The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Lillehammer failed to win the bid for the 1992 event. Lillehammer was awarded the Games in 1988, after beating Anchorage, United States; Östersund, Sweden; and Sofia, Bulgaria. The Games were the first to be held in a different year than the Summer Olympics, the only one to be held two years after the previous winter games, and the last to be held in a small town. The Games were the second hosted in Norway, and the second Winter Olympics in the Nordic Countries, after the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo.

While many events took place in Lillehammer, skating took place in Hamar, some ice hockey matches were placed in Gjøvik, while Alpine skiing was held in Øyer and Ringebu. Sixty-seven countries and 1,737 athletes participated in six sports and sixty-one events. Fourteen countries made their debut in the Winter Olympics, of which nine were former Soviet republics. The Games also saw the introduction of stricter qualifying rules, reducing the number of under-performing participants from warm-weather countries. New events were two new distances in short track speed skating and aerials, while speed skating was moved indoors. Nearly two million people spectated the games, which were the first to have the Olympic truce in effect. The games were succeeded by the 1994 Paralympics from 10 to 19 March.

The Winter Olympic Games is a sporting event, which occurs every four years. The first celebration of the Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, France, in 1924. The original sports were alpine and cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping and speed skating. The Games were held every four years from 1924 until 1936 when they were interrupted by World War II. The Olympics resumed in 1948 and were celebrated every four years. The Winter and Summer Olympic Games were held in the same years until 1992, when the governing body for the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), decided to place the Summer and Winter Games on separate four-year cycles in alternating even-numbered years.

The Winter Games have evolved since their inception. Sports have been added and some of them, such as luge, short track speed skating and freestyle skiing, have earned a permanent spot on the Olympic programme. Others, such as speed skiing, bandy and skijoring, were demonstration sports but never incorporated as Olympic sports. The rise of television as a global medium for communication enhanced the profile of the Games. It created an income stream, via the sale of broadcast rights and advertising, which has become lucrative for the IOC. This allowed outside interests, such as television companies and corporate sponsors, to exert influence. The IOC has had to address several criticisms, internal scandals, the use of performance enhancing drugs by Winter Olympians, as well as a political boycott of the Winter Olympics. Nations have used the Winter Games to showcase the claimed superiority of their political systems.

Tonya Maxene Harding (born November 12, 1970) is an American figure skating champion, a two-time Olympian, and a two-time Skate America Champion. In 1991 she won the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and placed second in the World Championships. She was the second woman, and the first American woman, to complete a triple axel jump in competition. She became notorious after her ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, conspired with Shawn Eckhardt and Shane Stant to physically assault her skating competitor Nancy Kerrigan at a practice session during the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. (Stant carried out the assault as planned.)

Harding was born in Portland, Oregon, the daughter of LaVona and Al Harding. She had a half-brother, Chris Davison (deceased). Her father had health problems that sometimes made him unable to work. She claims that her mother sexually abused her, a claim her mother denies. She began skating at an early age under the direction of the late Sylvia Harpolscheimer. She landed her first triple lutz at age 12. Her mother made many of her skating costumes.

Nancy Ann Kerrigan (born October 13, 1969) is a two-time American Olympic figure skating medalist and 1993 U.S. champion.

Kerrigan was born in Woburn, Massachusetts to Daniel Kerrigan and Brenda M. (Schultz) Kerrigan. She began ice skating at age six at the local rink in her hometown of Stoneham, Massachusetts. Her two older brothers, Michael and Mark, played hockey, but hockey was not considered an appropriate activity for girls at that time so she took up figure skating instead. She did not start private lessons until age eight, and won her first figure skating medal at age nine.

The Kerrigan family was of modest means. Kerrigan's father, a welder, sometimes worked three jobs to fund her skating career, and also drove the ice resurfacer at the local rink in exchange for lessons.

Kerrigan was coached by Theresa Martin until she was 16, then after a brief period with Denise Morrissey began working with Evy and Mary Scotvold. They remained her coaches through the rest of her competitive career.

Alexei Yevgenyevich Urmanov (Russian:  Алексей Евгеньевич Урманов​ (help·info); born November 17, 1973 in Leningrad) is a Russian figure skater, who currently works as a coach. He is the 1994 Olympic champion and an Honoured Masters of Sports of the Russian Federation.

Urmanov was born in Leningrad, Soviet Union, and started skating at the age of four. Competed for the Soviet Union, he won the silver medal at the 1990 World Junior Championships. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Urmanov chose to compete for Russia. In 1991, at age 17, he became the first skater to perform a quadruple jump at the European Championships.

He competed at the 1992 Winter Olympics, where he placed 5th. He won the bronze medal at the 1993 World Championships. At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, he won the gold medal.

Urmanov chose to remain in the competitive ranks. He became the 1997 European champion, but an injury forced him out of the 1997 World Championships after the short program and kept him from earning a trip to the 1998 Olympics. He retired from Olympic-eligible skating in 1999 and won the World Professional championships the same year.