1960 Squaw Valley Winter Games

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Host City: Squaw Valley, United States (February 19, 1960 to February 28, 1960)
Opening Ceremony: February 18, 1960 (opened by Vice-President Richard Nixon)
Lighter of the Olympic Flame: Kenneth Henry
Taker of the Olympic Oath: Carol Heiss (athlete)
Closing Ceremony: February 28, 1960
Events: 27 in 8 sports

Participants: 665 (521 men and 144 women) from 30 countries
Youngest Participant: Marcelle Matthews (11 years, 306 days)
Oldest Participant: Francisco Jerman (39 years, 130 days)
Most Medals (Athlete): Veikko Hakulinen (3 medals)
Most Medals (Country): Soviet Union (21 medals)

Overview

When the 1960 Olympic Winter Games were awarded to Squaw Valley, California, all that existed there was a hotel. The ski village was the dream of Alexander C. Cushing and he succeeded in convincing the IOC to hold the Olympics there. Squaw Valley's obscurity was best exemplified at the closing ceremony of the [1956 Olympic Winter Games]. Traditionally the mayor of the host city hands the Olympic flag over to the mayor of the next host city. But Squaw Valley was an unincorporated village and did not have a mayor. U.S. Congressman Harold T. Johnson, representing Squaw Valley's district, was drafted to stand in and receive the flag from former Italian bobsledder Renzo Menardi, deputy mayor of Cortina.

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After the award the Europeans verbally attacked the site for various reasons. The ski courses were not up to FIS calibre in the alpine competitions, while in the nordic races, the altitude (2,000 metres [6,650 feet]) was felt to be too stressful for the competitors. The Squaw Valley organizers polled the Winter Olympic nations and found that only nine would send a bobsled team so they elected not to build a run and not to contest the sport. The bobsled federation (FIBT) was furious and petitioned the IOC to change the ruling, but Squaw Valley was adamant. No Olympic bobsled events were on the 1960 program, so the FIBT held world championships only two weeks later in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

In all, despite the initial misgivings about the site, the Games were well run with few problems. And U.S. television was present, showing the events to the American people for the first time. The simple village of Squaw Valley put on quite a show, led by famed Hollywood movie and television producer Walt Disney, who was placed in charge of pageants and ceremonies. The athletes liked the rustic setting, in which they could walk to most of their events from the village, which gave the Games a homey, close-knit atmosphere. This was the days before massive Olympic security.

The program was also changed a bit, in addition to the absence of bobsledding. Biathlon was introduced as a sport for the first time. Women's speed skating made its Olympic début and saw the arrival of [Lidiya Skoblikova] (URS) who won two gold medals. She would return in 1964 to win all four events on the schedule.

In figure skating, [Hayes Jenkins]' brother, [David Jenkins], won the men's titles, while David Jenkins future sister-in-law, [Carol Heiss], avenged her 1956 defeat to easily win the women's title. In the nordic combined event, [Georg Thoma] (FRG) became the first non-Scandanavian to win a nordic event. In ice hockey, the United States pulled a major upset when they defeated the Soviet Union in the semi-final match. The U.S. went on to defeat Czechoslovakia in the finals and win the gold medal. Not as well publicized as the miracle of 1980, the U.S. victory in 1960 was equally astonishing.

Country Medal Leaders

Rk	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union	7	5	9	21
2	United States	3	4	3	10
3	Germany	4	3	1	8
4	Finland	2	3	3	8
5	Sweden	3	2	2	7
6	Norway	3	3	0	6
7	Austria	1	2	3	6
8	Canada	2	1	1	4
9	France	1	0	2	3
10	Switzerland	2	0	0	2
11	Netherlands	0	1	1	2
12	Poland	0	1	1	2
13	Czechoslovakia	0	1	0	1
14	Italy	0	0	1	1

