1960 Winter Olympics: History and Background

The 1960 Winter Olympics (officially the VIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Squaw Valley 1960) were a winter multi-sport event held from February 18 to 28, 1960, at the Squaw Valley Resort (now known as Palisades Tahoe) in Squaw Valley (now known as Olympic Valley), California, in the Lake Tahoe area of the United States. The resort was chosen to host the Games at the 1956 meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Squaw Valley was an undeveloped resort in 1955, so the infrastructure and all of the venues were built between 1956 and 1960 at a cost of US$80,000,000 (equivalent to $870,641,170 in 2025). The layout was designed to be intimate, allowing spectators and competitors to reach most of the venues on foot.

The 1960 Winter Games hosted athletes from 30 nations, competing in four sports and 27 events. Biathlon and women's speed skating made their Olympic debuts. Bobsled was not on the Winter Olympic program for the only time; the organizers had decided the events did not warrant the cost of building a bobsled venue after a poll indicated that only nine countries were planning to participate. These Olympics became the first to be televised live, making them accessible to millions of viewers in real time, and introduced multiple technological innovations, including instant replay.

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