The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games, were held in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway. Other possible host cities were Anchorage, Alaska, USA; Östersund/Åre, Sweden; and Sofia, Bulgaria. In 1986, the International Olympic Committee voted to change the schedule of the Olympic Games so that the summer and winter games would be arranged in alternating even-numbered years. Lillehammer won the right to host the event in September 1988 in Seoul before the opening ceremony of the 1988 Summer Olympics. The Lillehammer Games were held in 1994, the only time the Winter Games have occurred two years after the previous games.
The Lillehammer Olympics are notable for being the last Winter Olympic Games to date to have been held in a town (Lillehammer has a population of only 28,000). Later Winter Olympics were held in larger cities, such as Nagano, Salt Lake City, Turin and Vancouver.
