Winter Olympic Games alternating even-numbered years. Lillehammer is the northernmost city to ever host the Winter Games and it was the second time the Games were held in Norway, after the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia made their Olympic debuts. The women's figure skating competition drew media attention when American skater Nancy Kerrigan was injured on 6 January 1994, in an assault planned by the ex-husband of opponent Tonya Harding. Both skaters competed in the Games, but the gold medal was controversially won by Oksana Baiul who became Ukraine's first Olympic
Tonya Harding not for the scandal. The media frenzy continued on February 17, when Nancy Kerrigan and Harding shared the ice at a practice session in the Hamar Olympic Amphitheatre. Approximately 400 members of the press were there to document this practice. Scott Hamilton believed the sport was depicted as a "tabloid event." It was noted that Nancy Kerrigan chose to wear the same skating costume at the practice session that she was wearing on January 6. Kerrigan later confirmed that her choice of dress that day was deliberate: "Humour is good, it's empowering." The tape-delayed broadcast of the February 23 Ladies'