The 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley (Palisades Tahoe)
Researched 8 November 2026 from the IOC and olympics.com, Olympedia, Team USA and the US Hockey Hall of Fame, the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, the Sports Illustrated and TIME archives from 1959 and 1960, NOAA, the US Government Accountability Office, Caltrans, Placer County and Palisades Tahoe. Where good sources disagree, this page says so instead of picking one.
When it opened in 1949, Squaw Valley had one chairlift, two rope tows and a 50-room lodge. Barely ten years later it hosted the world.
The 1960 Winter Olympics were the most improbable Games ever awarded: a Hollywood-staged opening ceremony, the first Olympics on American television, a snow drought that nearly sank everything, and a US hockey team nobody expected to win. Most of what was built is gone. The mountain is not, and you can still ski the courses.
The VIII Olympic Winter Games ran from 18 to 28 February 1960 at Squaw Valley, California, now Palisades Tahoe. 665 athletes from 30 nations competed in 27 events. The Soviet Union topped the medal table; the United States won 10 medals, including golds for Carol Heiss, David Jenkins and the men's hockey team. There was no bobsled, for the only time in Winter Olympic history. Walt Disney staged the opening ceremony.
The Games were held at, and are officially named for, Squaw Valley. The resort retired that name in September 2021 because the word is a slur, and it is now Palisades Tahoe. In 2022 the community was officially named Olympic Valley, after the Games. This page uses Squaw Valley for the historical event and Palisades Tahoe for the place today.
How a one-chairlift resort won the Olympics
Squaw Valley opened on Thanksgiving Day 1949. Its co-founder, Alexander Cushing, entered the race for the 1960 Games in late 1954. By his own later account to TIME, it began mostly as a way to get the resort into the newspapers. He had about six weeks to prepare a bid for the US nomination.
He won it. The US Olympic Committee chose Squaw Valley as the American candidate, ahead of rivals including Reno and Anchorage. That June, at the IOC's 50th Session in Paris, Squaw Valley faced Innsbruck, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and St. Moritz.
The first ballot was Squaw Valley 30, Innsbruck 24, Garmisch-Partenkirchen 5 and St. Moritz 3. On the second ballot Squaw Valley beat Innsbruck 32 to 30.
Cushing's campaign was part salesmanship and part theatre. He wrote personally to voting delegates and shipped a relief model of the valley, 7 feet by 12, to Paris; TIME put its cost at $2,800. IOC president Avery Brundage was not impressed, and reportedly told Cushing he would set the Olympic movement back 25 years.
Building the Games from almost nothing
Winning was the easy part. Squaw Valley had none of the venues, housing, roads or parking an Olympics needs, and Cushing stepped down as president of the organizing committee in December 1955. Prentis C. Hale chaired it from then on.
The money came mostly from the State of California and the federal government, with the State of Nevada and corporate donors contributing. TIME reported in February 1960 that California had already put in $8 million. A federal audit decades later attributed the arena, about $16 million in its accounting, and almost $4 million of military equipment and personnel to the federal government.
Sports Illustrated put the price tag at $15 million in January 1960. The figure of about $80 million that appears in modern sources comes from a 2000 federal audit that generally reports costs in constant 1999 dollars, so it is very likely an inflation-adjusted number rather than what was spent at the time. We would not quote $80 million as a 1960 figure.
| Venue | Used for in 1960 | Today |
|---|---|---|
| Blyth Memorial Arena | Figure skating, ice hockey, ceremonies | Damaged by heavy snow and demolished in 1983; now parking |
| Speed skating oval | Speed skating, on artificially refrigerated ice | Dismantled after the Games; now parking |
| Papoose Peak jumping hill | Ski jumping and the jumping leg of Nordic combined | Dismantled about 20 years after the Games |
| Squaw Peak, KT-22, Little Papoose Peak | Men's downhill (Squaw Peak); women's downhill and men's slalom and giant slalom (KT-22); women's slalom and giant slalom (Little Papoose) | Still skied: the only 1960 competition venues in use today |
| McKinney Creek Stadium, Tahoma | Cross-country, the cross-country leg of Nordic combined, biathlon | Temporary; trails restored for public use in 2010 |
| Olympic Village | Housing for about 1,200 athletes, officials and journalists | Now the Olympic Village Inn, 90 rooms, largely timeshare |
Blyth Memorial Arena seated 8,500, according to olympics.com and contemporary press. New lifts went up on KT-22 and Squaw Peak for the alpine races, and the Games became one of the reasons Interstate 80 was built across the Sierra.
