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Tuesday, 19 June 2007 |
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The 1964 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IX Olympic Winter Games, were celebrated in Innsbruck, Austria, from January 29 to February 9, 1964. The games included 1091 athletes from 36 nations, and the Olympic Torch was carried by Joseph Rieder, [1] a former alpine skier who had participated in the 1956 Winter Olympics.
The games were affected by the deaths of Australian alpine skier Ross Milne and a British luge slider, during training, and by the deaths, 3 years earlier, of the entire US figure skating team and family members (see: Prior tragedies, below). Games highlights- Lidia Skoblikova takes a full clean sweep in the women's speed skating events, an achievement not matched by a man until Eric Heiden in the 1980 Lake Placid Games.
- Egon Zimmermann of Austria takes the gold medal in the mens downhill alpine skiing event.
- In the 4 man bobsled the Canadian team take the gold medal with a total winning time of 4:14.46.
- Knut Johannesen wins the mens 5,000m in an Olympic record time of 7:38.40.
- The USSR win the games with a total of 11 medals.
Medal count
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
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| 1 |  Soviet Union | 11 | 8 | 6 | 25 | | 2 |  Austria (host nation) | 4 | 5 | 3 | 12 | | 3 |  Norway | 3 | 6 | 6 | 15 | | 4 |  Finland | 3 | 4 | 3 | 10 | | 5 |  France | 3 | 4 | 0 | 7 | | 6 |  United Team of Germany | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | | 7 |  Sweden | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 | | 8 |  United States | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | | 9 |  Netherlands | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | | 10 |  Canada | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
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