1994 Winter Olympics opening ceremony

1994 Winter Olympics opening ceremony
Part of 1994 Winter Olympics
Date	12 February 1994
Venue	Lysgårdsbakken
Location	Lillehammer, Norway
Coordinates	61°07′32″N 10°29′16″E / 61.1256°N 10.4879°E
Filmed by	1994 Olympic Radio and Television Organisation (NRK ORTO '94)

The opening ceremony of the 1994 Winter Olympics 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 Stein Gruben [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.

^ LOOC (III): 154
^ LOOC (III): 158
^ and, Jere Longman. "WINTER OLYMPICS; Games Open Amid Pomp, Snow and Quiet Culture". The New York Times.
^ LOOC (III): 155
^ LOOC (III): 156

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.