The XVIII Olympic Winter Games were held from 7 to 22 February 1998 in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the nearby mountain communities of Hakuba, Karuizawa, Nozawa Onsen, and Yamanouchi.
The organizing committee recognized three goals for the games, which they referred to as "Games from the Heart": promote youth participation, coexistence with nature, and create a festival with peace and friendship at its center.
The Downhill, Super-G, and Alpine Combined were held at the Hakuba Happoone Winter Resort, a ski resort located on Mount Karamatsu in Hakuba.
The Alpine Ski technical events were held at Shiga Kogen, a ski resort, located in the Jōshin'etsu-kōgen National Park in the highlands of Yamanouchi, Nagano.
Katja Seizinger led the individual medal table in Nagano 1998, with two gold medals and a bronze, while Hermann Maier was the most successful male skier, with two gold medals.
Katja Seizinger had won the Women's Downhill in Lillehammer in 1994. At the Nagano Winter Games, Seizinger became the first skier, male or female, to win the Olympic Downhill twice. She earned a third gold medal by winning the Alpine combined event. She also earned a bronze medal in the Giant Slalom. She topped off her remarkable season in 1998 by winning the Overall World Cup for the second time.
US Alpine Ski racer Picabo Street won the Super-G at the 1998 Winter Olympics. After a devastating knee injury in 1996, Picabo Street was determined to compete in the upcoming Winter Olympics in 1998. Going into the Olympic Winter Games Nagano 1998, Street had only been back racing for eight weeks and had seen her World Cup ranking drop to 41st. But in Nagano Street delivered one of the best performances of her career beating Austrian Michaela Dorfmeister by just .01 seconds, earning her only Olympic gold medal of her career. Another Austrian, Alexandra Meissnitzer rounded up the podium 0.07 seconds behind Picabo Street.
Italy's Deborah Compagnoni won the gold medal in the Giant Slalom. It was her third gold medal after winning the Super-G event in Albertville in 1992, and the Giant Slalom in Lillehammer in 1994.
Mathilde "Hilde" Gerg from Germany was the Olympic Champion in Slalom in Nagano. He beats Deborah Compagnoni by 0.06 seconds.
Zali Steggall's bronze medal was the first individual medal at the Winter Olympics for Australia. Her bronze medal in Slalom at Nagano 1998 was only the second Winter Olympic medal in Australia’s history, following the bronze won by the Men’s 5000m relay short track speed skating team in 1994.
The spirit of the Games was exemplified by Alpine skier Hermann Maier of Austria. He took a spectacular fall in the Downhill, flying off the slope at 120km/h and remaining air-bound for more than 3.5 seconds. He cemented his legend when he won the Super-G just three days after his horrific crash. He courageously recovered to earn gold medals in both the Super-G and the Giant Slalom.
Jean-Luc Crétier 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.
At age 31, Crétier won the gold medal in the Downhill at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. He was the fourth Frenchman to win the Olympic downhill, but the first in thirty years, since Jean-Claude Killy in 1968.
Norwegian Hans Petter Buraas surprisingly won the gold medal in Slalom at the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, his first win in the Alpine Ski Top competition. On December 2000 he achieved his maiden and only World Cup victory in Sestriere.
Austrian Mario Reiter won the gold medal in the Alpine Combined event. Lasse Kjus finished in second place with Reiter's teammate Christian Mayer rounding up the Olympic podium.
