1998 Winter Paralympics

The , the seventh Paralympic Winter Games, were held alongside the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, from 5 to 14 March 1998. They were the first Paralympic Winter Games to be held in Asia. 571 athletes competed in Nagano; as of 2022 it remains the highest number of athletes competing at any Winter Paralympics.

The bidding board was chaired by the president of the Japan Sports Association for the Physically Disabled and consisted of 13 committee members and two observers.

On June 25, 1993, the Nagano City Council passed a resolution to host the Winter Paralympic Games, and around the same time, the prefectural assembly and the relevant town and village assemblies also passed resolutions to host the games, and preparations for hosting the games began in earnest. The Nagano Winter Paralympic Games Promotion Council submitted an application to the IPC to host the games on July 23 of the same year, and on September 10, at the 4th IPC General Assembly held in Berlin, Nagano was selected as the host city for the 1998 Winter Paralympic Games. However, the city would still have to wait 6 months for the host city contract to be signed. Something that happened on March 7, 1994, when there were 3 days left before the opening ceremony of the 6th edition, which would be held in Lillehammer, in Norway. It was created by Sadahiko Kojima.

A nationwide competition was held among students to decide on the name, which drew 10,057 entries suggesting 3,408 different names.

Torch Relay

The torch for the Nagano Paralympics was lit by japanese traditional methods on February 25, 1998 at Yoyogi Park Stadium, in Tokyo as legacy sign from the 1964 Summer Paralympics. After stops in Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Aichi Prefecture, Nagoya City, and Gifu Prefecture, the torch arrived on Nagano prefecture in Iida on February 26, where it was split in two. From there, it was carried to Nagano City by 125 relay teams from all cities, towns, and villages in the prefecture in two routes, from east and west. The flames were gathered at Nagano Central Square on March 4, evening, the day before the opening ceremony.The final stage began in the morning of the next day, when 24 teams made up of 3 people took turns until the evening of that day when the torch arrived at night during the opening ceremony being held on M-Wave.Two pyres were built for the Games. One was the stage cauldron for the opening ceremony and another was permanent who burned until the end of the Games. A total of 754 relay runners covered 118.1km during the torch relay.

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony was held at M-Wave from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm on March 5. Based on the theme of "HOPE," and was inspired by a painting by George Frederic Watts. The theme also signifies it was the first Winter Paralympics held in Asia and the last Paralympics of the 20th century.The ceremony was divided into two parts, a ceremony and a festival, and "fire (the Paralympic flame)" appeared as an important motif. It was an inspiring opening ceremony attended by approximately 1,150 athletes and officials, and approximately 7,700 spectators. The producers in charge of the production were Nagano-born composer Joe Hisaishi (general producer) and four others.The first part of the ceremony was the protocol: overture and fanfare, entrance of the athletes, speech by the president of NAPOC, opening declaration, entrance and hoisting of the IPC flag, entrance and lighting of the torch, oath of athletes and judges, and playing of the national anthem. The second part of the ceremony was performed in the following order: Hope (Hoshi no Sato), Fire (Hino Sato), Chaos (Kontono), Finale (Tabidachi) . To allow the flame to burn continuously, people associated with the Dosojin Fire Festival lit the cauldron outside the stadium.As the Olympic Games,smaller cauldrons were also lit in Yamanouchi and Nozawaonsen .

Closing Ceremonies

The closing ceremony of the Nagano Paralympics was held at M-Wave from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. on March 14, 1998. The theme of the event was "Hope and Legacy," and was directed and created by actor Mansaku Nomura, who developed an event in which arts from across Asia and Japan mixed elements of Noh and Kyogen, two of the four forms of classical Japanese theater, and it was structured without distinguishing between a ceremony and a festival, with a new performing art " in a traditional Dengaku event " With the participation of about 1,150 athletes and officials, and about 8,000 spectators, the ceremony proceeded solemnly and movingly in the following order: entry of the athletes, raising of the national flags, dragon dance, and the protocol segments.The ceremony ended with the extinguishing of the Paralympic cauldron to the sound of "Ue o Muite Arukō" by Susan Osbourne.

It is noteworthy that the organizers of the Games, during the pre-production of the ceremony, asked by the official website, newspapers and the television to the Japanese population to send Orizuru made of paper to decorate the M-Wave as a wish of good luck for the future of the Paralympic Games. The paper crane is one of the best known of traditional symbols. The initial target of a million was quickly passed and the stadium was decorated with 7.5 million cranes from 350,000 groups and individuals.

Nagano City

M-Wave – opening/closing ceremonies, ice sledge racing
Aqua Wing Arena – ice sledge hockey

Hakuba

Happo'one Resort: Alpine skiing (Downhill and Super-G)
Snow Harp, Kamishiro: Cross-country skiing

Nozawaonsen

Nozawa Onsen Ski Resort: Biathlon

Yamanouchi

Mount Higashidate: Alpine skiing (giant slalom)
Mount Yakebitai, Shiga Kogen Resort: Alpine skiing (slalom)

Calendar

In the following calendar for the 1998 Winter Paralympics, each blue box represents an event competition. The yellow boxes represent days during which medal-awarding finals for a sport were held. The number in each yellow box represents the number of finals that were contested on that day.

(8)
(4)
(34)
(5)
(3)
(33)
(6)
(3)
(15)
(21)
(25)
(40)
(21)
(2)
(21)
(67)
(1)
(4)
(3)
(5)
(43)
(26)
(35)
(18)
(1)
(1)
(14)
(24)
(19)
(11)
(49)

References

External links

International Paralympic Committee
The event at SVT's open archive
The event at Nagano Shinano Mainich Shimbun