1998 Winter Olympics
18th edition of Winter Olympics, in Nagano, Japan
The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVIII Olympic Winter Games (Japanese: 第18回オリンピック冬季競技大会, Hepburn: Dai Jūhachi-kai Orinpikku Tōkikyōgi Taikai) and commonly known as Nagano 1998 (Japanese: 長野1998), were a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, with some events taking place in the nearby mountain communities of Hakuba, Karuizawa, Nozawa Onsen, and Yamanouchi. The city of Nagano had previously been a candidate to host the 1940 Winter Olympics (which were later cancelled), as well as the 1972 Winter Olympics, but had been eliminated at the national level by Sapporo on both occasions.
The games hosted 2,176 athletes from 72 nations competing in 7 sports and 68 events. The number of athletes and participating nations were a record at the time. The Games saw the introduction of women's ice hockey, curling and snowboarding. National Hockey League players were allowed to participate in the men's ice hockey for the first time. Azerbaijan, Kenya, Macedonia, Uruguay, and Venezuela made their debut at the Winter Olympics.
The athlete who won the most medals at these games was the Russian cross-country skier Larisa Lazutina who won five medals, including three gold. The Norwegian cross-country skier Bjørn Dæhlie won four medals, including three gold, which took his total Olympic medal total to 12, including eight gold, which is a record for Winter Olympics. Czech men's ice hockey team won the gold medal.
“1998 Winter Olympics” enters the record as 18th edition of Winter Olympics, in Nagano, Japan. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Winter, Olympics and 18th can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q9664. VIAF identifies the subject as 124860603. The Library of Congress control number is nr97022955. Authority coordinates are 36.580, 138.166. None of the 7 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1998, 1940 and 1972.
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