XVIII Winter Olympic Games took place in Nagano (Japan) from February 7 to 22, 1998.
Select city
Nagano is a city in Japan, in the central part of the island of Honshu, in the valley of the Chikuma River. The administrative center of Nagano Prefecture. Population 383 thousand inhabitants. An important transport hub and center of the agricultural region (horticulture, floriculture, dairy farming). An ancient center of Buddhism and religious pilgrimage (Zenkoji Temple).
Nagano became the capital of the 1998 Winter Olympics at the IOC session in Birmingham in June 1991. In the fifth round of voting, Nagano was ahead of the American Salt Lake City by four votes (46:42). Earlier, Swedish Östersund, Spanish Jaca and Italian Aosta dropped out of the competition. The Europeans were not allowed to hold the third Winter Games in a row. And the fact that Atlanta hosted the 1996 Summer Games played against the capital of Utah.
Preparation for the Games
Nagano became the city closest to the equator to host the Winter Games, and remains so to this day.
On the eve of the Nagano Games, the UN General Assembly, in a new resolution, de facto called on countries to suspend all international and internal conflicts. Thus, the unspoken ban on wars during the Olympics, known from the history of Ancient Greece, received documentary confirmation for the first time.
Games emblem
The emblem is a flower, on each petal of which there is an athlete representing a particular winter sport. The emblem also resembles a snowflake, symbolizing the Winter Olympic Games. The emblem also resembles a mountain flower, thereby emphasizing respect for nature and environmental protection in Nagano, which is why it was called sunflower. The dynamic nature of this bright and colorful painting speaks of the enthusiastic atmosphere in which the games are played and also symbolizes their splendor.
Talismans
The Japanese chose four “snowlets” as mascots - the owls Sukki, Nokki, Lekki and Tsukki. The word "snowlets" is formed from two parts: "snow" ("snow") and "let's" ("let's"). For many years, the owl has been considered a symbol of wisdom in many countries. The number "four" is due to the fact that the Olympics are held every four years, and the names for the mascots were chosen by the Japanese from 47,484 proposed options.
Official Games Poster
For the Nagano Olympics, 5 varieties of official posters and 7 sports-themed posters were printed. In addition, for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, a separate poster was created specifically for the opening ceremony.
The first draft of the poster was created specifically to become the official poster of the XVIII Winter Olympic Games, as well as for its subsequent transmission to the future generation. The poster depicts a blackbird perched on a ski pole against the backdrop of mountains at dawn. The poster contains the concept of harmony between man and nature. The poster was designed by Masuteru Aoba.
Kinds of sports
At the Games in Nagano, a unique milestone was overcome in terms of the number of participants in the Winter Olympic Games - over 2,000 athletes (from 72 countries). 68 sets of medals were awarded, seven more than in Lillehammer in 1994. Curling returned to the program after many years of absence. Previously, it was presented as an official event only at the First Winter Olympics in 1924, and after that it was included in competitions many times as a demonstration discipline. Snowboarding also received Olympic status: in Nagano, medals were awarded in halfpipe and giant slalom among men and women. In addition, awards were now awarded in hockey among women's teams. And for the first time, professionals were allowed to compete in the men's Olympic hockey tournament.
Athletes from Azerbaijan, Kenya, Macedonia, Uruguay and Venezuela competed at the Winter Games for the first time.
Russian team at the 2002 Winter Games
The Russian team, which competed in Nagano in 12 of 14 sports (except curling and snowboarding), included 45 women and 81 men. Their average age is 25 years. The youngest was figure skater Alexey Yagudin - 17 years and 11 months. The elder is skier Alexey Prokurorov, champion of the Olympic Games in Calgary-88, who is 33 years and 10 months old. He was entrusted to carry the Russian flag at the opening ceremony.
Russian athletes were not represented in only three types of the Olympic Games program - women's hockey, snowboarding and curling.
Medal standings
The German team won the overall team event with 29 medals, of which 12 were gold, nine were silver and eight were bronze. The Norwegians came second (10-10-5), and the Russian team completed the top three (9-6-3).
The opening ceremony
The opening speech at the opening of the XVIII Winter Olympic Games was given by the Emperor of Japan Akihito. And the main characters were famous Japanese athletes - figure skater Midori Ito lit the Olympic flame, and biathlete Kenji Ogiwara pronounced the athletes' oath.
