As of this writing it has been 30 year since Norway hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games. It was the first Olympic Games to switch to the new 2-year alternating schedule for summer and winter Olympics. Previously, summer and winter Olympics had always been held during the same year, most recently with the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, and the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Thus, Lillehammer became the first and only time where we had two Winter Olympics within a 2-year span. The last time, and only other time Norway hosted an Olympic event, was for the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, the 6th overall.
Philatelic Issues
For the 1952 Winter Olympics the Norwegian postal service produced three stamps.
For the Lillehammer Olympics, Posten Norge, the Norwegian postal service, would have a far bigger stamp release schedule in the works. Lillehammer was selected as the host city on September 15, 1988. The other cities who had put in bids included Anchorage, Alaska, Östersund, Sweden, and Sofia, Bulgaria.
Beginning in October of 1989, Posten released the first in a series of miniature sheets themed “Norske OL-vinnere” (Norwegian Olympic Champions). Each sheet featured 4 previous Norwegian Winter Olympic gold medal winners. In all, four more of these miniature sheets were produced over the next years (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993) featuring a total of 20 Norwegian Winter Olympic champions.
October 9, 1992 saw the first release of Lillehammer-specific Olympic stamps. Designed by Bruno Oldani , these would be the first in a series of stamps released over the next two years leading up to the February 1994 games.
Lillehammer ’94 I -NK 1154 and 1155 -Issued October 9, 1992
Lillehammer ’94 II -NK 1188 and 1189 -Issued November 27, 1993
Lillehammer ’94 III -NK 1194 and 1195 -Issued February 12, 1994
Lillehammer ’94 IV -NK 1196 through 1199 -Issued February 12, 1994
If you are missing these stamps in your collection, contact me, as I have a lot of these on hand both mint and canceled.
Numerous countries released stamps to commemorate the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. Here are US stamps released on January 6, 1994.
Norway did a great job putting on the 1994 Winter Olympics and it was by all means considered a great success.
Since then it has been a subject of popular culture. The Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding incident has been dramatized in books, media, and a movie. The Lilyhammer TV Show, starring Steve Van Zandt, was the first ever TV series produced by Netflix when it was released to great critial acclaim in 2012 (although it was actually produced by NRK, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, and subsequently licensed to Netflix for a worldwide release).
Collector Products
Numerous collectors products saw the release leading up to the Olympics. Sadly, most of these retail well below their initial price point today. I recently picked up this two-volume collector’s set at an auction for NOK 150.00 (about $15.00). It supposedly retailed for NOK 3,000.00 when issued in 1994.
Regardless, we have some great philatelic memories, to remind us of the 1994 Winter Olympics. The last time, as of this writing, that Norway has hosted the Olympics.
30th Anniversary Commemorative Issue
Earlier this year, Posten Norge issued a commemorative cover for the 30th anniversary of the Lillehammer Olympics. It is franked with the six stamps issued on February 12, 1994 and canceled with a unique postmark exclusive to this commemorative cover. It can be ordered from Posten Norge for NOK 94.00, about $9.00 as of this writing.
