Monthly Archives: June 2022

Lillehammer tales chapter four: Local hero (Nordic Cities and Me)

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Three for three Johann Olav Koss is the third speed skater I’ll feature in my Lillehammer tales. Unlike Dan Jansen and Bonnie Blair, Koss skated the longer distances. Having won the gold medal at 1500m and the silver at 10,000 …

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Lillehammer tales chapter three: A family affair (Nordic cities and Me)

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Like Dan Jansen, Bonnie Blair made her Olympic debut at the 1984 Games in Sarajevo. Like Jansen, Blair had a respectable finish for a 19 year old when she finished eighth in the 500m sprint. (This was only the second …

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Lillehammer tales chapter two: The heartbreak kid (Nordic cities and me)

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In his first Olympic appearance for the United States, Dan Jansen was a few months shy of his 19th birth anniversary when he stepped on the track at the Zetra Ice Rink in Sarajevo on 10 February 1984 to race …

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Lillehammer tales chapter one: The orphan (Nordic cities and Me)

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It seems almost impossible that the current world champion could have arrived in Lillehammer virtually unnoticed by the press covering the Olympic women’s figure skating competition but such was the case for Oksana Baiul the 16 year old wonderchild from …

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Notes on the XVII Winter Olympiad – Lillehammer 1994 (Nordic cities and Me addendum two)

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As I’ve noted elsewhere, it seems that every Olympic Games has some degree of controversy attached to it be that a boycott, an athletic scandal, or a protest by the the host city’s residents (think Vancouver for this one). But …

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