“The offer to carry the country’s flag at the opening of the 1998 Nagano Games did not come as a big surprise to me,” Prokurorov recalled. “After all, I was then one of the real candidates for gold. However, on the eve of the ceremony they scared me that it was very cold in the stadium and windy (and I was a little unwell at the time), but the desire to become a standard bearer still outweighed. In fact, it turned out to be not so cold, and I quickly got used to the unusual role. I was only very upset when I stopped at the "fifty kopeck" step from the podium. 4th place, as you know, is the most offensive."
Games scandals
Doping scandal. The first ever Olympic competition in this event on the giant slalom course was won by Canadian Ross Rebagliati on February 8, 1998. A doping test found traces of marijuana in the winner's blood. At the same time, the dose was only 2.8 nanograms higher than the IOC standard of 15 nanograms. The IOC Executive Committee, at a special meeting, voted three to two to deprive Ross Rebagliati of the gold medal. The Canadian delegation and the athlete himself asked to commute the punishment, arguing that the snowboarder “inhaled, but did not smoke” - that is, he was simply in the company of friends who smoked “weed.” Having received a refusal from the IOC Executive Committee, the Canadians filed an appeal to the IOC Supreme Arbitration Court. On February 12, the court unanimously declared the claims against the snowboarder unfounded, and the Olympic gold was returned to him. Subsequently, marijuana was included in the IOC list of prohibited drugs, and in 2002 in Salt Lake City, athletes were additionally tested for the presence of this drug in their blood.
Organizational scandal. On February 10, 1998, the Austrian Martin Freinadetz, nicknamed the Terminator, who took seventh place in the giant slalom, caused a brawl in one of the Olympic hotels. At a banquet attended by snowboarders from several countries, he lost control of himself and broke several pieces of furniture and a computer. The total damage was estimated at $4 thousand, which was paid in full by the perpetrator of the scandal a few days later. At the request of the Austrian Olympic Committee and the country's national snowboard team, on February 11, Terminator was expelled from the Olympics.
Earthquake. Two days before the end of the Olympics, a magnitude 5 earthquake occurred in Nagano. The athletes experienced several unpleasant minutes, but no one was injured.
The Winter Olympics in Nagano in 1998 - the eighteenth in a row - became truly significant for world sports. It was on the eve of the Games in Japan that the UN General Assembly, in its resolution, for the first time in history, de facto called on states to suspend not only international, but even internal conflicts. The unwritten ban on wars during the Olympics, known from the annals of Ancient Greece, has finally come into effect.
Nagano - medal standings
The Nagano Olympics hosted 2,338 athletes, of which 810 were women. It became the largest in terms of the number of participants and countries. In total, athletes from seventy-two countries came to Japan and competed in fourteen sports and sixty-eight disciplines. For the first time, the Olympics in Nagano competed for medals in curling: two sets - for men and women. The Games also debuted for snowboarding competitions such as giant slalom and half-pipe races. Of the seventy-two countries competing for prizes, only twenty-four achieved success, receiving two hundred and five medals.
In the overall standings, the largest number of awards competed at the Nagano Olympics were won by athletes from Germany: they had twenty-nine awards, including twelve gold, nine silver, eight bronze. The Norwegians were second with twenty-five, and the Russians were third with eighteen medals.
First time in Nagano
The last winter games of the century became a kind of bridge to the future. It was the Olympics in Nagano that opened the way for sports such as snowboarding, without which modern world competitions of this scale are already difficult to imagine, for the somewhat exotic curling and the women's light version of hockey. At these games, the valves that had a detachable heel were tested for the first time and the book of previous records was archived. Both athletes and spectators were truly amazed by the new skates, which were developed by the Dutch and introduced by the Canadians. Their idea, like all ingenious things, was simple: the creators decided not to firmly attach the blade to the boot, but, on the contrary, to make it movable. It was this small revolution that caused all previous records to fall and the tables had to be compiled anew.
For the first time on Japanese soil, amazingly reliable and durable Kevlar equipment was tested. For two weeks the public watched the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Hockey, played by NHL professionals for the first time in the history of the Games, drew packed stadiums.
The Nagano Olympics was the first to host women's ice hockey competitions. The Americans became champions, the Canadian team was in second place, and the Finnish team won bronze. The 1998 Games became a step into the future for the White Olympics, the popularity of which from year to year was increasingly inferior to its summer counterpart, largely due to the lack of new types of competitions. However, the prevalence of debutants was still not enough to become competitions of this level. The ability to hit an icy target with a bat, women's hockey, and snowboarding were practiced to a greater extent in only a few countries in the world. And their presence at such a large-scale sports forum as the Nagano Olympics was explained, oddly enough, only by its entertainment.
