1994 Winter Olympics (February 12-27)
Olympic.org; Wikipedia
Held in Lillehammer, Norway. This was the so-called "bonus" Olympics, which came only two years after the previous Winter (and Summer) Games. (There would be no Summer Games this year). And this is the single Olympic year I remember best, the one year I really got into the whole thing. The most notorious aspect of the year was the rivalry between figure skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, and a certain unpleasantness that came of that, but I've always tried not to dwell on that as much as the media did. Some other memorable names from this year's figure skating included Oksana Baiul, Elvis Stojko, Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean, Ekaterina Gordeeva & Sergei Grinkov, and my personal favorites, Jenni Meno & Todd Sand (I was very disappointed they didn't win). I believe this was the first time I ever heard of ice dancing, as well, though to me it was virtually indistinguishable from pairs figure skating. As far as skiers were concerned, I was quite enamored of Picabo Street. And of course, Alberto Tomba once again competed. And I have the nagging feeling that there was some other skier who stood out in my mind at the time, but I can neither remember his name nor find it online, so I'm probably thinking of Tomba. (Did I mention that my memory is teh suck?) For speed skating, Bonnie Blair is once again a competitor, as well as Dan Jansen. One of the biggest stories of this year's Olympics was Janesen making a triumphant comeback after personal and competitive traumas in 1988. Another memorable thing about this year's games was that David Letterman sent his mother, Dorothy, to Lillehammer, to cover the event for The Late Show. Anyway, I really wish I remembered everything better, but still, it was all pretty awesome. And I'm sorry that I've never been able to get nearly as interested in the Olympics as I did this year.