These Olympics became the first to be televised live, making them accessible to millions of viewers in real time, and introduced multiple technological innovations, including instant replay.

[1] Squaw Valley, now called Palisades Tahoe, was a struggling ski resort with minimal facilities, which made its selection to host the 1960 Winter Olympics a surprise.

[2][3] Wayne Poulsen and Alexander Cushing were inspired to bid for the Olympics by a newspaper article mentioning that Reno, Nevada, and Anchorage, Alaska, had expressed interest in the Games.

[2][4] Poulsen, president of the Squaw Valley Development Company, petitioned California Governor Goodwin Knight to support a bid to host the Olympic Games.

Cushing and the USOC received a resolution passed by the United States Congress and signed by President Dwight Eisenhower, calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to consider Squaw Valley's bid for the 1960 Games.

[6] Another $4 million was committed by the state legislature, which met Brundage's requirements, and on April 4, 1956, the right to host the 1960 Winter Olympics was officially awarded to Squaw Valley.

[7][8] Competitors and officials from European nations were angered by the selection; they felt that the alpine ski courses were not up to specifications and that its base elevation of 6,200 feet (1,890 m) above sea level would prove too stressful on the athletes.

Hotels, restaurants, administration buildings, a Sheriff's office and a sewage pumping and treatment plant were all constructed to support the influx of visitors for the Games.

Organizers felt the lack of possible entrants (a pre-Olympic poll indicated that only nine countries were planning to participate) and the high cost of building the run were sufficient deterrents to leave the bobsled events off the 1960 Olympic program.

[14] Funding for Cushing's initial bid to the IOC came from the California Legislature and investors in the "Squaw Valley Development Company", who were owners of the existing resort.

[3] To fund the construction, organizers turned to the federal government, which provided about a quarter of the $80 million required to host the Games.

Governor Knight and his successor Edmund "Pat" Brown remained behind the project, seeing it as a means to showcase the state of California to the world.

Their opposing ideologies and interests in nations such as East and West Germany, China and North and South Korea created a delicate situation as the 1960 Winter Games approached.

[21] Chinese athletes last competed at the 1952 Summer Games but had since withdrawn from the IOC due to a dispute over Taiwan's participation as a separate country.

Given that the 1960 Games were to be held in the US, there was concern among IOC members that the host nation would not allow China or any other Communist country to take part.

A unified team compromise was proposed but rejected by North Koreans, which meant only athletes from South Korea participated due to their prior recognition.

Despite petitions from the International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation to reconsider, the organizers felt they could not justify the costs of constructing a bobsled run for nine competing nations.

[9][13] The chairman of the Pageantry Committee was Walt Disney, who was responsible for producing both the opening and closing ceremonies at Blyth Memorial Arena.

[9] He organized an opening that included 5,000 entertainers, the release of 2,000 pigeons, and a military gun salute of eight shots, one for each of the previous Winter Olympic Games.

Military patrol fell out of favor in 1948 due to anti-military sentiments in the post World War II era.

[44] Klas Lestander from Sweden became the first Olympic champion, Antti Tyrväinen from Finland and Soviet Aleksandr Privalov placed second and third respectively.

[45] The Nordic combined competition was held on February 21 at the Squaw Valley normal hill and the McKinney Creek Cross-Country Complex.

The German pair Marika Kilius and Hans-Jürgen Bäumler followed their recent European championship victory with the Olympic silver medal, and the American husband-and-wife team of Ron and Nancy Ludington took the bronze.

Polish skaters Helena Pilejczyk and Elwira Seroczyńska placed second and third in the 1,500 meter event, which were Poland's only medals of the Games.

[62] Despite the facilities being constructed from scratch at Squaw Valley, the resort did have steep mountain slopes in close proximity, resulting in some of the most difficult alpine skiing courses in Olympic history.

[63] The men's downhill was won by Frenchman Jean Vuarnet who changed the sport by becoming the first Olympic champion to use metal skis.

The lack of facilities prior to the Olympics gave organizers freedom to tailor the layout of the venues to fit the needs of the athletes.

[3] This was accomplished with the exception of the cross-country events, which were held at McKinney Creek, a 12 mi (19 km) drive from Squaw Valley.

[68] McKinney Creek Stadium was built to host all of the cross-country races, which included the biathlon and a portion of the Nordic combined competition.

[69] Season tickets for the Games ranged from $60 to $250, the latter included a reserved seat at the ice arena; the daily admission fee was $7.50.