1960 Winter Olympic Games
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The 1960 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VIII Olympic Winter Games, were held 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. [link]
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 15 alpine and ski jumping events, eight speed skiing events, and three figure skating events. However, there was no bobsleigh run.
1960 was the first year for women's speed skating and the men's biathlon.
Medal winners
- Alpine skiing
- Biathlon
- Bobsleigh
- Figure skating
- Ice hockey
- Nordic skiing
- *Cross-country skiing
- *Nordic combined
- *Ski jumping
- Speed skating
Medal count
(Host nation in bold.)
| 1960 Winter Olympics medal count |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 |
USSR | 7 | 5 | 9 | 21 |
| 2 |
United Team of Germany¹ | 4 | 3 | 1 | 8 |
| 3 |
United States | 3 | 4 | 3 | 10 |
| 4 |
Norway | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| 5 |
Sweden | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 6 |
Finland | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 |
| 7 |
Canada | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 8 |
Switzerland | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 |
Austria | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| 10 |
France | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
- Yevgeny Grishin, USSR, men's speed skating, 500 m gold, 1500 m gold
- Lidia Skoblikova, USSR, women's speed skating 1500 m gold, 3000 m gold
- Jean Vuarnet, FR, men's downhill, gold
- Anne Heggtveit, Canada, slalom gold medal
- Penny Pitou, USA, women's downhill, silver and women's giant slalom, silver
- United States men's ice-hockey team won gold.
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