Venues of the 2002 Winter Olympics firework display. The Medals Plaza also hosted the Closing Ceremony for the 2002 Winter Paralympics on March 16, 2002. The 2002 Olympic Village was located east of downtown Salt Lake City, at Historic Fort Douglas, on the campus of the University of Utah. Fort Douglas, a U.S. Army base, had been established in 1862 but was closed in 1991; from the earliest stages of Olympic planning the fort was a possible location for the Olympic Village. Following the fort's closure the University of Utah acquired much of its property, and began planning to restore the historic buildings and build new
Winter Olympic Games with the Olympic Charter defining its structure and authority. The original five Winter Olympics sports (broken into nine disciplines) were bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, Nordic skiing (consisting of the disciplines military patrol, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, and ski jumping), and skating (consisting of the disciplines figure skating and speed skating). The Games were held every four years from 1924 to 1936, interrupted in 1940 and 1944 by World War II, and resumed in 1948. Until 1992 the Winter and Summer Olympic Games were held in the same years, but in accordance with a 1986 decision by the IOC to place