WesWorld

Also known as the "me to!" of Olympic threads, the 1944 Winter games will be detailed here. I will be using a combo of the OTL 1936 and 1948 games as the template for events, and the historical 1956 games for the venues and such.

Background and Venues: The small alpine town of Cortina d'Ampezzo plays host to this years Winter Olympic games. Due to the small size of the town, a unique approach was taken to housing the athleates; residents of the town opened up there homes to competitors in addition to the several small hotels. Most of the event venues were within walking distance of each other, the only exception being the speed skating events which were held on natural ice at Lake Misurina 13km away. The main event location was the Ice Stadium, which played host to all figure skating events. The Apollonino Stadium, renovated for the games, would provide the ice hockey rinks. The bobsled run was also rebuilt, having been constructed in 1928. Ski Jumping could be found at the Trampolino Italia 2km outside of town, the jump had just been completed in 1940. A new facility was built to accommodate spectators for the Cross Country Skiing events called the Snow Stadium. The two alpine runs were located at Monte Tofana and Monte Faloria.

January 28th: The Opening ceremonies of the 1944 Winter Games are held today. Located in the Ice Stadium, the venue for all figure skating events, the ceremonies drew a crowd of close to 14,000 persons. Alberto Bonacossa, who played a major roll in drawing the games to delivered part of the opening remarks in conjunction with local and national politicians. Agostino Lanfranchi, Italy's highest ever finisher in a winter games event lit the flame. Group play in the ice hokey tournament started today at the Apollonino Stadium.

January 29th
In preliminary rounds, Bobsledding and Ice hockey attracted viewers but not as many as the two metal rounds. By far the most attended non-metal event was the Hockey game between Atlantis and Italy. Italy pulled off a stunning upset as time ran out to win 3-2. Italy had lost there game with Canada the day before by a score of 8-0, so we not expected to make the four team playoff. The match between Canada and the United States was also well attended, Canada won 4-0 cementing there place as the team to beat. The first event to award metals was the Woman's slalom. American Gretchen Fraser took the gold with Atlantian Helen Anticos taking Silver while Switzerland's Antoinette Meyer captured the Bronze by .3s over fellow Swiss skier Erika Mahringer. Celina Seghi was the highest Italian finisher, tied with Nordmark's Laila Schou Nilsen for 11th. The second metal event was the Mens 18km Cross-Country Ski. Nordmark swept the podium lead by Nils Östensson who captured the Gold. Nils Karlsson took Silver and Heikki Hasu rounded out the sweep with the Bronze. Severino Compagnoni of the host nation placed 10th.

See Wes, you can win shinies!

January 30th
Two metal rounds were held today in Bobsledding and Speed Skating. The United States had a spectacular showing in Bobsled, taking Gold in both the two-man and four-man contests as well as Bronze on the Four man. Two Swiss teams rounded out the two-man podium and a Belgian four-man team took Silver. In the Mens 500m Speedskate, Nordmark took home the top honors with Thomas Byberg setting an Olympic record with a time of 43.3s. Teammate Finn Helgesen and American Robert Fitzgerald tied for the Silver.

January 31st
Speedskating and Alpine Skiing took center stage today as metal rounds were held in the Mens 5km and the Men's slalom. The Mens 5k was a very exiting race with Dutchman Kees Broekman taking home the Gold by one tenth of a second over Nordmark's Odd Lundberg, Göthe Hedlund took the Bronze. The Men's Slalom was the banner event for the hosts today as Italy won its first winter games metal when Silvio Alverà took Silver in the event. Frenchmen James Couttet and Henri Oreiller took Gold and Bronze respectively.

February 1st
The only metal round today was in the Mens 1500m speedskate. Åke Seyffarth won the gold with his Nordish teammate Sverre Farstad taking the silver. Dutchman Kees Broekman narrowly beat Nordmark's Lassi Parkkinen for the Bronze.

