The 1994 Winter Olympics

1994 Winter Olympics

The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Lillehammer failed to win the bid for the 1992 event. Lillehammer was awarded the games in 1988, after having beat...

 closing ceremony was held in Lysgårdsbakken in Lillehammer

Lillehammer

is a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway, globally known for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. As of May 2011, the population of the town of Lillehammer was...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 on 27 February 1994. All spectators were handed a flashlight with the inscription "Remember Sarajevo"—the host of the 1984 Winter Olympics

1984 Winter Olympics

The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated from 8–19 February 1984 in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Other candidate cities were Sapporo, Japan; and Gothenburg, Sweden...

 which was at the heart of the Bosnian War

Bosnian War

The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...

. The first entrants on the stage were Liv Ullmann

Liv Ullmann

Liv Johanne Ullmann is a Norwegian actress and film director, as well as one of the "muses" of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman...

 and Thor Heyerdal, followed by the athletes' precession. After the flag had been transferred to Nagano mayor Tasuka Tsukada, speeches were held by Lillehammer mayor Audun Tron

Audun Tron

Audun Tron is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party.From 1987 to 1999, Tron was the mayor of Lillehammer. As such he played a role in the 1994 Winter Olympics...

, Gerhard Heiberg

Gerhard Heiberg

Jens Gerhard Heiberg is a Norwegian industrialist who was head of the Lillehammer Olympic Organising Committee and the Lillehammer Paralympic Organizing Committee and member of the International Olympic Committee....

 and Juan Antonio Samaranch

Juan Antonio Samaranch

Don Juan Antonio Samaranch y Torelló, 1st Marquis of Samaranch, Grandee of Spain , known in Catalan as Joan Antoni Samaranch i Torelló , was a Catalan Spanish sports administrator who served as the seventh President of the International Olympic Committee from 1980 to 2001...

. The latter used his speech to remind about Sarajevo's situation, before giving Heiberg IOC's gold medal, and declaring the games "the best Olympic Winter Games ever". Artistic presentations followed with many of the themes from the opening ceremony. The 1998 Winter Olympics

1998 Winter Olympics

The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially the XVIII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 7 to 22 February 1998 in Nagano, Japan. Seventy-two nations and 2,176 participans contested in seven sports and 72 events at 15 venues. The games saw the introduction of Women's ice...

' mascot, Snowlet, was also presented. Of the 2,200 people performing in the opening and closing ceremonies, only 50 were professionals.