Mascots of the 1998 Olympics
The wise Japanese chose four “snowlets” as mascots: these were the mascots of the Games, the owls Sukki, Tsukki, Nokki and Lekki. The word snowlets is formed from two roots: snow - “snow”, and let’s - “let’s”. And since the Games are held every four years, the mascot consisted of four owls, the names of which were chosen from almost fifty thousand ideas and proposals received from sports fans.
Emblem
The emblem was no less interesting. The Nagano Olympics was represented by a flower, on the petals of which athletes were depicted - representatives of one or another winter sport. The emblem was similar to the snowflake that symbolizes the Winter Olympic Games. She was also associated with a mountain flower. Thus, the Japanese, great lovers of ecology, emphasized their respect for nature and environmental issues in Nagano Prefecture. The dynamic appearance of this colorful and vibrant emblem, according to experts, was evidence of the atmosphere of enthusiasm in which the Games were held, while at the same time symbolizing their splendor.
Nagano Olympics - hockey
The final of this type of competition was called a “dream tournament” by the press. For the first time in the history of the Winter Games, the Nagano Olympics, where hockey was represented by members of the NHL - the strongest players in the world, was advertised by this richest league. Just before the start of the Games, the NHL management held three exhibition matches in Japan. This was done to instill an interest in hockey among the Japanese. After that, according to rumors, the impressionable Asians - the hosts of the Olympics - literally “fell ill” with the game with the puck and stick. And although they understood the rules with great difficulty, they maintained the atmosphere in the stadium very effectively.
The NHL management understood that the participation of stars of this magnitude would once again advertise this overseas championship. In addition, the Americans and Canadians thought that they would be able to repeat the 1996 World Cup final, and they would meet in the final match. However, thanks to the Czechs, the North American “masters” of ice left Nagano without even winning bronze. And Russia and the Czech Republic reached the final. However, our compatriots failed to “unseal” Hasek’s goal in the final match. Moreover, in the third period the Russians missed a rather offensive goal, and as a result won
The success of Russian athletes
It is known that cross-country skiing is the main event in the Winter Olympics. And that’s why they always receive a lot of attention. In 1998, already a two-time Olympic champion in relay races, she won a silver award in the fifteen-kilometer individual race in the classical style. Her compatriot Olga Danilova received gold. The team of Russian girls - N. Gavrilyuk, O. Danilova, E. Vyalbe and L. Lazutina - again pleased their fans by winning the 4 to 5 kilometer relay race.
The Bure brothers, Alexey Zhamnov, Alexey Gonchar, Andrey Kovalenko, and Sergey Fedorov came to defend the honor of Russian sports. With these guys, Fujiyama was shoulder-deep, knee-deep, and capable of the Olympics in Nagano. Figure skating was represented by a fairly powerful team, but the audience was most impressed by the surprisingly complex and clean program of the winner of the gold.
The 1998 Olympic Games were not without scandals. Frustrated by their failure, the players of the American hockey team caused a riot, breaking the furniture in their rooms in the sports village, thereby harming the organizers of the competition not only materially, but also
Surprisingly, the most “Russian” among all the teams in Nagano turned out to be the Kazakhstan national team. The Russian team included one Ukrainian and one Lithuanian each, while this Central Asian country sent only ethnic Russians to the Games.
The main surprise of the competition in Nagano was the five-magnitude earthquake that occurred on February 20th. Fortunately, none of the participants or spectators were injured. In ice dancing, Evgeniy Platov from Russia became two-time Olympic champions. And only after the last victorious performance it turned out that the partner danced with a broken wrist.
The farewell ceremony to the Games, as well as the opening ceremony, was accompanied by fireworks. It was a fireworks display of rare beauty - five thousand high-altitude charges soared into the evening sky in just eight minutes. Participants say that the Winter Olympics in Nagano also flew by - one of the most emotional in the history of the World Games. Competitions of such a scale took place in Japan, and they simply could not help but amaze with scientific and technical innovations worthy of the coming twenty-first century. The Land of the Rising Sun has amazed the world with its technology more than once, and the 1998 Nagano Olympics was no exception.
