China's Treasure Fleet and the European Voyages of Discovery

This was the first time that the games were held in a Scandinavian country. The Oslo winter games debuted the Olympic torch. This was post World War II and Germany and Japan were banned from the competition. There was, also, a record number of people who watched the events. Hjallis Andersen from Norway, won three gold medals in speed skating. He won the 5,000 and 10,000 meter races by the largest margin in the history of the events. Andreas Ostler and Lorenz Nieberl of Germany each won two titles. There was controversy because the total weight of their team was over 1,000 pounds, and people complained that they had more momentum which led them to their gold medals. After the Oslo Games, they enforced a 880 pound weight limit. Then Andrea Mead Lawrence, alpine skier, won two gold medals and had arguably the best performance. American Dick Button became the first skater to perform a triple loop. Canada won the ice hockey title in the winter games as well. Scandinavian countries dominated skiing events. The top 17 skiers were from either Finland, Norway, or Sweden.

Sochi, Russia 2014

This was the first time that the Winter Games were held in Russia. There was controversy surrounding the location of the event because they didn’t think there would be enough snow to cover the grounds for the event. Also, construction of the buildings were behind schedule, and there were complaints of mismanagement and corruption. Russia spent $51 billion on the games, which was the most for any winter Olympic games. Russia was also having turmoil with Ukraine. There was a mechanical failure during the opening ceremony where one of the lights for the Olympic logo was not lit up. There was approximately 2,800 athletes from 88 countries. There was a record of 98 events. Dominating speed skating was the Dutch team, they took home 23 of the 36 medals that were awarded for speed skating. Dutch speed skater, Ireen Wust, took home 5 medals (2 gold and 3 silver). Russia finished the games with the most gold medals (13) and the most medals all together (33). American skier, Bode Miller, became the oldest Alpine medalist ever (36). Mikaela Shiffrin’s victory made her the youngest Olympic slalom champion in history, she was just 18 years old. Marit Bjorgen (Norway), won 3 gold medals to bring her total to 6, the most all-time for a female Winter Olympian. Ole Einar Bjorndalen (Norway) won two medals to bring his career total to 13, the most by Winter Olympian. To conclude, Canadian men’s and women’s ice hockey took home the gold medal. Canada, also, swept the curling events.

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