# 1998 Winter Paralympics

The 1998 Winter Paralympics (Japanese: 1998年冬季パラリンピック, Hepburn: 1998-Nen Tōki Pararinpikku), 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 2022 it remains the highest number of athletes competing at any Winter Paralympics.

## Bidding Process

When Nagano City was selected as the host city for the 1998 Winter Olympic Games on June 15, 1991, other demands arose, both from the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and from other parties, so that the city could also host what was called "other Olympics" also scheduled for that year.On November 8, 1991, the IPC sent an official document inviting Nagano to host the 8th edition of the Winter Paralympic Games and on July 30, 1992, the Bid Committee for the 1998 Winter Paralympics was launched. The Promotion Council was chaired by the president of the Japan Sports Association for the Disabled, and consisted of 13 committee members and two observers. The head of the welfare department from the Nagano City was appointed, and he was in charge of promoting the bid project.
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.
On November 16, 1993, the Nagano Winter Paralympic Games Organizing Committee (NAPOC) was established, and full-scale activities for hosting the games began. On November 30 of the same year, Nagano City launched the Nagano City Olympic and Paralympic Liaison and Coordination Committee to acting as joint preparations. The committee was chaired by the deputy mayor Tasuku Tsukada, consisted of the heads of related departments within the city government, and had nine divisions, including a public relations division. Despite this, some steps needed to be overcome. On April 1, 1995, a Paralympic Management sector was established within the city Disability Welfare Division in order to carry out operations in a more professional manner.

## Preparations

The same delegation that was in Lillehammer to participate in the signing ceremony of the host city contract in Norway was present at the closing ceremony and received the Paralympic flag from the mayor of Lillehammer on March 19, 1994 and three days later on March 22 of that year, there was an official ceremony to receive the Paralympic flag.This was the first public main event to raise public awareness and understanding of the Games, and the construction of the Paralympic Village in Kawanakajima Imai, to meet the needs of people with disabilities.In addition, various citizen groups promoted projects to create a people-friendly town, where they conducted surveys to find out what problems people with various disabilities face in living a safe and comfortable life, and proposed countermeasures. After that, on June 17, 1996, 600 days before the 1998 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies, a joint management committee in which the common areas of the two events were merged, with the then mayor Tasuku Tsukada assuming the presidency of both and also exercising the coordination and intermediation function and the city divided the work of dispatching staff to the Games into eight departments: general affairs, facilities, environment, culture, spectators, transportation, Olympic venues, and Paralympic venues, and the organizing work started.After this event, the first measure action for the NAPOC was relative to the provide financial assistance, including operating subsidies, amounting to over ¥1.21 billion; second, to have the mayor and other city executives assumed the posts of vice-chairs and organizing committee members of NAPOC and in their respective functions; and third, to dispatch a total of 51 city employees to promote the work of NAPOC both before and after its establishment. In addition to this, 465 long-term and short-term support staff were dispatched to each venue during the Games. Another total of 64 people were dispatched from the Fire Department for acting during the Games.
Is also noted that there was an expansion of several programs designed for the Olympic Games for the Paralympic Games in order to expand the involvement of the local population in relation to the two events: one of them was "One School, One Country" and poster, painting, writing, drawing and slogan competitions for high school students.The "Happy Nagano Campaign" was also held, which included providing free pork soup to the general public and making souvenirs which were being sold to help finance various social projects.The engagement of the local population was so great that other groups and committees were created to provide support in other activities, such as the Nagano Paralympic Countdown Event Executive Committee, and the Nagano Paralympic Games Support Executive Committee. Among them, the "Nagano Para-Volunteer Association" was an organization made up of groups of people with disabilities and the volunteer groups that support them, and attracted attention for its unique activities, mainly in Nagano City, with the goal of "encouraging the Paralympic athletes and raising awareness of people with disabilities from a free perspective as citizens of the host city."It was said that the special ceremonies held at the milestones of 1000 days, 2 years, 500 days, 300 days, 100 days and the 50 days countdown, had the focus to awareness-raising activities were effective in livening up the Games and increasing citizens' sense of participation.The Nagano Public Relations magazine also played a major role in raising awareness of the Paralympics.

