1976 Winter Olympics elections. Whistler would go on to be associated with neighbouring Vancouver's successful bid for the 2010 games. Salt Lake City offered to host the games, but the IOC, still reeling from the Denver rejection, declined and selected Innsbruck to host the 1976 Winter Olympics, which had hosted the 1964 Winter Olympics games twelve years earlier, on 5 February 1973. Salt Lake City would then host the Winter Olympics in 2002. The mascot of the 1976 Winter Olympics was "Schneemann", German for "snowman", a snowman in a red Tyrolean hat. Designed by Walter Pötsch, Schneeman was purported to represent the 1976
Australia at the 2002 Winter Olympics Australia with its second gold medal for the games. Steven Bradbury won Australia's and the Southern Hemisphere's first Winter Olympics gold medal in the 1000 metres event. Richard Goerlitz also attended these games, but did not compete. Australia at the 2002 Winter Olympics Australia competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, winning its first two gold medals in the Winter Games. It was the nation's best performance at the Winter Games prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Australia's first ever Winter Olympic gold, also the first such medal won by a competitor