The XIX Olympic Winter Games were held from 8 to 24 February 2002 in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. 2,399 athletes from 78 nations, participated in 78 events in 15 disciplines.
There was a scandal involving allegations of bribery used to win the rights to the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Before its successful bid, Salt Lake City had attempted four times to secure the games, failing each time. In 1998, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) members were accused of taking gifts from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) during the bidding process. The allegations resulted in the expulsion of several IOC members and the adoption of new IOC rules.
The Alpine Skiing events were held in three different venues in Salt Lake in 2002.
Snowbasin hosted the Downhill, Super-G, and Alpine Combined events at the 2002 Winter Games.
Park City Mountain Resort hosted the Men's and Women's Alpine Giant Slalom events.
Deer Valley was also a venue site for Alpine Skiing during the 2002 Winter Olympics, hosting the Slalom events.
At 16, Janica Kostelic competed in her first Winter Games in Nagano. Two years later, in 2001 she won the overall World Cup title.
At the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, Kostelic shined. A few months before the Salt Lake Winter Olympics got underway, the Croatian skier was recovering from surgery on her knee and her chances of even participating looked mighty slim. But by the end of February 2002, Kostelic had carved herself into the record books. She was to become the first woman to win four alpine skiing medals at the same Games, and her three golds were also an unprecedented achievement in the sport.
Firstly, she dominantly won the Alpine Combined event by almost 1.5 seconds. Next, in a very close contest with Italian Daniela Ceccarelli, she finished winning the silver medal in the Super-G. Three days later, she won the Slalom. Finally, she led both runs of the Giant Slalom to earn her third gold medal and her fourth medal in total.
Carole Montillet won the Downhill at the Salt Lake Winter Games. Her victory was her first major triumph and the first alpine gold medal by a Frenchwoman since Marielle Goitschel's slalom gold in Grenoble in 1968. She dedicated the win to her late teammate Régine Cavagnoud, the reigning world champion in Super-G, who died after a training accident less than four months earlier.
Austrian Fritz Strobl was the gold medalist in the Downhill at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, run on the Grizzly course at Snowbasin. Lasse Kjus finished in second place with Stephan Eberharter third.
Kjetil André Aamodt won two Olympic titles in Salt Lake in 2002. He won the gold medal in the Super-G and Alpine Combined events.
At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Stephan Eberharter finished second in the Giant Slalom. Four years later went on to take gold in the same event at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where he also won the bronze medal in the Downhill, and took silver in the Super-G.
Bode Miller first gained widespread recognition after winning two silver medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in the Giant Slalom and Combined events.
Jean-Pierre Vidal won the gold medal in the Slalom in a 1-2 French podium with his teammate Sébastien Amiez in second place. Benjamin Raich rounded up the Slalom Olympic podium.
