[[File:1998 Winter Olympic Games medals map.png|thumb|right|400px|1998 Winter Olympic Games medals map<br />

Legend:<br />

Gold represents countries that won at least one gold medal<br>

Silver represents countries that won at least one silver medal<br>

Bronze represents countries that won at least one bronze medal<br>

Red represents countries that did not win any medals<br>

Grey represents countries that did not participate]]

thumb|The silver, gold, and bronze medals|alt=Three round medals with blue ribbons hanging in a display. The medals are silver, gold, and bronze from left to right.

The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVIII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event held in Nagano, Japan, from 7 to 22 February 1998. Twenty-four nations earned medals at these Games, and fifteen won at least one gold medal; forty-eight countries left the Olympics without winning a medal. Competitors from Germany earned the highest number of gold medals (12) and the most overall medals (29). With 10 gold medals and 25 overall medals, Norway finished second in both categories. while Bulgaria and the Czech Republic won their first Winter Games gold medals. Azerbaijan, Kenya, Macedonia, Uruguay, and Venezuela competed for the first time, but none of them won a medal. In contrast, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) website reports that 2,176 athletes competed at the Games.

The leading medal winner at the Games was Russian skier Larisa Lazutina, who won five medals, including three golds. The only other athlete to win three gold medals was Norwegian skier Bjørn Dæhlie, who won four medals overall, making him the first Winter Olympian to win twelve career medals, eight of which were gold. Nine other athletes won three medals, including three Germans.|alt=A man wearing a black shirt and hat.]]

right|thumb|The men's [[Ice hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympics|ice hockey gold medal game between Russia and the Czech Republic|alt=A hockey game between two teams; one is wearing red uniforms, and the other has white jerseys, red pants, and blue helmets.]]

thumb|right|German [[Speed skating at the 1998 Winter Olympics|speed skater Claudia Pechstein won a gold medal in the women's 5,000 meters and a silver in the 3,000 meters.|alt=A female speed skater turns around a curve. She is wearing a black and blue body suit.]]

The medal table is based on information provided by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is consistent with IOC conventional sorting in its published medal tables. The table uses the Olympic medal table sorting method. By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won, where a nation is an entity represented by a NOC. The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If teams are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by their IOC country code.

In the two-man bobsleigh competition, a tie meant that two gold medals were awarded, so no silver medal was awarded for that event. A tie for second in the men's Super G skiing competition meant that a pair of silver medals were given out, so no bronze medal was awarded for that event. In the four-man bobsleigh, a tie for third resulted in the awarding of two bronze medals. Due to these ties, the number of gold medals awarded was one more than the number of silver or bronze medals. In snowboarding, Canadian Ross Rebagliati won the gold medal in the men's Giant Slalom, but it was briefly stripped by the IOC after he tested positive for marijuana. After the Canadian Olympic Association filed an appeal, however, the IOC's decision was overturned.

References

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