Winter Olympic Games - Lillehammer ´ 94
Ever since, at the instigation of the French pedagogue and
historian Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937), Olympic games have also
been organized in modern times, one of the methods of reckoning
time has, on the ancient model, become the one according to the
Olympics, i.e. according to the periods of time between two Olympic
events occurring every four years. Since the first Olympic Games of
the modern times were held in 1896 in Athens, the year 1994 would
normally not be an Olympic year had the International Olympic
Committee in 1986 not amended the Olympic rules by laying down a
new schedule of Winter Olympics. Instead of organizing Winter Games
in the same year as the Summer games, like it has always been since
1924, when the first Winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France,
from now on, starting with 1994, Winter Olympic Games will take
place in even years, which are otherwise, according to the old
reckoning, not Olympic years. The reason for it is simple and
clear: since Olympic events involve increasingly high amounts of
money necessary for their organization, the burden of holding two
such events in one year became too heavy to bear. The present
occurrence of Olympics every two years offers more possibilities of
long-term planning for sports organizations, organizers and
commercial enterprises which provide funds for the Games primarily
by advertising on television.
1994 will thus be the first additional Olympic year and will
moreover be important because it was (in addition to the
international Year of the Family) proclaimed by the General
Assembly of the United Nations Organization the year of sports and
Olympic ideals, by which it also marked the centenary of the
establishment of the International Olympic Committee (Paris 1894).
This year also commemorates the 70th anniversary of the first
Winter Olympics, whereas the Slovenian sport, which has been
closely connected with the Olympics of old, celebrates the 60th
anniversary of ski-jumping in Planica.
Although it is a matter of coincidence, the choice of the site of
this year´s Winter Olympics is in perfect agreement with this
year´s exceptional character. The host of the l 7th Winter Olympics
is Norway, the country of origin of modern competition skiing and
other disciplines on snow and ice, which were very popular in the
past because the climatic conditions, and today their popularity
continues on account of a rich, deep-rooted national tradition of
this Scandinavian country. This year´s Winter Olympic Games will be
held in the small town of Lillehammer (pop. 23.000) in the Opland
province in central Norway, which will be the site of competition
in Nordic and acrobatic events, biathlon, and a part of the ice
hockey tournament. Otherwise, almost 2.000 sportsmen and
sportswomen from the record number of participating countries
(about 80) will also be hosted by other nearby towns - Hamar and
Gjovik in the south (disciplines on ice) and on the shore of Mjös,
Norway´s largest lake, Hunderfossen (bobsleigh and luge) and
Hafjell and Kvitfjell in the north (alpine events). In their
typical manner, Norwegians designed Olympic facilities as something
special (the roof of the sports hall in Hamar has the shape of a
capsized Viking ship, another hall in this town has the shape of an
amphitheatre, while that in Gjovik is built into a hillside and
environment-friendly building materials and techniques were used in
its construction). For Slovenia, too, its appearance in Lillehammer
will be something special. The Slovene national team takes part in
the Olympic arena for the second time (it made its first appearance
in Albertville in 1992). This time, however, it is taking part in
this event under normal circumstances and not under the impression
of the dramatic events from 1991 that stirred up the Slovene nation
and its sportsmen. Slovenia has taken part in all Winter Olympics
so far (before, its sportsmen were a part of the Yugoslav national
team), with the exception of the first two games which were held in
the United States in 1932 and 1960.
Before World war II. Slovenia´s sportsmen were represented in
Olympic events only cross-country skiers (in 1924 in Chamonix and
in l928 in St. Moritz). As early as 1936 they partook in a wider
range of disciplines: the competition for top results was joined by
ski-jumpers and alpine skiers. Franc Smolej ( 10th in 50 km
cross-country event) and Ciril Praček ( 15th in alpine
combined) from Jesenice were placed first.
The period after World War II was the heyday of winter sports all
over the world, including Slovenia. The Olympic programme was
expanded, and growing numbers of devotees of sports took part in
competitions the world over, which, owing to the ever rising
popularity of television, met with an increasingly wide response.
Slovene sportsmen competed primarily in skiing and in Innsbruck in
1964 the Olympic baptism was also undergone by the Slovene ice
hockey national team, which four years later in Grenoble achieved
its greatest success by being placed first in B pool (and ninth
according to overall group results).
At that time, Slovene representatives did not achieve top results;
however, many a sportsman drew attention of the sporting public.
Jože Knific was placed l4th in 50 km cross-country event in
St. Moritz in 1948; four years later in Oslo, Janez Štefe
ranked 13th in downhill, while Janez Polda was l6th in ski-jumps.
In Grenoble in 1968, Ludvik Zajc from Jesenice, who later became a
successful instructor in Norway, was placed (9th) for the first
time among the top in Sapporo in 1972 ski-jumper Danilo Pudgar was
successful (8th on the large, and Peter Štefančič
( 10th) on the middle jumping-hill. In 1976 made his first
appearance at the Olympics Bojan Križaj, a 17-year-o1d alpine
skier from Tržič, who determined the development of the
Slovene skiing. At that time, however, he was still not capable of
making a major breakthrough, which was not achieved by the Slovene
skiing before the 1980s, when conditions were ripe, also for
attaching a major importance to it (organizational and material
consolidation, development of the line and of the accompanying
activities like the ski industry). As early as in 1980 Bojan
Križaj ranked fourth in giant slalom in Lake Placid, missing
the bronze medal by mere two hundredths of a second. In Sarajevo in
1984, when the organizing staff largely consisted of sports leaders
from Slovenia, Jure Franko, a member of the skiing club from Nova
Gorica, won the first Olympic medal. In giant slalom he was placed
second after Julen from Switzerland, and many other Slovene skiers
also distinguished themselves (the first winner of a World Cup
medal, Boris Strel was 5th, silver World Cup medal winner Bojan
Križaj was 7th, etc.). Another star shone in Sarajevo or, more
precisely, on the slopes of mount Jahorina - the then 16-year-old
Mateja Svet from Ljubljana, who later became one of the world´s
most famous alpine skiers: after a series of medals won at world
championships she won a silver medal in slalom in Calgary in 1988,
and a year later in Vail she became the world champion in this same
discipline. Calgary was a memorable place for our ski jumpers.
Matjaž Debelak was placed 3rd in the event on the large
jumping-hill (on the middle jumping-hill Miran Tepeš was
ranked 4th), and in team competition our four jumpers Miran
Tepeš, Primož Ulaga, Matjaž Zupan and Matjaž
Debelak - won a silver medal, second only to the Finns.
Since in the period before Albertville Slovene skiers were often
successful at the largest international competitions (Franci Petek
from Lesce became world champion in ski-jumping in 1991 and
Nataša Bokal from Škofja Loka world vice-champion in
slalom), and they also achieved remarkable results at world junior
championships, expectations on the occasion of the first
independent appearance at Olympics were high, but there were
nevertheless no medals.
The season of 1993/94 is, therefore, more promising, for a new
generation of alpine skiers has come up in the meantime, both among
men (the leading personality is now Jure Košir from
Mojstrana) and among women (Urška Hrovat, Špela
Pretnar, Katja Koren and Alenka Dovžan, the latter two having
even won the competitions for the world Cup championship), and
Slovene ski-jumpers and biathlon skiers on the national team are
also highly appreciated on the scale of international competition.
Two special Olympic stamps, whose subjects (slalom and
cross-country skiing) symbolize the recognition of the quality and
tradition of skiing in this country. Skiing was mentioned by Janez
Vajkard Valvasor as early as 1689 in his famous work "The Glory of
the Duchy of Carniola".
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