Why there was no bobsled
Only nine nations said they would enter, so the organizers refused to build a run that would not be cost effective for so few competitors. The bobsleigh federation held its world championships in Cortina instead, and 1960 remains the only Winter Olympics without bobsleigh.
The snow scare
For a while it looked as if there would be nothing to ski on. A dry, persistent high-pressure pattern kept the Sierra almost snowless in late 1959; one historian's caption notes there was no snow in the valley seven weeks before the Games. Organizers tried everything, including cloud seeding and a snow dance performed by Native American dancers from western Nevada.
Snow did arrive in January. Then, in early February, warm subtropical storms dropped heavy rain on the valley and pushed snow levels up to about 8,500 feet, threatening the courses and the parking lots. Navy units repacked the damaged parking areas and Army and Marine troops worked to stabilize the ski runs. The Games opened in a blizzard that snarled traffic.
Sources still disagree about the details, including when the snow first came and whether the troops were mostly packing new snow or repairing rain damage. What is not in dispute is that the margin was very thin.
Walt Disney's opening ceremony
The organizing committee made Walt Disney chairman of pageantry, and he was responsible for staging the opening ceremony. Disney's Tommy Walker was pageantry director.
- An 80-foot Tower of Nations carried the crests of the competing nations and served as the backdrop for the daily victory ceremonies.
- Thirty snow sculptures designed by John Hench lined the site, according to the official report.
- A massed band and chorus of California and Nevada high school students performed; TIME counted an orchestra of 1,285 and a chorus of 2,645, while the Walt Disney Family Museum gives different figures.
- The release of "doves of peace" used homing pigeons, according to later accounts, because organizers feared doves would freeze.
Vice President Richard Nixon declared the Games open, and figure skater Carol Heiss took the athletes' oath. The Olympic flame had been lit in Morgedal, Norway, in the hearth of the house where skiing pioneer Sondre Norheim was born, and was relayed by more than 600 torchbearers via Copenhagen and Los Angeles. Skier Andrea Mead Lawrence carried the torch on opening day, and speed skater Ken Henry lit the cauldron after a lap of the ice in front of Blyth Arena.
The results
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soviet Union | 7 | 5 | 9 | 21 |
| 2 | United Team of Germany | 4 | 3 | 1 | 8 |
| 3 | United States | 3 | 4 | 3 | 10 |
| 4 | Norway | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| 5 | Sweden | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
East and West Germany competed together as the United Team of Germany, as they did from 1956 to 1964.
The first US hockey gold, twenty years before the Miracle on Ice
The 1960 US hockey team, coached by Jack Riley, went through the tournament unbeaten, including wins over Canada, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia.
| Date | Round | Opponent | US score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Feb | Preliminary | Czechoslovakia | 7–5 |
| 21 Feb | Preliminary | Australia | 12–1 |
| 22 Feb | Final round | Sweden | 6–3 |
| 24 Feb | Final round | United Team of Germany | 9–1 |
| 25 Feb | Final round | Canada | 2–1 |
| 27 Feb | Final round | Soviet Union | 3–2 |
| 28 Feb | Final round | Czechoslovakia | 9–4 |
Goalie Jack McCartan made 39 saves in the 2–1 win over Canada. Against the Soviet Union, Billy Christian scored the tying goal and then the winner with about five minutes left. In the final game the Americans trailed Czechoslovakia 4–3 going into the third period and scored six unanswered goals, all by the Christian and Cleary brothers, to win 9–4. Bill Cleary led the team with 12 points. It was the first US Olympic gold medal in ice hockey, and later writers took to calling it the original Miracle on Ice.
