SPORTS: What were the Nagano Olympics like?

What were the Nagano Olympics like?

The 18th Olympic Winter Games were held in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, from February 7 to 22, 1998. This was the third Olympic Games to be held in Japan, following the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo and the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporo.

Nagano Prefecture, with its prefectural office in Nagano City, is located in the central eastern part of the Chubu district on the main island of Honshu. It's a landlocked prefecture, surrounded all around by eight other prefectures, and lies on the central highlands of Japan, the widest in the Japanese archipelago. Nagano is home to three mountain ranges with peaks rising more than 3,000 meters high--collectively called the Japan Alps and known as "the roof of Japan."

The Olympiad, consisting of 68 events in the seven sports of skiing, skating, ice hockey, bobsleigh, luge, biathlon, and curling, were held in five municipalities: the city of Nagano, the towns of Karuizawa and Yamanouchi, and the villages of Hakuba and Nozawa Onsen.

One theme of the Nagano Olympics was "coexistence with nature." The Nagano Olympics Organizing Committee (NAOC) strove to make the Olympics one in which the natural environment and advanced technology exist side by side.

Since Nagano was the southernmost host city in the history of the Olympic Winter Games, the greatest concern was whether there'd be enough snow. NAOC geared up with the best equipment, so that large portions of the sites, such as the jump hills, could be conditioned with artificial snow.

Despite these worries, the Nagano Olympics were a huge success.

And thanks to the Nagano Olympics, a new Shinkansen ("bullet train") line called the Asama debuted in October 1997. Running as fast as 260 kilometers (161 miles) per hour, the train connects Tokyo and Nagano in as little as 79 minutes.

Before and during the Olympiad, Nagano City was filled with the Olympic spirit. Big flags with symbols of the Olympic Games were displayed inside the JR Nagano Station, and flags of the participating countries and regions outside it. These flags, as well as billboards of Olympic sponsors, also decorated the main streets of Nagano City.

Photos: (Top) The jump hills at Hakuba, and (middle) thousands of spectators watching the outcome of the ski jump events (Hakuba Middle School); (above) an award ceremony at Central Square in Nagano City (Shinonoi Nishi Middle School).