Cyprus at the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1980. At the time of the Salt Lake City Olympics, no Cypriot athlete had ever won a medal. They would win their first medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. This was their seventh appearance at a Winter Olympic Games. The 2002 Winter Olympics were held from 8–24 February 2002; a total of 2,399 athletes representing 77 National Olympic Committees took part. The only athlete sent by Cyprus to Salt Lake City was an alpine skier, Theodoros Christodoulou. He was the flag bearer for both the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony. Theodoros Christodoulou was 24 years old at the
Winter Olympic Games not enough snow to hold all the events until mid-January. Sonja Henie defended her Olympic title, and Eddie Eagan of the United States, who had been an Olympic champion in boxing in 1920, won the gold medal in the men's bobsleigh event to become the first, and so far only, Olympian to have won gold medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics. The German towns of Garmisch and Partenkirchen joined to organise the 1936 edition of the Winter Games, held on 6–16 February. This was the last time the Summer and Winter Olympics were held in the same country