Figure skating
Americans won both singles titles. Carol Heiss won the women's event and David Jenkins the men's, both as reigning world champions and heavy favorites; four years earlier Heiss had won Olympic silver and Jenkins bronze. Barbara Ann Roles took bronze for the US behind Heiss. Canada's Barbara Wagner and Robert Paul won the pairs.
Alpine skiing
The men's downhill was run on Squaw Peak. The women's downhill and the men's slalom and giant slalom were on KT-22, and the women's slalom and giant slalom on Little Papoose Peak. (Olympedia's own summary puts all the women's races on Little Papoose, but its event page, olympics.com and Sports Illustrated's 1960 report place the women's downhill on KT-22.)
- Men's downhill: Jean Vuarnet, France
- Men's giant slalom: Roger Staub, Switzerland
- Men's slalom: Ernst Hinterseer, Austria
- Women's downhill: Heidi Biebl, Germany
- Women's giant slalom: Yvonne Rüegg, Switzerland
- Women's slalom: Anne Heggtveit, Canada
Vuarnet's downhill was the first Olympic gold won on metal skis. He raced in the low "egg" tuck, which he helped refine and codify; the popular claim that he invented it goes further than the sources. For the US, Penny Pitou won silver in both the downhill and the giant slalom, and Betsy Snite won silver in the slalom.
Nordic skiing and biathlon
Biathlon made its Olympic debut, won by Klas Lestander of Sweden. He was only 15th fastest on the course but hit all 20 targets, and every miss cost two minutes. Helmut Recknagel of Germany won the ski jumping, and Georg Thoma became the first winner of Nordic combined from outside Scandinavia. Finland's Veikko Hakulinen, aged 35, chased down Norway on the final leg to win the men's relay.
Speed skating
Women's speed skating appeared on the Olympic program for the first time, and the Soviet Union's Lidiya Skoblikova won the 1,500 and 3,000 meters, the first in world-record time. Norway's Knut Johannesen broke 16 minutes in the 10,000 meters for a world record of 15:46.6, and Yevgeny Grishin of the Soviet Union and Roald Aas of Norway tied for gold in the 1,500.
The 1960 "firsts," checked
The Squaw Valley Games collect superlatives. Some hold up and some do not.
| Claim | Verdict | What the evidence says |
|---|---|---|
| First Olympics shown on US television | Supported | CBS paid $50,000 for the rights. It was a first for American TV, not the first Winter Games ever televised. |
| First computer to tabulate Olympic results | Supported, narrowly | An IBM RAMAC computer produced results within minutes. Call it IBM's Olympic debut; it was hardware supplied to the organizers. |
| First artificially refrigerated Olympic speed skating track | Supported | Olympedia: the first Olympic speed skating on artificial ice rather than a frozen lake or pond. |
| First women's Olympic speed skating | Supported | First medal events. Women had skated at Lake Placid in 1932, but only as a demonstration. |
| Biathlon's Olympic debut | Supported | Won by Klas Lestander of Sweden. |
| First Winter Olympic Village | Contested | The IOC itself says both: one page credits Squaw Valley, another calls the three villages of Oslo 1952 the first. |
| Instant replay was invented here | Overstated | The IOC says the instant replay was born here, when officials asked CBS to review its tape of the men's slalom for a missed gate. Strictly, that was a tape review after the run, not replay as later broadcast. |
| Only Winter Games without bobsleigh | Supported | Only nine nations signed up, so no run was built. |
The Cold War at Squaw Valley
The Games came at the height of the Cold War. Sports Illustrated reported in February 1960 that the State Department had held up visas for ten East German officials and would not admit a group of East German sportswriters. The Soviet Union won the most medals.
What is left at Palisades Tahoe today
Very little of the 1960 infrastructure survives, but the mountain itself is the main legacy. The alpine courses are the only 1960 competition venues still in use, and the World Cup returned to the same mountain in 2017.
- The Olympic Museum at High Camp covers the 1960 Games with memorabilia, Team USA uniforms and a documentary. It is open when the Aerial Tram is running, and admission comes with a tram ride.
- The Olympic Village survives as the Olympic Village Inn, with 90 rooms, largely run as timeshare.
- Blyth Arena was damaged by heavy snow and demolished in 1983; its site, like the speed skating oval's, is now parking.