Nagano (Japan)
The Winter Games returned to Japan 26 years after the Sapporo Olympics. In the fight for the right to host the sports forum, Nagano was ahead of the American Salt Lake City, the Swedish Östersund, the Spanish Jaca and the Italian Aosta. The competition on the island of Honshu was accompanied by heavy snow with rain and fog, due to which some of the starts had to be postponed. In addition, on February 20, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 occurred in Nagano Prefecture - the Olympians were very scared, although no one was injured. At the same time, the Games themselves left a pleasant impression. First of all, thanks to the hospitality of the Japanese and the wonderful audience. In addition, the organizers of the Olympics managed to rein in the general sponsors of the IOC, who were very intrusive during the previous Summer Olympics in 1996.
| Z | WITH | B | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | 12 | 9 | 8 | 29 |
| 2 | Norway | 10 | 10 | 5 | 25 |
| 3 | Russia | 9 | 6 | 3 | 18 |
| 4 | Canada | 6 | 5 | 4 | 15 |
| 5 | USA | 6 | 3 | 4 | 13 |
Venue: Nagano, Japan
February 7 - 22, 1998
Number of participating countries - 72
Number of participating athletes - 2176 (787 women, 1389 men)
Medal sets - 68
Team competition winner - Germany
Three main characters of the Games according to SE
Dominik Hasek (Czech Republic),
hockey
Hermann Mayer (Austria),
skiing
Larisa Lazutina (Russia),
ski race
BURET EXCEEDS GRETSKY
The number of participants in the Nagano Winter Games exceeded 2,000 athletes for the first time. This happened thanks to a new expansion of the competition program. Women's hockey, snowboarding and curling have joined the family of Winter Olympic sports. But the main event was the agreement between the IOC and the NHL, which for the first time in history allowed players from the strongest hockey league in the world to compete at the Olympics. The latest restrictions on the participation of professionals at the Games have been lifted, and a break has been taken in the NHL regular season. The hockey tournament in Nagano broke all possible TV ratings. Although the CBS television company, which paid $375 million for the right to broadcast the Olympics, was still unhappy with the unsuccessful performance of the Americans and Canadians.
The Russian men's ice hockey team in Nagano was composed entirely of NHL players, with the exception of third goaltender Oleg Shevtsov. The main stars of the team were Pavel Bure, Sergei Fedorov and Alexey Yashin. Vyacheslav Fetisov, Igor Larionov, Alexander Mogilny, Nikolai Khabibulin, Sergei Zubov and some other famous hockey players refused the invitation to the national team. The refusal was largely caused by the disastrous performance of our “dream team” at the 1996 World Cup, as well as the death in the spring of 1997 of the president of the national hockey federation, Valentin Sych, who fell from a killer’s bullet. Perhaps it was the star refuseniks that were not enough for the Russian team to defeat the Czechs in the final of the 1998 Olympics.
The decisive match of the hockey tournament between the national teams of the Czech Republic and Russia ended with a football score of 1:0 in favor of our opponents. The Czechs, with Dominik Hasek and Jaromir Jagr shining, became Olympic champions. And Russian fans could only console themselves with the phenomenal result of Pavel Bure - in the semi-finals, the captain of the Russian team sent as many as five goals into the Finns' goal.
But the great Canadian scorer Wayne Gretzky, for whom Nagano was the first and last chance to compete at the Olympics, scored only four assists throughout the entire tournament. It got to the point that Canadian national team coach Mark Crawford did not trust the 37-year-old veteran to take the post-match shootout in the semifinals against the Czechs. In that series, Hasek won all five duels against the Maple Leaves, depriving the founders of hockey of a chance for gold. The frustrated Canadian stars were unable to rally in the match for third place with the Finns and were left in Nagano without any medals at all.
TRIUMPH OF SKIERS
In addition to hockey, in February 1998 the whole country watched the Olympic figure skating tournament. In it, Russia won three gold out of four - Ilya Kulik, the couple Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev, as well as the dance duet Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov, did their best. The latter took the second Olympic title in a row in Nagano, despite the fact that Oksana competed with a broken wrist. In addition, two months before the start of the Games, Grischuk unexpectedly announced that she should now be called by the name Pasha (according to one version, so as not to be confused with the Ukrainian singles skater Oksana Baiul). After Nagano 1998, the duo broke up. Grischuk began performing with Alexander Zhulin and returned to her previous name.
