Copyright (c) 1992 Olympics Radio and Television Organization
The 16th edition of these Winter Olympics, held from 8 to 23 February 1992 in and around Albertville - a town in the department of Savoie located in the French alps, heralded the end of an era for the Modern Olympic Games itself. Albertville 1992 was not just the last edition that demonstration sports were included in the Olympic programme, but was also the last time that the Winter Games took place in the same year as the Summer Olympics, as in 1986, the IOC decided to separate both Games and arrange for them to take place in alternating even-numbered years.
Around 1,801 athletes from 64 countries competed, and 57 medal events in 6 sports were contested in the 1992 Games, with freestyle skiing and short-track speed skating being featured for the first time as official Olympic sports, while women's biathlon also had its debut as a medal event.
During the Olympics, newcomers Croatia and Slovenia found their way to the French alps for the first time as independent nations, while the former Soviet republics, reeling from the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, fielded the so-called 'Unified Team' in order to compete. The Games also welcomed back the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; both Estonia and Latvia hadn't participated since 1936, and Lithuania since 1928.
Also, the Albertville Games saw Germany competing for the first time (since the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo) as a unified country. A successful team it was too: They became the big winners of these Winter Games, being the topnotchers of the medal table after collecting 26 medals - 10 of which were gold. The Germans finished ahead of the unified team, which placed second with 9 golds and 23 medals overall, and at third place was Norway, which also grabbed home 9 gold medals, but won only 20 medals of any color.
