XXI Olympic Winter Games 2010, Vancouver, Canada

The Olympic Flame for the 1952 Games in Oslo, was lit in the fireplace by skiing pioneer Sondre Nordheim and the torch relay was conducted by 94 participants entirely on skis. Bandy, a popular sport in the Nordic countries, was featured as a demonstration sport; though only Norway, Sweden and Finland fielded teams. Norwegian athletes won 17 medals, which outpaced all the other nations. They were led by Hjalmar Andersen who won three gold medals in four events in the speed skating competition.
After not being able to host the Games in 1944, Cortina d'Ampezzo was selected to organise the 1956 Winter Olympics. At the opening ceremonies the final torch bearer, Guido Caroli, entered the Olympic Stadium on ice skates. As he skated around the stadium his skate caught on a cable and he fell, nearly extinguishing the flame. He was able to recover and lit the cauldron. These were the first Winter Games to be televised, though no television rights would be sold until the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. The Cortina Games were used to test the feasibility of televising large sporting events. The Soviet Union made its Olympic debut and had an immediate impact, winning more medals than any other nation. Chiharu Igaya won the first Winter Olympics medal for Japan and the continent of Asia, when he placed second in the slalom.
The IOC awarded the 1960 Olympics to Squaw Valley, United States. Since the village was underdeveloped there was a rush to construct infrastructure and sports facilities like an ice arena, speed-skating track, and a ski-jump hill. The opening and closing ceremonies were produced by Walt Disney. The Squaw Valley Olympics had a number of notable firsts: it was the first Olympics to have a dedicated athletes' village; it was the first to use a computer (courtesy of IBM) to tabulate results; and the first to feature female speed skating events. The bobsleigh events were absent for the first and only time because the organising committee found it too expensive to build the bobsleigh run.