The Italians had a crack at hosting the 1956 edition, Cortina d'Ampezzo was selected. At the opening ceremonies the final torch bearer, Guido Caroli, entered the Olympic Stadium on ice skates. As he skated around the stadium his skate caught on a cable and he tripped, all but extinguishing the flame, it wasn’t part of the opening ceremony but it certainly went down well.  He was able to recover and light the cauldron albeit red faced. These were the first Winter Games to be televised and had “You’ve Been Framed” been on the schedule, Harry Hill would have made much of it. The 1960 Games went to Squaw Valley, United States. Since the village was underdeveloped there was a rush to construct infrastructure and sports facilities like an ice arena, speed-skating track, and a ski-jump hill. The opening and closing ceremonies were produced by Walt Disney. The Austrian city of Innsbruck was the host in 1964. Although Innsbruck was a traditional winter sports resort, warm weather caused a lack of snow during the Games and the Austrian army was asked to transport snow and ice to the sport venues.

In 1980 there was an unholy row about flags and anthems. The Taiwanese and the Chinese both had the same. The IOC ordered the Taiwanese to think of another tune and put a flag redesign out to tender, bowing to Chinese strong arm tactics no doubt. The plucky Taiwanese refused and boycotted the games and cut off all supplies of plastic toys and souvenirs. Unsurprisingly the Taiwanese returned in 1984, tail between their legs, with a new tune and a new flag. They didn’t like the old tune anyway and they much preferred the pretty colours of the new flag, peace was restored. In 1994 the ex husband of Tanya Harding tried to nobble Nancy Kerrigan, her figure skating nemesis. The story was front page news worldwide with speculation that he got the wrong woman. Drugs and cheating entered the picture too with more and more sophisticated attempts to fool the testers proving successful. 

In 1998 an investigation into bribery by prospective host cities result in ten IOC members being expelled from the committee. The Japanese Organising Comittee for Nagano’s bid did the bribery a little too brown with “astronomical” amounts promised to certain members. Sport did break out occasionally through the years and many memorable performance will live on to be surpassed by more and more astonishing feats of skill and endurance. Who could forget the “Miracle On Ice” when the Americans, with an all but amateur team beat their cold war enemies, the all conquering Russains, 4-3 at Ice Hockey,  in a thrilling final, the shock result of all time. The controversies and scandals only fuel the interest and add spice to an otherwise noble and at heart altruistic sporting bonanza. I will be watching with interest in two weeks time and I only hope the spectre of terrorism doesn’t raise it’s ugly head. The committee and participants can do a pretty good job at sabotage without the help off any outside agent, thank you very much.