The performances of our skiers in Japan turned out to be very successful. Representatives of Russia - Larisa Lazutina, Olga Danilova and Yulia Chepalova collected all the individual gold, in addition, the Russian team won the relay. For 21-year-old Chepalova, this was the first Olympics - it was in Nagano that her star rose. For men, the hero of the cross-country skiing was the Norwegian Bjorn Daly, who, following the results of the 1998 Games, became the most titled athlete in the history of the Winter Olympics - in his collection there are 8 gold and 4 silver medals. Another record was set in the figure skating tournament - 15-year-old American Tara Lipinski became the youngest champion in the individual program in the history of the White Games.
One of the most striking moments of the 1998 Olympics was the incident with the Austrian skier Hermann Mayer. After a terrible fall in the downhill, the Austrian not only returned to the start, but also won gold medals in the super-G and giant slalom. Thanks to this feat, Mayer was given the nickname Herminator, by analogy with the invulnerable movie Terminator. In the luge competition, the public applauded the German Georg Hackl, who won the third Olympics in a row. Hackl's medal turned out to be an important contribution to the German team's treasury - the Germans won the overall standings, ahead of the Norwegians by two golds. Our team dropped to third place for the first time. Even the incredible victory of biathlete Galina Kukleva, who beat the German Uschi Diesl by only 7 tenths of a second in the 7.5 km race, did not help.
CHAMPIONSHIP SPIRIT
The scandal marked the Olympic debut of snowboarding. The first ever Olympic champion in giant slalom, Canadian Ross Rebagliatti, was immediately caught with marijuana. The athlete explained the presence of the drug in his doping test by visiting a party where Ross’s friends allegedly smoked cinsimilla, and Rebagliatti accidentally inhaled the intoxicating smoke. The drug-addicted champion was disqualified but, to everyone's surprise, acquitted two days later. The IOC decided not to escalate the situation and believed the Canadian’s excuses. In addition, it turned out that marijuana is not on the list of prohibited drugs - this misunderstanding was corrected, but the athlete was not punished retroactively.
In general, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch did not like to dwell on the topic of doping and, according to some reports, even thought about legalizing stimulants. But the competition in Nagano was the last Winter Olympics of the Spanish marquis. Soon completely different times will come in sports, and the future of many champions of the Japanese Games will not be as bright as it seemed in 1998. Larisa Lazutina and Olga Danilova will end their careers after doping revelations at the 2002 Olympics; in 2009, Yulia Chepalova will come under the hood of anti-doping services. Another skier - the winner of the 30 km race, Finn Mika Myllula - two years after Nagano would find himself at the center of a high-profile doping scandal, become addicted to alcohol and in 2011 would be found dead in his apartment. The police will conclude that Myllula committed suicide.
German speed skater Claudia Pechstein, who won the 5000 m race at the 1998 Games, will be disqualified at the end of her career on the basis of her “blood passport” data, spend several years in court and eventually prove that her abnormal test results are caused by a hereditary disease. By the way, Pechstein achieved success in Nagano not only thanks to her natural abilities, but also against the background of the technical revolution that occurred in the mid-1990s in this sport. On the eve of the 1998 Games, almost all leading speed skaters began using flap skates with a heel that came off. The novelty, combined with a special running technique, made it possible to increase the length of the skater’s push and his speed. By the time the Olympics began, the Dutch and Germans were the best at using valves. But Russian athletes were not ready for these changes.
From February 7 to February 22, 1998, the XVIII Winter Olympic Games were held in Nagano (Japan). The program included 14 sports and 68 disciplines. 72 countries participated (2338 athletes: 1528 men and 810 women).
Long before the start of the XVIII Winter Olympic Games, experts predicted that any country would need 11-12 gold medals to win a team victory in Nagano. And this forecast was completely justified. After the competition in all 68 numbers of the program has ended. The German delegation won 12 medals of the highest standard, Norway - 10, Russia - 9.
Russian skiers achieved phenomenal success, unprecedented in Olympic history, winning all five races on the most difficult tracks in Hakuba. Three gold medals - two for victories in individual races and one in the relay race, as well as silver and bronze medals were brought from Japan to the city of Odintsovo near Moscow by Larisa Lazutina. This athlete accomplished a real feat, for which immediately upon returning to her homeland, by Decree of the President of the country, she was awarded the title “Hero of the Russian Federation.”
Representative of the Vladimir region Olga Danilova returned from Japan as a two-time Olympic champion. It was she who, ahead of her rivals at a 15-kilometer distance, won the first gold medal played in Nagano and gave additional confidence to her teammates, with whom she excelled in the relay race.
