Venues of the 1976 Winter Olympics to move the 1976 Winter Games to Salt Lake City, Utah. Denver withdrew their bid in November 1972, resulting in the IOC reopening up the bid for the 1976 Games. Besides Innsbruck, other cities who bid were Salt Lake City, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Chamonix, and Lake Placid, New York. Innsbruck was awarded the 1976 Games by the IOC on 4 February 1973. Before Innsbruck was awarded the 1976 Winter Games, the venues used were in the process of being expanded. Patscherkofel's downhill run was widened in 1971. Axamer Lixum's course proposed originally for the 1964 Winter Games was used for both men's
1960 Winter Olympics from the United States won an improbable gold medal, defeating the favored Canadian and Soviet teams, who took silver and bronze respectively. This was the first Olympic gold medal in ice hockey for the United States and it would mark the last time a Soviet team did not win the Olympic tournament until the United States victory at the 1980 Winter Olympics. There were six cross-country skiing races at the 1960 Olympics, four for men and two for women, all held at the McKinney Creek Cross-Country Complex. Soviet women swept the 10 kilometer race, which was the first medal sweep