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.
Hermann Maier is an Austrian former World Cup champion alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. Nicknamed the "Herminator", Maier ranks among the greatest alpine ski racers in history, with four overall World Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals, and three World Championship titles. His 54 World Cup race victories – 24 super-G, 15 downhills, 14 giant slaloms, and 1 combined – rank third on the men's all-time list behind Ingemar Stenmark's 86 victories and Marcel Hirscher's 67 victories. Until 2023 he held the record for the most points in one season by a male alpine skier, with 2000 points from the 2000 season. From 2000–2013 he also held the title of most points in one season by any alpine skier, until Tina Maze scored 2414 points in the 2013 season.
Martin Schmitt is a German former ski jumper who competed from 1997 to 2014. He is one of Germany's most successful ski jumpers, having won the World Cup twice; a gold medal at the Winter Olympics; four gold medals at the World Championships; and a ski flying world record. His and his countryman Sven Hannawald's success further popularized ski jumping in Germany, and with particular help from cable TV station RTL, their coverage received great acclaim in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Sandis Prūsis is a Latvian bobsleigh coach and former bobsledder. Starting his career in the 1980s, he competed professionally from 1990 to 2003. Competing in three Winter Olympics, he earned his best finish in the two-man event at Nagano in 1998, he got fifth place. Prūsis's best Bobsleigh World Cup finish was second two times, all in the four-man event.
The Men's normal hill individual ski jumping competition for the 2006 Winter Olympics was held in Pragelato, Italy. It began on 11 February, and concluded on 12 February.
Vladimir Mikhaylovich Smirnov is a Kazakh former cross-country skier of Russian descent who raced from the 1982 until 1991 for the USSR and, later, for Kazakhstan. He is the first Olympic champion from independent Kazakhstan and the most decorated Olympian in history of Kazakhstan. He is also a vice president of the International Biathlon Union. Smirnov is a former member of International Olympic Committee.
Tomokazu Myojin is a Japanese former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He played for the Japan national team.
Nenad Stekić was a Serbian and Yugoslav long jumper, best known for his European record of 8.45 metres, second only to Bob Beamon's world record at the time.
Ole Kristian Furuseth is a retired Norwegian alpine skier. He scored his first World Cup victory in Furano in 1989 and his final World Cup victory in Bormio in 2000, and in total he has three World Cup victories in giant slalom and six in slalom. Furuseth won a bronze medal in the slalom competition at the 1991 World Championships in Saalbach, and a silver medal at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano.
Jean-Luc Crétier is a retired French World Cup alpine ski racer. He was one of the four members of the "Top Guns" team, created and trained by Serge Guillaume outside the mainstream of the French Alpine Ski Federation, along with Luc Alphand, Franck Piccard, and Denis Rey.
Keiichiro Nagashima is a Japanese long track speed skater specialising in the sprint distances 500 and 1000 metres. Nagashima has won two World Cup races and has three Japanese domestic titles. He is a member of the Nidec Sankyo speed skating team.
Lee Kyou-hyuk is a South Korean retired long track speed skater who specializes in the 500 and 1,000 meters. He was the 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011 World Sprint Speed Skating Champion and the 2011 World Champion for 500 m. He is one of four men to have won the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships four times.
Andreas "Andi" Schifferer is a former Austrian alpine skier who was known to be a downhill specialist, but also competed in other disciplines.
Martina Zellner-Seidl is a former German biathlete. By the end of her career she had won one Olympic gold and six world championship medals,. In the World Cup she achieved 14 podium places with three victories. The best overall placing she achieved was in the 1997/98 season when she finished third.
Aleksei Gennadyevich Grishin is a Belarusian freestyle skier who competed at five consecutive Olympics from 1998 to 2014. He won Belarus' only medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics, a bronze in aerials. In 2010, he won the first ever Winter Olympics gold medal for his country, again in the aerials. He finished fourth in 2006 and eighth in 1998. He was the Olympic flag bearer for Belarus at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Games.
Brittany Schussler is a Canadian retired speed skater. She was a member of the national speed skating team from 2002 to 2014. Schussler's best individual performance was placing sixth in the 1500 metres at the World Championships in 2008 and she is a three times bronze medallist at the National Single Distance Championships. Her best team performances include a gold medal at a World Cup team pursuit, first place in the World Cup standings for team pursuit in 2008 and a silver medal at the 2008 World Championships in Nagano.
Andreas Wank is a German former ski jumper who competed at World Cup level from 2004 to 2019. He currently works in a supporting role as part of the German national ski jumping team.
Vladimir Zografski, born 14 July 1993 in Samokov, Bulgaria, is a Bulgarian ski jumper. He took 14th place at the normal hill individual event at the 2018 Winter Olympics, which was the best result for a Bulgarian ski jumper in Olympic history, beating Vladimir Breitchev's 19th place at the 1984 Winter Olympics. Zografski is the son of former Olympic ski jumper Emil Zografski.
Valery Vladimirovich Kobelev is a Russian ski jumper.
Brian Stemmle is a Canadian retired skier who competed primarily in the downhill and Super-G disciplines. Stemmle was a member of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team for 14 years and was inducted into the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame in 2002. He appeared at four Winter Olympic Games from 1988 through 1998.
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