### Visual Identity

The philosophy of the Nagano Paralympic Winter Games was "To bring together physically disabled people from around the world, to expand the circle of friendship and international goodwill through sports, a culture shared by all mankind, to discover new possibilities, and to inspire bright hope and courage," and the main slogan of the Games is "Interaction and Inspiration." The another main slogan was chosen through public submissions, and was "Spreading, Communicating, and Rising Emotions," with the sub-slogans "You Shine in the Winter of '98 in Nagano," and "Shining Now, the Joy of Living, and Challenging Nagano." The symbol mark is an abbreviation of the character "Nagano" (cho) and depicts a rabbit running around happily and speedily on the snow and ice, enjoying the sport. The nickname of the mascot, created based on the symbol mark of the Games, was "Parabit."

## Mascot

The 1998 Winter Paralympics Mascot was Parabbit. Parabbit is a white rabbit with one green and one red ear. Parabbit was chosen to complement the logo of the 1998 Winter Paralympics. 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) .

## The cauldron

This was the last time that the organization of the Paralympic Games did not use the official Olympic cauldron, as the locations of the Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies were different. A scenographic cauldron was used during the opening ceremonies and thus, outside the M-Wave the organizers decided to build a second cauldron who reproduced the cauldron that is annually set up in Nozawaonsen village for the Sagichō Fire Festival. 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 most know and 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.

## Sports

The games consisted of 122 events in five sports: alpine skiing, ice sledge hockey, ice sledge racing, and Nordic skiing. The sport of Nordic skiing comprised two disciplines, the biathlon and cross-country skiing.
* Alpine skiing
* Sledge hockey
* Ice sledge racing
* Nordic skiing
** Biathlon
** Cross-country skiing

## Venues

In total seven venues were used at the 1998 Winter Olympics around four cities and towns.

### 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.
| ● | Opening ceremony | ● | Event competitions | ● | Event finals | ● | Closing ceremony |
| March | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | 11th | 12th | 13th | 14th |
| Ceremonies | ● | | | | | | | | | ● |
| Alpine Skiing | | 7 | | 6 | 15 | | 10 | 5 | 11 | 5 |
| Biathlon | | 12 | | | | | | | | |
| Cross-country skiing | | | | 12 | | 15 | | 3 | | 10 |
| Ice sledge hockey | ● | ● | | ● | | ● | | ● | ● | 1 |
| Ice sledge speed racing | | | 8 | | 4 | | 4 | | | |

## Medal table

The top 10 NPCs by number of gold medals are listed below. The host nation (Japan) is highlighted.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Norway | 18 | 9 | 13 | 40 |
| 2 | Germany | 14 | 17 | 13 | 44 |
| 3 | United States | 13 | 8 | 13 | 34 |
| 4 | Japan* | 12 | 16 | 13 | 41 |
| 5 | Russia | 12 | 10 | 9 | 31 |
| 6 | Switzerland | 10 | 5 | 8 | 23 |
| 7 | Spain | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 8 | Austria | 7 | 16 | 11 | 34 |
| 9 | Finland | 7 | 5 | 7 | 19 |
| 10 | France | 5 | 9 | 8 | 22 |
| Totals (10 entries) | Totals (10 entries) | 106 | 95 | 95 | 296 |

## Participants

Thirty-one National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) entered athletes at the 1998 Winter Paralympics. The number in parentheses indicates the number of participants from each NPC.
* Armenia (8)
* Australia (4)
* Austria (34)
* Belarus (5)
* Bulgaria (3)
* Canada (33)
* Czech Republic (6)
* Denmark (3)
* Estonia (15)
* Finland (21)
* France (25)
* Germany (40)
* Great Britain (21)
* Iran (2)
* Italy (21)
* Japan (67)
* Kazakhstan (1)
* South Korea (4)
* Netherlands (3)
* New Zealand (5)
* Norway (43)
* Poland (26)
* Russia (35)
* Slovakia (18)
* Slovenia (1)
* South Africa (1)
* Spain (14)
* Sweden (24)
* Switzerland (19)
* Ukraine (11)
* United States (49)