1960 Olympics

The 1960 Winter Olympics, formally known as the VIII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport festival held in Squaw Valley, California, United States from 18–28 February 1960. Squaw Valley was chosen to host the Games at the International Olympic Committee meeting held in 1956. This was an undeveloped property in 1955, and the houses and all the facilities were constructed from 1956 to 1960 at a cost of US$ 80,000,000. It was intended to be informal, allowing fans and rivals to walk to almost any venue. Squaw Valley welcomed athletes from thirty countries, participating in four athletic competitions and twenty-seven. The athletes made their Olympic speed skating and biathlon debuts. Following a vote showing that only nine nations were willing to send a bobsled team, organisers agreed that the bobsled events would not afford the cost of constructing a venue, and the bobsled was not on the Olympic Winter schedule for the first and last time. Cold War diplomacy has compelled the IOC to discuss China's and Taiwan's position. Though China was behind the Soviet Union, the US remained behind Taiwan. Considering that the 1960 Games were to take place in America, IOC members were angry that the US did not allow it to compete with China or any other Communist nation. In 1957, IOC president Avery Brundage, an American himself, declared that if the US declined to represent another nation accepted by the IOC, then the offer to host the Squaw Valley Olympics would be revoked and the presidency dissigned. Bowing to external criticism, the United States has permitted athletes from the Communist countries to compete. China continued to insist on withdrawing Taiwan from the IOC, requests which were rejected before China cut off its ties and ended the possibility of joining in 1960. Squaw Valley was a failing ski resort with limited amenities making its selection a failure to host the Olympic Winters of 1960. Wayne Poulsen and Alexander Cushing, inspired by a newspaper storey on an Olympic bid, note that Reno, Nevada and Anchorage, Alaska, have expressed interest in the Olympics. Poulsen, chairman of Squaw Valley Development Corporation, petitioned California Governor Goodwin Knight to approve a proposal to host the Olympic Games. Knight's office approved the $1,000,000 payment, and urged the California Legislature to approve it. On 7 January 1955 the United States Olympic Committee accepted the bid on the basis of financial support from the State of California. Cushing and the USOC also issued a bill accepted by the US Congress and signed by President Dwight Eisenhower calling on the International Olympic Committee to consider Squaw Valley's 1960 Games bid. Preliminary reports were written and submitted to the IOC which had received offers from Innsbruck, Austria, St. Moritz, Switzerland and Chamonix, France. A temporary right to host the Olympics was given to Squaw Valley, but IOC president Avery Brundage warned the Organizing Committee that the contract would be awarded to Innsbruck before more funding had been secured by April 1956. The State Senate pledged another $4,000,000 which met Brundage's requirements. On 4 April 1956 Squaw Valley was formally awarded the right to host the 1960 Winter Olympics. Participants and officials from European nations were irritated by the architecture; they felt the alpine ski courses were not up to standards and the athletes would consider the altitude too difficult. Television was not new to the Olympic Winter Games; the 1956 broadcasting of the games had started by the European audiences. The auction of the USA's sole broadcast rights to air the Games was groundbreaking. The Planning Committee voted to sell the TV broadcasting rights to CBS for $50,000. This was not clear at the time how profitable it would have been to sell television rights. Beginning from the 1960 Summer Olympics, CBS acquired $550,000 in broadcast rights.