- The McKinney Creek cross-country trails near Tahoma were restored for public use in 2010.
- In Tahoe City, the Museum of Sierra Ski History and 1960 Winter Olympics opened in 2013.
Placer County supervisors voted on 22 February 2022 to rename Squaw Valley Road as Olympic Valley Road, and the federal renaming of the community as Olympic Valley was completed on 8 September 2022, according to Placer County.
Will Lake Tahoe host the Olympics again?
Not soon. The Reno-Tahoe Winter Games Coalition decided in November 2018 not to bid for 2030, saying a bid would not be practical financially; the US Olympic Committee said it hoped for future opportunities with the region. In July 2024 the IOC awarded 2030 to the French Alps and 2034 to Salt Lake City-Utah. We found no current, official Tahoe bid for any later Games.
Skiing the 1960 mountain
You can still ski where Vuarnet won the downhill and Heggtveit won the slalom. For tickets, parking reservations, lodging in Olympic Valley and the bases worth knowing, see our Palisades Tahoe guide and where to stay at Palisades Tahoe. For the rest of the region, start with Lake Tahoe ski resorts.
Take a little Palisades history up the chairlift: our Palisades collection.
The 1960 Winter Olympics: frequently asked questions
Where were the 1960 Winter Olympics held?
At Squaw Valley, California, on the north side of Lake Tahoe. The resort was renamed Palisades Tahoe in 2021, and the community around it is now officially called Olympic Valley. Cross-country skiing and biathlon were held about 16 miles south, at McKinney Creek near Tahoma.
When were the 1960 Winter Olympics?
From 18 to 28 February 1960. The opening ceremony was on 18 February and competition ran from 19 to 28 February. They were officially the VIII Olympic Winter Games.
How did Squaw Valley win the 1960 Winter Olympics?
Founder Alexander Cushing entered the race in late 1954, at a resort that had opened in 1949 with a single chairlift, two rope tows and a 50-room lodge. Squaw Valley first won the US nomination, then beat Innsbruck 32 votes to 30 on the second ballot at the IOC Session in Paris in June 1955.
Why was there no bobsled at the 1960 Olympics?
The organizers refused to build a bobsled run because only nine nations said they would enter, and a track was not considered cost effective for so few competitors. That makes 1960 the only Winter Olympics without bobsleigh.
Did the US win the hockey gold medal in 1960?
Yes. Coached by Jack Riley, the US team went unbeaten, beating Canada 2-1, the Soviet Union 3-2 and Czechoslovakia 9-4 in the final round. It was the first US Olympic gold medal in ice hockey, twenty years before the 1980 Miracle on Ice.
What role did Walt Disney play at the 1960 Winter Olympics?
Walt Disney was chairman of the Pageantry Committee and was responsible for staging the opening ceremony. His team created the 80-foot Tower of Nations, a series of snow sculptures, and a massed band and choir drawn from California and Nevada high schools.
Was instant replay invented at the 1960 Olympics?
Not exactly. During the slalom, officials unsure whether a skier had missed a gate asked CBS to let them review its videotape. The IOC says the instant replay was born at that moment, but strictly what happened in 1960 was a review of recorded tape after the run, not replay as later broadcast.
What is left of the 1960 Olympics at Palisades Tahoe today?
The alpine ski runs are the only competition venues still in use. The Olympic Village survives as a 90-room inn, and an Olympic Museum sits at High Camp, reached by the Aerial Tram. Blyth Arena was demolished after snow damage in 1983, and its site and the speed skating oval are now parking.
Related guides
Sources: olympics.com and the IOC (Games facts, bid, venues, torch relay, bobsleigh, instant replay, Olympic Villages, venue legacy); Olympedia (results, ceremonies, the 1955 vote); Team USA and the US Hockey Hall of Fame (1960 hockey team); US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame; Sports Illustrated Vault (January to March 1960 and 1999); TIME (February 1959 and February 1960); the 1960 Final Report pageantry chapter; NOAA National Weather Service Heritage; US Government Accountability Office report GGD-00-183; Caltrans history; Placer County; Palisades Tahoe; Mark McLaughlin's Sierra history writing. Corrections are welcome.