The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVIII Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Nagano 1998, were a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, 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, as well as the 1972 Winter Olympics, but had been eliminated at the national level by Sapporo on both occasions.
Pierre Fritz Lueders is a Canadian Olympic, world and World Cup champion bobsledder who competed from 1990 to 2010. He piloted both two-man and four-man bobsleigh, retiring after the 2010 Winter Olympics. He was named to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
Australia first competed in the Winter Olympic Games in 1936 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and has participated in every games since, with the exception of the 1948 Games in St. Moritz.
Sweden first participated at the Olympic Games at the inaugural 1896 Games, and has sent athletes to compete in every Games since then with one exception, the sparsely attended 1904 Summer Olympics. Sweden has earned medals at all Olympic games except for two, the 1896 Games and the 1904 Games. The only other nation having earned medals at every Olympic game since 1908 is Sweden's neighboring country Finland.
The United Kingdom has been represented at every modern Olympic Games, and as of the 2020 Summer Olympics is third in the all-time Summer Olympic medal table by both number of gold medals won and overall number of medals. London has hosted the Summer Olympic Games three times: in 1908, 1948, and 2012.
Canada has competed at every Winter Olympic Games, and has won at least one medal each time. By total medals, the country's best performance was in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games where Canadian athletes won 29 medals. Canada set a new record for most gold medals won by a country in a single Winter Olympics with 14 at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. This achievement surpassed the previous record of 13 gold medals held by the Soviet Union (1976) and Norway (2002). Both Germany and Norway matched the record total of 14 gold medals in Pyeongchang in 2018. This record has since been surpassed by Norway with 16 at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Lascelles Brown is a Jamaican-born Canadian bobsledder who has competed for three countries since starting his career in 1999. Competing in three Winter Olympics, he is the first Jamaican-born athlete to win a Winter Olympic medal.
Heather Moyse is a Canadian athlete and two-time Olympic gold medalist, representing Canada in international competition as a bobsledder, rugby union player, and track cyclist and competing at the Canadian intercollegiate level in rugby, soccer and track and field.
Kevin Kuske is a former German bobsledder who competed from 1999 to 2018. Competing in five Winter Olympics, he is the most successful Olympic athlete in bobsledding, winning four gold medals and two silver medals.
Steven Paul Holcomb was an American bobsledder who competed from 1998 until his death in 2017. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, he won the four-man bobsled event for the United States, its first gold medal in that event since 1948. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, he finished second in both the four-man and two-man event.
Kaillie Humphries is a Canadian-American bobsledder. Representing Canada, she was the 2010 and 2014 Olympic champion in the two-woman bobsled and the 2018 Olympic bronze medalist with brakewoman Phylicia George. With her victory in 2014, she became the first female bobsledder to defend her Olympic title and was named flagbearer for the Olympic closing ceremony with brakewoman Heather Moyse.
The United States participated in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The U.S. team had a historic Winter Games, winning an unprecedented 37 medals. Team USA's medal haul, which included nine gold, marked the first time since the 1932 Lake Placid Games that the U.S. earned more medals than any other participant.
Nick Cunningham is an American bobsledder who has competed since 2008. Nick Cunningham is a Sergeant in the New York Army National Guard in the 1156 Engineering Company, Vertical, and his job is a Construction and Masonry Engineer. Cunningham graduated from Monterey Peninsula College in 2005 and Boise State University in 2008 with a degree in Communications. While at BSU he was an elected team captain for the track team. Cunningham also holds a master's degree in Athletic Coaching Education from Ohio University. When he is not bobsledding, Cunningham enjoys football, track, surfing, and rodeo. His favorite sliding memory is accepting his first gold medal and standing on top of the podium with the National Anthem being played. Cunningham made the official switch from the back of the sled to the driver's seat in 2010 and has been consistent National Team driver for the U.S. program. Coaches expect Cunningham to be vying for a spot on the 2018 Winter Olympic Team.
Latvia competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, from 7 to 23 February 2014. The Latvian team consisted of 58 athletes in nine sports. These were the third consecutive games the country qualified to send 58 athletes.
Laura Nolte is a German bobsleigh pilot, who began competing for the national team in 2015 and won the gold medal in the two-woman bobsleigh event at the 2022 Winter Olympics, becoming the youngest in bobsleigh history to win the title. In 2023 she has become the first European to win the Monobob World Champion title at the Sankt Moritz World Championships, while being also the winner of the 2023 European Monobob Champion title in Altenberg, Germany. In 2021, she won the gold medal in the two-woman event at the IBSF European Championships 2021 held in Winterberg, Germany. In the same season, she also won the gold medal in the two-woman event at the IBSF Junior World Championships 2021 held in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
The two-woman competition in bobsleigh at the 2022 Winter Olympics was held on 18 February and 19 February, at the Xiaohaituo Bobsleigh and Luge Track in Yanqing District of Beijing. Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi of Germany won the event, the first Olympic medal for them. Mariama Jamanka and Alexandra Burghardt, also of Germany, won the silver medal, and Elana Meyers Taylor and Sylvia Hoffman, of the United States, bronze.
The four-man competition in bobsleigh at the 2022 Winter Olympics was held on 19 February and 20 February, at the Xiaohaituo Bobsleigh and Luge Track in Yanqing District of Beijing. Francesco Friedrich, Thorsten Margis, Candy Bauer, and Alexander Schüller of Germany won the gold medal, and Friedrich thereby successfully defended his 2018 Olympic title. Germany-2 driven by Johannes Lochner won the silver medal, and Canada-1, driven by Justin Kripps, won the bronze.
The women's monobob competition in bobsleigh at the 2022 Winter Olympics was held on 13 February and 14 February, at the Xiaohaituo Bobsleigh and Luge Track in Yanqing District of Beijing. This was the inaugural monobob competition at the Olympics. Kaillie Humphries of the United States won the event. She was the 2018 two-woman bobsleigh champion, but at that time she represented Canada. Elana Meyers Taylor, also of the United States, won the silver medal, and Christine de Bruin of Canada bronze, her first Olympic medal.
The women's competition in skeleton at the 2022 Winter Olympics will be held on 11 February and 12 February, at the Xiaohaituo Bobsleigh and Luge Track in Yanqing District of Beijing. Hannah Neise of Germany became the Olympic champion. Jaclyn Narracott of Australia won silver, and Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands bronze. For all of them these were their first Olympic medals, moreover, Narracott's and Bos's medals were the first Olympic medals in skeleton for Australia and the Netherlands. Bos's bronze was the first medal for Netherlands in an ice sport that doesn't involve any type of skating.
The Romanian national bobsleigh team represents Romania in international bobsledding competitions.
