Due to the difficulty of getting to St. Louis and European tensions caused by the Russo-Japanese War, only 62 athletes came from outside North America.
The Olympic Winter Games came to the United States for the first time. Lake Placid native Jack Shea won two gold medals in speed skating, the first athlete to win multiple gold medals in a single Olympic Winter Games.
Participation dropped to its lowest level in 28 years because of the Great Depression, but several new concepts made their debut: an Olympic Village (for male athletes), Victory Podium and a shortened period of competition.
Landowner Alexander Cushing had a dream of turning an uninhabited valley near Lake Tahoe into the host of the Olympic Winter Games. Within five years, Squaw Valley transformed from an undeveloped site into a fully functioning town.
The Lake Placid 1980 Olympic Winter Games will be forever remembered for the U.S. Men’s Ice Hockey Team’s “Miracle on Ice” gold-medal run as well as speed skater Eric Heiden’s remarkable five gold medals.
The first Olympic Games held without government financing since the first modern Games in 1896, the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games became a model for the future with its reliance on existing facilities and corporate sponsors, turning a $223 million profit.
The Paralympic Games were held in two locations in 1984. Wheelchair athletes with spinal cord injuries competed in Stoke Mandeville in the United Kingdom; amputee athletes, cerebral palsy athletes and visually impaired athletes competed in New York.
The United States’ women’s teams enjoyed resounding success at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, capturing the first-ever gold medals in women’s soccer and softball, as well as winning gold in women’s gymnastics team all-around and women’s basketball.
The Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Winter Games set attendance records for a Winter Games, selling more than 1.5 million tickets and attracting a daily average of more than 70,000 fans per day.
