Medal Standings   Gold Silver Bronze Total Russian Federation 11 8 4 23 Norway 10 11 5 26 Germany 9 7 8 24 Italy 7 5 8 20 U.S.A. 6 5 2 13 Korea 4 1 1 6 Canada 3 6 4 13 Switzerland 3 4 2 9 Austria 2 3 4 9 Sweden 2 1 0 3 CANADIAN MEDAL WINNERS Medal Event Myriam Bedard Gold 15km Biathlon 7.5km Biathlon Jean-Luc Brassard Gold Freestyle Moguls Elvis Stojko Silver Figure Skating Philippe Laroche Silver Freestyle Aerials Men's Team Silver Ice Hockey Susan Auch Silver 500m Speedskating C.Boudrias/I.Charest/ A.Cutrone/S.Daigle/N.Lambert Silver 3,000m Short Track Relay Ed Podivinsky Bronze Downhill Skiing Isabelle Brasseur / Lloyd Eisler Bronze Pairs Figure Skating Lloyd Langlois Bronze Freestyle Aerials Marc Gagnon Bronze 1,000m Short Track

In 1986 the IOC voted to change the schedule of the Olympic Games so that the Summer and Winter Games would be held in different years. This was done in order to avoid the perception that the Winter Olympics were simply a prelude to the "real" games in the summer. To adjust to this new schedule, the Lillehammer Games were held in 1994, the only time that two Games have been staged two years apart. Despite the short turnaround, the 1994 Games were extremely well organized and the Norwegian host's natural love of winter sports added a refreshing purity of spirit.

The host nation led the way in the medal tally with a total of 26 including three gold from local hero Johan Olav Koss. The man nicknamed "King Koss" took first in the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 metre races, setting world records in all three disciplines.

Vreni Schneider won a complete set of medals in alpine skiing and Manuela Di Centa was the biggest winner of the Games, winning five medals in cross-country skiing. Russian nordic skier Lyubov Egorova won three more golds and a silver to bring her total to a record-tying six golds.

Bonnie Blair, who announced that she would retire from competition after the Olympics, won two more gold medals to run her total to a record-tying five. The most emotion-packed victory, though, was American Dan Jansen's victory in the 1,000-meter event in world record time. Jansen had failed to win a medal in three previous Olympics and he appeared destined to fail again after falling in the 500 metre race.

Controversy struck the American figure skating team prior to the start of the games when gold medal favourite Nancy Kerrigan was attacked two days before the U.S. championships. Kerrigan was unable to compete after suffering a knee injury when she was struck on the leg by a club from an unknown assailant. It was eventually learned that the ex-husband of rival Tonya Harding masterminded the attack and that Harding herself had knowledge of the conspiracy. The IOC attempted to prevent Harding from participating in the Olympics but the threat of a lawsuit saw them back down at the last minute. Both women were allowed to compete and Kerrigan went on to win a silver medal while Harding finished eighth.

Myriam Bedard, who surprised everyone with a bronze medal four years earlier in the sport of biathlon, became the first North American to win a gold medal in the sport by winning both the individual races.

Short Track Speed Skating and Freestyle Skiing - two "fringe" sports recently added to the Olympic schedule - accounted for six of Canada's 13 medals. The Quebec Air Force was led by Jean-Luc Brassard who captured gold in the Moguls event while teammates Philippe Laroche and Lloyd Langlois took silver and bronze respectively in Aerials.

Canada's final medal of the Games came on the final day of competition. Canada's national hockey team, led by Tom Renney and featuring future NHL stars Paul Kariya and Petr Nedved, finished second in group B in the round robin portion of the tournament. That earned them a quarterfinal date against the Czech Republic, which they won 3-2 in overtime. In the semifinals, Canada prevailed 5-3 against Finland to set up a gold medal showdown against Sweden. The Swedes had never won Olympic gold while Canada was looking to end a 42 gold medal drought.

Trailing 1-0, Canada finally broke through Swedish netminder Tommy Salo, scoring twice in three minutes to take a 2-1 lead with just over eight minutes left to play. But with 2:10 left to play, defenceman Brad Werenka was called for a penalty against Mats Naslund, giving the Swedes a golden opportunity to tie the game. They wasted little time, tallying the equalizer just 21 seconds into the man-advantage. Overtime failed to solve anything and for the first time since the shootout format was adopted in 1988, it would determine the Olympic champion. Four years ago, Canada used the shootout to its advantage in the quarterfinals.

Canada elected to go with Kariya, Nedved, Dwyane Norris, Greg Parks and Greg Johnson as its five shooters. With the score still tied, the format switched to sudden death. Sweden's Magnus Svensson and Canada's Nedved each had their shots blocked. Peter Forsberg was next. With the crowd screaming, he took the puck at center ice and came bearing down on Canadian goalie Corey Hirsch. Just as he neared the crease, he hesitated and when Hirsch flinched, stickhandled the puck right, then left, then right again before sliding an agonizingly slow backhand along the ice, just under the goaltender's glove.

It was now up to Kariya, who had scored in his first attempt, to extend the shootout. Kariya skated in and floated a shot toward the high right corner which Salo slapped out of the air, ending the game and giving Sweden the gold medal.

For Canada it was their second straight silver medal, not bad for a team some picked to finish as low as seventh.