1960 Winter Olympics

The 1960 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VIII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event held between 18 and 28 February 1960 in Squaw Valley, California, United States. In 1955 at the 50th IOC meeting, the organizing committee made the surprise choice to award Squaw Valley as hosts for the 1960 Winter Games. Squaw Valley was mostly undeveloped, so from 1956 to 1960 all of the venues and infrastructure had to be built or improved at a cost of $80,000,000. The Games featured the first athlete's village and was designed to be intimate, allowing spectators and athletes the ability to walk to nearly all the venues. The opening and closing ceremonies were produced by Walt Disney and televised by CBS. The 1960 Games were the first to have television broadcast rights sold to the highest bidder. It was the first time in 28 years that an Olympic Games had been held in North America.

Thirty nations and 665 athletes competed in four sports and 27 events. Women's speed skating and biathlon made their Olympic debuts. The organizers decided the bobsled events did not warrant the cost to build a venue, so for the first and only time bobsled was not on the Winter Olympic program. The Soviet Union dominated the medal count winning 21 medals, 7 of which were gold. Soviet speed skaters Yevgeny Grishin and Lidiya Skoblikova were the only multiple gold medalists. Swedish lumberjack Sixten Jernberg added a gold and silver to the 4 medals he won at the 1956 Winter Games. He would win three more in 1964 to finish his Olympic career with 9 medals, becoming the most decorated Winter Olympian to date.

World politics affected the lead-up to the Games, with tension between the United States and Soviet Union intensifying, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was forced to debate the participation of China, Taiwan, North Korea and East Germany because of the Cold War. In 1957 the United States government threatened to deny visas to athlete from Communist countries, causing the IOC to threaten to revoke Squaw Valley's right to host the 1960 Games. Bowing to international pressure, the United States allowed athletes from Communist countries entry for the Games.