Take a trip down memory lane and relive some of the historic events in U.S. Olympic history.
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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 Winter Olympic 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 Winter Olympic 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 Winter Olympic Games. Within five years, Squaw Valley transformed from an undeveloped site into a fully functioning town.
When Peggy Fleming captured a gold medal in ladies' figure skating at the Grenoble 1968 Winter Olympic Games, she brought American figure skating back to the forefront and helped the event become one of the most popular at the Winter Olympic Games.
The Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics 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.
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 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.
