Medal Standings   Gold Silver Bronze Total USSR 13 6 8 27 East Germany 7 5 7 19 United States 3 3 4 10 Norway 3 3 1 7 West Germany 2 5 3 10 Finland 2 4 1 7 Austria 2 2 2 6 Switzerland 1 3 1 5 Netherlands 1 2 3 6 Italy 1 2 1 4   Canada 1 1 1 3 CANADIAN MEDAL WINNERS Medal Event Kathy Kreiner Gold Giant Slalom Skiing Cathy Priestner Silver 500m Speedskating Toller Cranston Bronze Figure Skating

During the early 1960's, a group of Vancouver businessmen and members of Canada's Olympic Committee formed an association called the Garibaldi Olympic Development Association (GODA) to seek out and develop a site to host a future Winter Olympic Games in Western Canada. It led to the development of the Whistler resort, which opened for skiing in 1966. After losing out to Banff for the Canadian rights to bid for the 1968 and 1972 Games, they were given the goahead to bid for the 1976 Games.

When the International Olympic Committee selected Montreal to host the 1976 Summer Games, it sent a stake through the heart of Canada's other bid as the IOC is loath to give both games to the same country. Vancouver was eliminated in the first round of voting, receiving just nine votes. Many analysts had predicted the 1976 voting would go the other way - that Vancouver-Garibaldi would win the Winter Games and Montreal would lose out to Los Angeles.

The city of Denver was selected to host the 1976 Winter Games. However, no one checked with the residents of Colorado, who were being asked to cough up more money to build the various Olympic facilities. In a binding referendum, voters overwhelmingly rejected the state's plan to spend more of their money, so the Americans were forced to withdraw.

The IOC, caught off guard by this turn of events, approached Innsbruck, Austria who had hosted the games just 12 years earlier. It appeared as though that decision would blow up in the IOC's face as skiers were faced with green slopes in the days prior to the start of the Olympics. The Austrian army was mobilized to truck in tonnes of snow to cover the course.

Austrian hero Franz Klammer laid all the fears to rest by winning the men's downhill on the opening day of competition. Rosi Mittermaier, a 25-year-old West German known as "Mama" to the younger women skiers, was the surprise winner in the downhill and slalom. She was aiming for a third gold medal in the giant slalom when a 19-year-old Canadian put an end to her miracle run. Four years earlier, Kathy Kreiner had managed a 14th place finish in the GS. With Mittermaier poised to claim her third gold medal, Kreiner blazed down the mountain and streaked across the finish line a mere 12-100ths of a second ahead of the German. Mittermaier later remarked, "I didn't lose, I was beaten".

Toller Cranston, who had been Canada's figure skating champion since 1971, captured a bronze while Cathy Priestner was one of five skater to set Olympic records in claiming a silver in the women's 500 metre event.

A new figure skating event, ice dancing, was added to the programme and, like the pairs, it was dominated by Russian couples. For the first time in the history of figure skating, a competitor, Terry Kubicka of the United States, attempted, and succeeded, a dangerous back flip.

With Canada failing to field an ice hockey team, the Soviet Union continued its dominance of the sport, winning gold for the fourth straight Games. The Soviets went 5-0 with the only serious challenge coming from Czechoslovakia in the final game of the tournament, which the Russian's won 4-3. The Czechs settled for silver with West Germany taking the bronze.