Athlete Medal Leaders

Rk	Athlete	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Veikko Hakulinen (FIN)	1	1	1	3
2	Lidiya Skoblikova (URS)	2	0	0	2
3	Yevgeny Grishin (URS)	2	0	0	2
4	Mariya Gusakova (URS)	1	1	0	2
5	Helga Haase (GER)	1	1	0	2
6	Håkon Brusveen (NOR)	1	1	0	2
7	Sixten Jernberg (SWE)	1	1	0	2
8	Knut Johannesen (NOR)	1	1	0	2
9	Viktor Kosichkin (URS)	1	1	0	2
10	Ernst Hinterseer (AUT)	1	0	1	2
11	Lyubov Kozyreva-Baranova (URS)	0	2	0	2
12	Penny Pitou (USA)	0	2	0	2
13	Radiya Yeroshina (URS)	0	1	1	2
14	Rolf Rämgård (SWE)	0	1	1	2
15	Nikolay Anikin (URS)	0	0	2	2
16	Heidi Biebl (GER)	1	0	0	1
17	Sonja Edström-Ruthström (SWE)	1	0	0	1
18	Klara Guseva-Nesterova (URS)	1	0	0	1
19	Anne Heggtveit (CAN)	1	0	0	1
20	Carol Heiss (USA)	1	0	0	1
21	Irma Johansson (SWE)	1	0	0	1
22	Yvonne Rüegg (SUI)	1	0	0	1
23	Britt Strandberg (SWE)	1	0	0	1
24	Barbara Wagner (CAN)	1	0	0	1
25	Toimi Alatalo (FIN)	1	0	0	1
26	Rog Christian (USA)	1	0	0	1
27	Billy Christian (USA)	1	0	0	1
28	Bobby Cleary (USA)	1	0	0	1
29	Bill Cleary, Jr. (USA)	1	0	0	1
30	Gene Grazia (USA)	1	0	0	1
31	Väinö Huhtala (FIN)	1	0	0	1
32	Kalevi Hämäläinen (FIN)	1	0	0	1
33	David Jenkins (USA)	1	0	0	1
34	Paul Johnson (USA)	1	0	0	1
35	Jack Kirrane, Jr. (USA)	1	0	0	1
36	Klas Lestander (SWE)	1	0	0	1
37	John Mayasich (USA)	1	0	0	1
38	Jack McCartan (USA)	1	0	0	1
39	Bob McVey (USA)	1	0	0	1
40	Dick Meredith (USA)	1	0	0	1
41	Eero Mäntyranta (FIN)	1	0	0	1
42	Weldy Olson (USA)	1	0	0	1
43	Bob Owen (USA)	1	0	0	1
44	Larry Palmer (USA)	1	0	0	1
45	Robert Paul (CAN)	1	0	0	1
46	Rod Paavola (USA)	1	0	0	1
47	Helmut Recknagel (GER)	1	0	0	1
48	Dick Rodenhiser (USA)	1	0	0	1
49	Roger Staub (SUI)	1	0	0	1
50	Georg Thoma (GER)	1	0	0	1
51	Jean Vuarnet (FRA)	1	0	0	1
52	Tom Williams (USA)	1	0	0	1
53	Roald Aas (NOR)	1	0	0	1
54	Sjoukje Dijkstra (NED)	0	1	0	1
55	Nataliya Donchenko (URS)	0	1	0	1
56	Marika Kilius (GER)	0	1	0	1
57	Elwira Seroczyńska (POL)	0	1	0	1
58	Betsy Snite (USA)	0	1	0	1
59	Valentina Stenina (URS)	0	1	0	1
60	Bob Attersley (CAN)	0	1	0	1
61	Moe Benoit (CAN)	0	1	0	1
62	Hallgeir Brenden (NOR)	0	1	0	1
63	Hans-Jürgen Bäumler (GER)	0	1	0	1
64	Jim Connelly (CAN)	0	1	0	1
65	Bill Disney (USA)	0	1	0	1
66	Karol Divín (TCH)	0	1	0	1
67	Jack Douglas (CAN)	0	1	0	1
68	Fred Etcher (CAN)	0	1	0	1
