In 50 days the Members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will vote to decide which city will host the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in 2014.  It was 48 years ago this month that Austria’s first magic moment in an Olympic bid brought the Games to the nation.  On 26th May 1959, in nearby Munich, 58 IOC members decided that Innsbruck, on its second attempt after its failed bid for the 1960 Winter Games, would host the 1964 Olympic Winter Games. The rest is history.  Innsbruck broke all Olympic attendance records, drawing more than one million spectators to a magnificent celebration of winter sport for the first time. Only two winter host cities before Innsbruck had drawn 500,000 spectators, the last being Oslo in 1952.  

Just nine years later, on the 4th of February in 1973, the Winter Games were once again awarded to Innsbruck.  This time not as a result of a bid by Innsbruck, because Austria stepped in to organize the XII Olympic Winter Games after Denver backed out of its role as host with only three years left.

Then IOC President Lord Killanin expressed his thanks for Austria’s help in his inaugural speech for the 1976 IOC session:

“This is the second time in two years that we have held a Session of the International Olympic Committee in Austria and I am sure sportsmen throughout the world are most grateful to Innsbruck for enabling the Winter Games to go ahead. As you all know, Innsbruck stepped in to assist when Denver, which had been awarded the Games, withdrew its invitation.”

While staging the Olympic Winter Games in only three years set a new record for organizational efficiency, Innsbruck set another remarkable attendance record. In 1976, the Winter Games in Innsbruck drew more than 1.5 million spectators, a number that would not be equalled again until 26 years later at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. But,Innsbruck 1976 had just 37 events while Salt Lake City 2002 already had 78 events.

Franz Klammer, Chairman International of Salzburg 2014 and Olympic Champion Downhill at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck: “Innsbruck did an amazing job organising Olympic Winter Games in just three years. At the IOC’s bidding, Austria had decided to help the Olympic Movement—and our country rose to the challenge. Austria’s experience in hosting world class winter sport events was the foundation for a great Winter Games in 1976. I was fortunate enough to experience it all as an athlete becoming the Olympic Downhill Champion – an experience I will never forget since there were more people in attendance at that event than any other winter event in the history of the Games. I am convinced that we will rise to the challenge again to deliver the best Games for the athletes ever and the most magical Games for the world if we are awarded 2014.”

Heinz Jungwirth, OEOC General Secretary, continued: “In 50 days, the IOC will make its decision if Salzburg and Austria in general will have the honour to host the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in 2014. It would be fifty years after the first IOC positive vote for Austria and we will gladly show the world that all our country’s qualities and the enthusiasm for winter sports are still present in one of the most beautiful and safest areas of the world.”