1976 Winter Olympics

The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games, were held in 1976 in Innsbruck, Austria. The games were originally awarded to Denver, Colorado, United States in May 1970, but a 300 percent rise in costs and worries about environmental impact led to voters' rejection of a $5 million bond issue to finance the games in 1972. As a result, the IOC offered the games to Whistler, British Columbia (Canada), who had bid on the games, but they also declined due to a change of government there. (Whistler would go on to be associated with neighbouring Vancouver's successful bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics.) The IOC finally called on Innsbruck, which had hosted the 1964 Winter Games just twelve years earlier, to also host the 1976 games. Salt Lake City, Utah, which would eventually host in 2002, offered itself as a potential host after the withdrawal of Denver. The IOC declined.

XII Olympic Winter Games

Host city	Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria
Nations	37
Athletes	1,123 (892 men, 231 women)
Events	37 in 6 sports (10 disciplines)
Opening	4 February
Closing	15 February
Opened by	President Rudolf Kirchschläger
Cauldron	Christl Haas Josef Feistmantl
Stadium	Bergisel
Winter
← Sapporo 1972 Lake Placid 1980 →
Summer
← Munich 1972 Montreal 1976 →

1976 Winter Olympics Media

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  View of Bergisel ski jumping hill in Innsbruck (Austria) from the North

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  Pentti Peltoperä and Tuula Vilkas who represented Finland in speed skating events

Other websites

• IOC page for the 1976 Winter Olympics

Olympic Games
Summer Games: 1896, 1900, 1904, 1906, 1908, 1912, (1916), 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, (1940), (1944), 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028
Winter Games: 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, (1940), (1944), 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022
Athens 2004 — Turin 2006 — Beijing 2008 — Vancouver 2010 — London 2012 — Sochi 2014 — Rio 2016 — Pyeongchang 2018 — Tokyo 2020 Games in italics will be held in the future, and those in (brackets) were cancelled because of war. See also: Ancient Olympic Games