69	Bob Forhan (CAN)	0	1	0	1
70	Harald Grønningen (NOR)	0	1	0	1
71	Niilo Halonen (FIN)	0	1	0	1
72	Don Head (CAN)	0	1	0	1
73	Boat Hurley (CAN)	0	1	0	1
74	Tormod Knutsen (NOR)	0	1	0	1
75	Hans Peter Lanig (GER)	0	1	0	1
76	Ken Laufman (CAN)	0	1	0	1
77	Hias Leitner (AUT)	0	1	0	1
78	Butch Martin (CAN)	0	1	0	1
79	Bob McKnight (CAN)	0	1	0	1
80	Cliff Pennington (CAN)	0	1	0	1
81	Don Rope (CAN)	0	1	0	1
82	Bobby Rousseau (CAN)	0	1	0	1
83	George Samolenko (CAN)	0	1	0	1
84	Harry Sinden (CAN)	0	1	0	1
85	Darryl Sly (CAN)	0	1	0	1
86	Pepi Stiegler (AUT)	0	1	0	1
87	Antti Tyrväinen (FIN)	0	1	0	1
88	Einar Østby (NOR)	0	1	0	1
89	Jeanne Ashworth (USA)	0	0	1	1
90	Traudl Hecher (AUT)	0	0	1	1
91	Barbi Henneberger (GER)	0	0	1	1
92	Eevi Huttunen (FIN)	0	0	1	1
93	Siiri Rantanen (FIN)	0	0	1	1
94	Nancy Ludington (USA)	0	0	1	1
95	Toini Pöysti (FIN)	0	0	1	1
96	Giuliana Chenal-Minuzzo (ITA)	0	0	1	1
97	Helena Pilejczyk (POL)	0	0	1	1
98	Barbara Ann Roles (USA)	0	0	1	1
99	Tamara Rylova (URS)	0	0	1	1
100	Eeva Ruoppa (FIN)	0	0	1	1
101	Veniamin Aleksandrov (URS)	0	0	1	1
102	Aleksandr Almetov (URS)	0	0	1	1
103	Yury Baulin (URS)	0	0	1	1
104	Charles Bozon (FRA)	0	0	1	1
105	Mikhail Bychkov (URS)	0	0	1	1
106	Kjell Bäckman (SWE)	0	0	1	1
107	Rafael Grach (URS)	0	0	1	1
108	Vladimir Grebennikov (URS)	0	0	1	1
109	Yevgeny Groshev (URS)	0	0	1	1
110	Nikolay Gusakov (URS)	0	0	1	1
111	Don Jackson (CAN)	0	0	1	1
112	Nikolay Karpov (URS)	0	0	1	1
113	Alfred Kuchevsky (URS)	0	0	1	1
114	Aleksey Kuznetsov (URS)	0	0	1	1
115	Otto Leodolter (AUT)	0	0	1	1
116	Konstantin Loktev (URS)	0	0	1	1
117	Ron Ludington (USA)	0	0	1	1
118	Guy Périllat (FRA)	0	0	1	1
119	Jan Pesman (NED)	0	0	1	1
120	Stanislav Petukhov (URS)	0	0	1	1
121	Aleksandr Privalov (URS)	0	0	1	1
122	Viktor Pryazhnikov (URS)	0	0	1	1
123	Nikolay Puchkov (URS)	0	0	1	1
124	Anatoly Shelyukhin (URS)	0	0	1	1
125	Genrikh Sidorenkov (URS)	0	0	1	1
126	Nikolay Sologubov (URS)	0	0	1	1
127	Boris Stenin (URS)	0	0	1	1
128	Yury Tsitsinov (URS)	0	0	1	1
129	Gennady Vaganov (URS)	0	0	1	1
130	Viktor Yakushev (URS)	0	0	1	1
131	Yevgeny Yorkin (URS)	0	0	1	1

Sports

Alpine Skiing
Biathlon
Cross Country Skiing
Figure Skating
Ice Hockey
Nordic Combined
Ski Jumping
Speed Skating

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