The 1968 Winter Olympics, officially known as the X Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event held in Grenoble, France, from 6 to 18 February 1968. A total of 1,158 athletes representing 37 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated, including first-time entrants Morocco.[1][2] The games featured 35 events in 6 sports and 10 disciplines.[3][4] The team relay event in biathlon was contested for the first time.[5]
| 1968 Winter Olympics medals | |
|---|---|
| Location | Grenoble,  France |
| Highlights | |
| Most gold medals |  Norway (6) |
| Most total medals | Norway (14) |
| Medalling NOCs | 15 |
Fifteen NOCs won at least one medal, and thirteen of them secured at least one gold. East and West Germany entered separate teams for the first time,[6] ending a run of three straight editions (1956–1964) in which German athletes participated as a single team. Victories by Thomas Köhler and Klaus-Michael Bonsack (luge doubles), and by Franz Keller (Nordic combined), resulted in the first Winter Olympics gold medals for East and West Germany, respectively.[7][8] Czechoslovakia also got its first-ever gold at the Winter Games, thanks to a successful combination of ski jumps by Jiří Raška in the normal hill (70 m) event.[9] In Grenoble, Romania won its first medal at the Winter Games, as Ion Panţuru and Nicolae Neagoe secured the bronze in bobsleigh's two-man event.[10]
Toini Gustafsson, a Swedish cross-country skier, contributed three of her NOC's eight medals, including two of its three golds, with victories in both women's individual events and a runner-up place in the team relay.[11] Among individual participants, French alpine skier Jean-Claude Killy had the most gold medals with three, having swept men's alpine skiing events.[12]
Medal table
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The medal table is based on information provided by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is consistent with IOC conventional sorting in its published medal tables. The table uses the Olympic medal table sorting method. By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won, where a nation is an entity represented by a NOC. The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals.[13][14] If teams are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by their IOC country code.[15]
In speed skating, two-way ties for the second place in the men's 500 m and men's 1,500 m events, as well as a three-way tie in the women's 500 m event, resulted in the awarding of an additional four silver medals; as a consequence, three bronzes were not presented.[16]
* Host nation (France)
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Norway | 6 | 6 | 2 | 14 |
| 2 |  Soviet Union | 5 | 5 | 3 | 13 |
| 3 | France* | 4 | 3 | 2 | 9 |
| 4 |  Italy | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 5 |  Austria | 3 | 4 | 4 | 11 |
| 6 |  Netherlands | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
| 7 |  Sweden | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| 8 |  West Germany | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| 9 |  United States | 1 | 5 | 1 | 7 |
| 10 | East Germany | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
 Finland | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | |
| 12 |  Czechoslovakia | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 13 |  Canada | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 14 |  Switzerland | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| 15 |  Romania | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (15 entries) | 35 | 39 | 32 | 106 | |
See also
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References
edit- ^ "Grenoble 1968 Winter Olympics – Athletes, Medals & Results". International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 29 July 2024. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
- ^ "A brief history of African nations at the Winter Olympics". NBC Olympics. Reuters. Archived from the original on 6 June 2023. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
- ^ "Factsheet – The Olympic Winter Games" (PDF). International Olympic Committee. 20 June 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 July 2024. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
- ^ "1968 Winter Olympics Overview". Olympedia. Archived from the original on 15 July 2024. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
- ^ "Biathlon 101: Olympic history". NBC Olympics. 12 October 2021. Archived from the original on 3 October 2023. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
- ^ "1968 Grenoble, France". CBC Sports. 18 December 2009. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
- ^ "East Germany at the 1968 Grenoble Winter Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
- ^ "West Germany at the 1968 Grenoble Winter Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
- ^ "Jiří Raška biography and Olympic results". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
- ^ "Ion Panţuru biography and Olympic results". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
- ^ Olsen, Kirstin (30 June 1994). Chronology of women's history. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 312. ISBN 0-313-28803-8. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
toini gustafsson.
- ^ "Super-star Jean-Claude Killy wins 3rd gold medal in slalom". The Modesto Bee. Associated Press. 18 February 1968. p. B-7. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
- ^ Ostlere, Lawrence (11 August 2024). "Olympic medal table: USA beat China to top spot at Paris 2024". The Independent. Archived from the original on 12 August 2024. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
- ^ Araton, Harvey (18 August 2008). "A Medal Count That Adds Up To Little". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 21 March 2023. Retrieved 25 July 2024.
- ^ Cons, Roddy (10 August 2024). "What happens if two countries are tied in the Olympic medal table? Tiebreaker rules explained". Diario AS. Archived from the original on 11 August 2024. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
- ^ "Speed skating at the 1968 Grenoble Winter Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
External links
edit- "Grenoble 1968". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee.
- "1968 Winter Olympics". Olympedia.com. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
- "Olympic Analytics/1968_2". olympanalyt.com. Archived from the original on 12 September 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
- "1968 Grenoble Winter Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2010.