The Winter Olympic Games in pictures from the GNM Archive

The Olympic look in Grenoble: a decorated cable car, 30 January 1968. France was the host nation for the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, the second time the country had hosted the Winter Games Photograph: Guardian

Olympic flags line this main street in Grenoble ahead of the start of the Games, 30 January 1968. These were the first Winter Olympics Games to be broadcast in colour Photograph: Guardian

The 1500 metre bobsled run at Alpe d’Huez, 29 January 1968. Preparations well under way for the opening of the Grenoble Games on February 6. The ski runs were at Chamrousse and the bobsleigh run at Alpe d’Huez
Photograph: Frank Martin for the Guardian

Two-man bob team in practice on the run at Alpe d’Huez - 40 miles east of Grenoble
Photograph: Bryn Campbell for the Observer

British skiers Divina Galica and Gina Hathorn relax ahead of the start of the Grenoble Games, 2 February 1968. Hathorn missed out on a bronze medal in the women’s slalom by a fraction of a second. Galica competed in the Winter Olympics for Britain in 1964, 1968 and 1972, leading the British ski team as captain on the latter two occasions. She hung up her poles following the 1972 Sapparo Games and later took up a second career in motorsport. She returned to the Winter Games in 1992 competing for Britain in speed skiing
Photograph: Bryn Campbell for the Observer

A skier tackles the snow on the slopes of Chamrousse, February 1968. The ski resort hosted the six alpine skiing events at the Grenoble Winter Olympics
Photograph: Bryn Campbell for the Observer

Jean-Claude Killy, December 1991. French-hero Jean-Claude Killy was the most successful skier of his generation. He won gold medals in all three Alpine skiing events at the 1968 Games – only the second skier ever to do so after Austria’s Toni Sailer in 1956. The slalom completed Killy's treble in Grenoble, but it was not without controversy. Another ski racer posted a better time but was disqualified
Photograph: Mike King for the Observer

British Olympian skier Jeremy Palmer-Tomkinson, 30 December 1966. Palmer-Tomkinson competed at the Winter Olympics in 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1980. Coming from a family of Olympian sportsmen, his father James and brother Charles also competed in ski events
Photograph: Eric Wadsworth for the Guardian

British figure skaters Robin Cousins and Karena Richardson practice, 8 October 1979. Cousins was an Olympic gold medalist in 1980 at the Lake Placid Winter Olympic Games in the United States. Richardson competed twice in the Winter Olympics, in 1976 and 1980
Photograph: Kenneth Saunders for the Guardian

British alpine ski racer Martin Bell, 8 February 1987. Bell competed in four Winter Olympics from 1984 to 1994. He placed eighth in the 1988 Games in Calgary, Canada – the best result for a male skier in British history
Photograph: Matthew Harris for the Observer

Feet first: Annabel Nash slides along on the crest of a run at La Plagne as she prepares to pursue a gold medal in the luge, 8 December 1991. Her father Tony won a celebrated gold medal in the Olympic bobsleigh at Innsbruck in 1964. Organisers of the Innsbruck Games faced a Winter Olympics nightmare in 1964 - a snow shortage. Luckily the Austrian army stepped in, carving snow from the mountains and transporting it to the bodsled, luge venues and the ski slopes
Photograph: Mike King for the Observer

Skiers vied with breathtaking scenery in the 30km classic Nordic race, Albertville, 10 February 1992. The Winter Games returned to France for the third time in 1992. In cross-country skiing, it was a clean sweep for Norway, with Norwegians Björn Daehlie and Vegard Ulvang each winning three gold medals
Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian

Nick Phipps, of the 1992 British bobsleigh team, poses in his sled ahead of the Albertville Games, 2 February 1992. Competing in two Winter Olympic Games, he earned his best finish of 13th in the two-man and four-man events at Albertville
Photograph: Frank Martin for the Guardian

On their way to sixth place after two runs, the crew of the four-man Swiss II tuck in under the ice wall at Lillehammer in 1994 - the first and only times the Olympic Winter Games were staged two years apart. In 1986 the IOC voted to change the schedule of the Olympic Games so that the Summer and Winter Games would be held in different years. To adjust to this new schedule, the Lillehammer Games were held in 1994
Photograph: Norman Lomax for the Observer

Speed skater Nicky Gooch competes in the short track event at the Hamar Olympic Amphitheatre during the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics. Gooch competed in four Olympics Games. His final appearance was in 2002 at the Salt Lake City Olympic Games
Photograph: Norman Lomax for the Observer