February 2nd
The Mens 10k speadskate and the Nordic Combind metal rounds were held. The Swissman Niklaus Stump pulled the upset in the Combind beating Nordmark's Heikki Hasu for the gold. Hasu would take silver with teammate Sven Israelsson rounding out the podium. The 10km speedsake was a very exiting race, coming down to the final lap. Kornél Pajor of Hungary stunned the field to take the gold, narrowly edging out Kees Broekman. Åke Seyffarth of Nordmark finished third.

February 3rd
Mens Singles Figure Skating and Women's Downhill held there metal rounds today. In Figure Skating, Switzerland's Hans Gerschwiler took home Gold, German Ernst Baier took Sliver with American Dick Button rounding out the podium. The Gold in women's downhill was captured by Hildesuse Gärtner of Germany. Silver went to Suzanne Thiollière of France. Bronze was hotly contested, with Italy's Celina Seghi narrowly beating out Laila Schou Nilsen or Nordmark.

February 4th
Metal contests today were in Ladies Singles Figure Skating and the Mens 50k Cross Country. The 50k race cemented Nordmark's domiation of the cross-country events. Harald Eriksson, Benjamin Vanninen, and Nils Karlsson finished in the podium positions. Jeannette Altwegg of Great Briton took first in the Singles Figure Skate, with fellow Commonwealth athlete Barbara Ann Scott of Canada taking the Silver. Eva Pawlik of Germany [1] took the Bronze.

February 5th
Mens Downhill and Pairs Figure Skating awarded there Olympic metals. Pairs Skating was won by Germans Paul Falk and Ilse Pausin. Andrea Kékesy and Ede Király of Hungary took silver. Siblings Winifred and Dennis Silverthorne of Great Briton took the Bronze. Mens Downhill was captured by Henri Oreiller of France, folowed by Rolf Olinger in second. Hans Hansson of Nordmark toon the Bronze and Italian teammates Silvio Alverà and Carlo Gartner tied for fourth.

February 6th
One exiting and one predicable metal round today as Ice Hokey and the Men's 4x10km Relay crowned their champions. In the finish everyone saw coming but by a margine that left several with less hair then before the match, Canada beat Switzerland for the Gold in Ice Hokey but it took a goal in the final 15 seconds to put the game away. Poland took the Bronze in there match with the UK. The 4x10km Cross Country ski was far less exiting for the most part, with the Nordmark team dominating by setting a new world record. Switzerland's team finished a distant second. The greatest excitement from the day came from the battle for the Bronze, which came down to France vs Italy over the final stretch. In what could only be called a photo finish, the referees were unable to determan a winner, so the teams tied for the Bronze. [2]

February 7th
In the final event, Ski Jumping concluded the Cortina d'Ampezzo games. Birger Ruud clamed the final Gold of the games for Nordmark, with teammate Petter Hugsted taking the silver. American Gordon Wren prevented a Nordish sweep of the podium. The Closing Ceremonies were held in the Ice Stadium.

[1]Historically Austrian, so I'm fudging a bit.
[2]As each nation only had one team, the results are far different from when it was the three Nordic nations holding the top spots.

Metal Count

Nordmark: 6 Gold, 7 Silver, 5 Bronze, 18 Total
United States of America: 3 Gold, 1 Silver, 3 Bronze, 7 Total
France: 2 Gold, 2 Silver, 2 Bronze, 6 Total
Switzerland: 2 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze, 5 Total
Italy: 0 Gold, 1 Silver, 3 Bronze, 4 Total
Germany: 2 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze, 4 Total
Netherlands: 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze, 3 Total
Hungary: 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 0 Bronze, 2 Total
England: 1 Gold, 0 Silver, 1 Bronze, 2 Total
Canada: 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 0 Bronze, 2 Total
Poland: 0 Gold, 0 Silver, 1 Bronze, 1 Total
Belgium: 0 Gold, 1 Silver, 0 Bronze, 1 Total
Atlantis: 0 Gold, 1 Silver, 0 Bronze, 1 Total