1994 Winter Olympics opening ceremony

Part of a series on
1994 Winter Olympics
Bid process Venues Mascots Opening ceremony (flag bearers) Medal table (medalists) Closing ceremony () Paralympics (medal table) IOC NOC LOOC
v t

The 1994 Winter Olympics opening ceremony took place on 12 February 1994 at Lysgårdsbakken in Lillehammer, Norway.

Ceremony[]

Artistic content was made to present a range of Norwegian culture, included Sami joik, Telemark skiing, fiddlers and folk dancing,^[1] simulations of traditional weddings and their processions, and vetter from Norse mythology.^[2] The ceremony was hosted by an actress Liv Ullmann and explorer and sailor Thor Heyerdahl, 79 years old at the time.^[3] After speeches by LOOC President Gerhard Heiberg and IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, the games were officially declared opened by King Harald V.^[4] The Olympic Flame was to be carried by a skier down the ski jump before lighting the cauldron. Originally this task had rested upon Ole Gunnar Fidjestøl, but after he was injured in a practice jump, his back-up  [no] received the honour. The cauldron was lit by Crown Prince Haakon Magnus. The Olympic oaths were issued by Vegard Ulvang for the athletes and Kari Kåring for the officials.^[5] Finnish Sami poet Nils-Aslak Valkeapää performed at the opening ceremony.

On the day of the opening ceremonies, art thieves stole Edvard Munch's masterpiece The Scream from the National Museum in Oslo.

TV coverage[]

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Hove-Ødegård, Arne; Celius, Sten; Brun, Ivar Ole (2004). "An Olympic Fairy Tale". Lillehammer Municipality. Archived from the original on 12 December 2010. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
• Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee. "1994 Winter Olympics Report, volume I" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
• Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee. "1994 Winter Olympics Report, volume II" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
• Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee. "1994 Winter Olympics Report, volume III" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
• Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee. "1994 Winter Olympics Report, volume IV" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 10 December 2010.