1968 Winter Olympic Games
The emblem represents a snow crystal and
three red roses, the symbol of Grenoble, and the Olympic rings. |
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| Host city | Grenoble, France | ||
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| Nations participating | 37 | ||
| Athletes participating | 1158 (947 men, 211 women) |
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| Events | 35 in 6 sports (10 disciplines) | ||
| Opening ceremony | 6 February | ||
| Closing ceremony | 18 February | ||
| Officially opened by | President Charles de Gaulle | ||
| Athlete's Oath | Léo Lacroix (alpine skiing) | ||
| Olympic Torch | Alain Calmat (figure skating) | ||
| Stadium | Olympic Stadium (Grenoble) | ||
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The 1968 Winter Olympics, officially known as the X Olympic Winter Games (French: Les Xes Jeux olympiques d'hiver), were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1968 in Grenoble, France and opened on 6 February. Thirty-seven countries participated. Norway won the most medals, the first time a country other than the USSR had done so since the USSR first entered the Winter Games in 1956.
Frenchman Jean-Claude Killy won three gold medals in all the alpine skiing events. In women's figure skating, Peggy Fleming won the only United States gold medal. The games have been credited with making the Winter Olympics more popular in the United States, not least of which because of ABC's extensive coverage of Fleming and Killy, who became overnight sensations among teenage girls.
The year 1968 marked the first time the IOC first permitted East and West Germany to enter separately, and the first time the IOC ever ordered drug and gender testing of competitors.
On 24 November 1960 the prefect of the Isère Département, François Raoul and the president of the Dauphiné Ski Federation; Raoul Arduin, officially presented for the first time the idea of hosting the 1968 Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble. After the city council agreed in principle, different government agencys offered their support and also the villages around Grenoble reacted positively, an applications committee was formed and led by Albert Michallon, the former mayor of Grenoble on 30 December 1960. The application was officially given to the IOC during a meeting between IOC executives and representatives of international sport agencies in Lausanne in February 1963.
In the application the decision was not solely based on sport because in the Isère Département there had only been two important sport events, the Bobsleigh World Championships of 1951 in L'Alpe d'Huez and the Luge World Championships of 1959 in Villard-de-Lans. Between 1946 and 1962 the number of inhabitants in Grenoble increased from 102,000 to 159,000, and the total inhabitants in the Département Isère increased from 139,000 to 250,000. The development of the infrastructure could not keep up with this rapid increase and was for the most part at the same level as before the Second World War. The people who were responsible never made a secret out of it that it was mainly for them about using the Olympic Games to receive larger grants to quickly develop dated infrastructure and support the local economy.
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