Japanese newspapers also praised the organizing committee. While watching the Olympics, you can also read the wonderful novels related to the Olympics!