1960 Winter Olympics

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VIII Olympic Winter Games
VIII Olympic Winter Games

The emblem is made up of three red,
white, and blue triangles, which represent a
star or snowflake, and the Olympic rings.
Host city Squaw Valley, California, USA
Nations participating 30
Athletes participating 665
(521 men, 144 women)
Events 27 in 4 sports
Opening ceremony February 18
Closing ceremony February 28
Officially opened by Richard Nixon
Athlete's Oath Carol Heiss
Olympic Torch Ken Henry
Stadium Blyth Arena

The 1960 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VIII Olympic Winter Games, were celebrated in 1960 in Squaw Valley, California, United States (located in the Lake Tahoe basin). Squaw Valley won the bid in 1955.

Alexander Cushing, the creator of the resort, campaigned vigorously to win the Games. After being awarded the Games, there was a rush to construct roads, hotels, restaurants, and bridges, as well as the ice arena, the speed skating track, ski lifts, and the ski jumping hill.

The temporary parking lot was built on the frozen flood plain of a nearby stream, but was destroyed when unseasonable rains washed it out. The U.S. military was called in to repair the damage to the packed-snow and ice lot before the Games began.

Walt Disney was the Head of Pageantry for the Games. CBS paid $50,000 for the right to broadcast the Games in the United States, and this marked the first time the Olympic Games were televised. [1]

The Olympic Village housed all the athletes.

An early IBM computer was used to calculate the results.

This Winter Olympics introduced Disney artist John Hench's Olympic torch design, upon which all further torches would be based. The Olympic flame was lit in the cottage of Sondre Norheim in Morgedal, Norway, and was brought to Los Angeles by plane from Oslo. It is still burning in Squaw Valley.

There were 30 flagpoles for the flags of the participating nations. Each flagpole came with a plaque signed by Walt Disney [2]. After the Games the flagpoles ended up, among others, at the following places:

Official flagpole

There were 15 alpine and ski jumping events, eight speed skiing events, and three figure skating events. However, there was no bobsleigh run, as the organizing committee found it too expensive and only nine nations would take part, so the sport was not contested at these Games.

1960 was the first year for women's speed skating and the men's biathlon.

Contents

[edit] Highlights


[edit] Medal winners

[edit] Participating nations

A total of 30 nations sent athletes to Squaw Valley. South Africa competed at 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.

[edit] Medal count

Main article: 1960 Winter Olympics medal count

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

 Rank  Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 Soviet Union Soviet Union 7 5 9 21
2 United Team of Germany United Team of Germany 4 3 1 8
3 United States United States (host nation) 3 4 3 10
4 Norway Norway 3 3 0 6
5 Sweden Sweden 3 2 2 7
6 Finland Finland 2 3 3 8
7 Canada Canada 2 1 1 4
8 Switzerland Switzerland 2 0 0 2
9 Austria Austria 1 2 3 6
10 France France 1 0 2 3

[edit] Reference


Olympic Games
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Sports • Medal counts • NOCs
Medalists • Symbols
Summer Games: 1896, 1900, 1904, 19061, 1908, 1912, (1916)2, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, (1940)2, (1944)2, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024
Winter Games: 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, (1940)2, (1944)2, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022
Athens 2004 — Turin 2006 — Beijing 2008 — Vancouver 2010 — London 2012
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Winter_Olympics"
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