The real discovery of the Games was Yulia Chepalova. The victory in the 30-kilometer race by this young Muscovite, who was born in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and studied at the Khabarovsk State Institute of Physical Culture, was, of course, unexpected for many. But only for the coaches: they saw in Yulia the future leader of our women’s ski team.
Elena Vyalbe and Nina Gavrylyuk deserve special words of gratitude. They failed to win the individual races. But they shone in their respective stages of the relay and deservedly received gold medals. From now on, both Elena and Nina are three-time Olympic champions, since Gavrylyuk in 1988 and 1994, and Vyalbe in 1992 and 1994 already shared with their friends the joy of victory in relay races.
The skaters contributed three gold medals to the total. This is certainly an outstanding achievement. Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev became champions in pair skating, Pasha Grischuk and Evgeny Platov in ice dancing, and Ilya Kulik in men's singles. All of them showed the highest skill and fortitude. Only after the end of the competition did it become clear, for example, that Grischuk competed with a broken wrist! She and her wonderful partner were the first in history to win two Winter Olympics in a row.
Photo: AFP
Biathlete from Tyumen Galina Kukleva won another gold medal for Russia. The 7.5 kilometer race, which she won, turned out to be one of the most dramatic. After all, at the finish line the champion and silver medalist were separated by only 0.7 seconds. An elusive moment in which years of painstaking work were concentrated.
So, 11 Russian athletes became champions of the XVIII Winter Olympic Games.
Information provided by the Russian Olympic Committee.
This is a city in Japan, in the center of the island of Honshu. The population was 383 thousand inhabitants. Nagano is:
- an important transport hub;
- the center of an agricultural region;
- center of Buddhism and pilgrimage.
Nagano was elected as the capital of the 1998 Olympics at the IOC session in Birmingham in June 1991.
He was ahead of the Swedish Östersund, the Spanish Jaca, the Italian Aosta and the American Salt Lake City.
Preparations for the 1998 Winter Olympics
Nagano was and remains the capital of the Winter Olympics closest to the equator.
Before the 1998 Nagano Olympics, the UN General Assembly called on countries to stop all international and internal conflicts.
Thus, an attempt was made to revive the tradition of the Olympics of Ancient Greece, when all wars stopped during the games.
The emblem of the Nagano Olympics is made in the form of a flower, on the petals of which a representative of a winter sport is depicted.
The emblem simultaneously resembles a snowflake and a sunflower, symbolizing the splendor and beauty of the Olympic Games.
The mascots of the Nagano Games were four owls: Sukki, Nokki, Lekki and Tsukki. Four wise birds - according to the number of years between Olympiads.
Opening of the 1998 Olympics
Emperor Akihito of Japan delivered the opening speech at the opening ceremony of the XVIII Winter Olympic Games. The Olympic flame was lit by figure skater Midori Ito, and the athletes' oath was pronounced by biathlete Kenji Ogiwara.
Results of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano
At the 1998 Games there were over 2,000 athletes from 72 countries, 68 sets of awards were awarded, 7 more than in Lillehammer 1994.
The Winter Games program included:
- curling (after many years of absence);
- snowboard for men and women;
- women's hockey;
- For the first time, professional hockey players were allowed to compete.
For the first time, teams from Kenya, Azerbaijan, Uruguay, Macedonia, and Venezuela took part in the Winter Olympic Games.
Russian team at the Olympic Games in Nagano 1998
The Russian team consisted of 45 women and 81 men, with an average age of 25 years. The youngest skater Alexey Yagudin is 17 years old, the oldest is skier Alexey Prokurorov, champion of Calgary-88, 33 years old.
He became the standard bearer at the opening ceremony.
Russian athletes did not participate in only three sports: snowboarding, women's hockey, and curling.
In the overall team standings at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, the Russian team was in third place, after Germany and Norway. The Russians won 9 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze medals. 
Scandals of the Nagano Olympics
A doping scandal arose when a slight excess of marijuana was found in the blood of Canadian medalist Ross Rebagliati. But the Canadian delegation achieved a mitigation of the punishment and the return of the gold medal to the athlete.
The organizational scandal consisted of a brawl perpetrated by a drunken Austrian, Martin Freinademets, nicknamed Terminator. HE smashed a computer and furniture in a hotel room, which he later paid for, but was expelled from Nagano from the Olympics.
An earthquake of magnitude 5 occurred in Nagano 3 days before the end of the Olympics. No harm done.
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