Winter Olympics: Memorable moments in the Games' recent history

There was something wonderfully incongruous about Jamiaca entering a four-man bobsleigh team at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Yet, against expectations, they weren't that bad ... Granted, they crashed during one of their runs and had to walk to the finish line, but their explosive starts were commendable and their story so heartening it inspired the movie Cool Runnings
Photograph: Mark Cardwell/AFP/Getty Images

Not every Olympic tale is so heartening ... US skaters Nancy Kerrigan (left) and Tonya Harding (right) were rivals in the run-up to the 1994 Winter Olympics when Harding's partner, Jeff Gillooly, hired an accomplice to smash Kerrigan's knee-cap with a retractable baton. Kerrigan's cries were caught on tape, evoking such sympathy that she was eventually named in the Olympic squad despite her injury preventing her from qualifying. Kerrigan won silver at the Olympics – but the happy ending was spoiled when, prior to the medal ceremony, she was again caught on tape, this time whinging at the amount of time it was taking the gold medallist to do her make-up
Photograph: Gary Hershorn/Reuters

Few finishes to a Winter Olympic event will ever be as close as this one in the 4x10km relay in 1994 ... Bjorn Daehlie of Norway and Silvio Fauner of Italy, the anchor-leg skiers, were separated by the little more than the length of a ski as they crossed the finish line. The seemingly indomitable Daehlie, a legend of multiple Olympics, was beaten by his Italian rival
Photograph: Pascal Rondeau/Getty Images

Who can forget Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's gold-medal winning interpretation of Bolero in 1984? The routine transcended the world of skating and made them the idols of the British nation, for a while at least
Photograph: Getty Images

The look on Australian Steven Bradbury's face said it all - he couldn't believe it, nor could anyone else. Bradbury had just won the 1,000m race at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, relying on little more than his own ineptitude to see him through. Bradbury couldn't keep pace with his rivals, which he knew, but when they all crashed ahead of him on the final bend Bradbury claimed the gold medal
Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

Many Americans consider this to be one of the country's finest sporting moments – a game that has gone down in history as much for the immortal words 'do you believe in miracles?' of commentator Al Michaels as for the shock of the result. The US team, comprising amateur and collegiate players, beat the favourites, the USSR, 4-3 and went on to win gold at Lake Placid in 1980
Photograph: Steve Powell/Getty Images

Allegations of corruption were rife when Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won gold in the figure skating at Salt Lake City, despite everyone being able to see that Canadians Jamie Salé and David Pelletier had performed the better routine. The Canadians protested – the Americans joined their cause – and the duos were eventually made joint winners
Photograph: Henri Szwarc/Getty Images

To some he was an enigma, to others simply an idiot. Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards was, at least, the hero of the 1988 Games – his spectacularly hopeless attempts in the 70m and 90m ski jump captured the public's imagination. He finished last in both events
Photograph: Allsport

Eddie 'The Eagle' might not have come a cropper, but Austria's Hermann Maier certainly did. His spine-crunching tumble during the downhill race in Hakuba in 1998 looked impossible to survive. Yet Maier not only survived, he won gold in the SuperG and giant slalom later that week
Photograph: Robert Sullivan/AFP

Winning a gold medal meant more to American Dan Jansen than to perhaps any other athlete to have competed at the Winter Olympics. A fine speed skater, he raced in the immediate wake of his sister's death from leukemia in 1988, but failed to win gold. Four years later he again floundered. And when he blew his chance in the 500m at the 1994 Games, everyone thought his bid was doomed ... But Jansen clinched gold in the 1,000m and fulfilled his dream
Photograph: Getty Images