When the Winter Olympics Came to Lake Tahoe

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2022

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You might consider the 1960 Winter Olympics in Lake Tahoe a quaint affair compared to what's going on in Beijing right now, but these games had an outsize impact on televised sports, snow sports along the West Coast, and subsequent Olympic Games. Yet that these Games were even held in Tahoe is a bit of a miracle. Additional Reading: 'The World Was Shocked': How the Winter Olympics Came to Tahoe in 1960 Reported by Chloe Veltman. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Sebastian Miño-Bucheli and Brendan Willard. Editing help on this episode from Victoria Mauleon and Katrina Schwartz. Additional support from Kyana Moghadam, Jessica Placzek, Natalia Aldana, Carly Severn, Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, Ethan Lindsey, Vinnee Tong and Jenny Pritchett.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From K-QED. The Winter Olympics are underway right now in China and 29 of the team USA
0:08.2	athletes call California home. That's more than any other state if you're keeping track. Now some of you will remember, but back
0:15.8	in 1960, California hosted the Winter Games near Lake Tahoe.
0:19.8	Open one of the world's most majestic sports events.
0:23.2	In a spectacular beginning in a spectacular setting high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
0:28.8	The 1960 Olympics were pretty small in comparison to today's games.
0:33.7	30 countries participated instead of the 91 competing in Beijing right now,
0:38.3	and there were far fewer events.
0:40.5	But what happened in Tahoe that year
0:42.4	had an outsize and lasting impact, and not just on future Olympics.
0:47.0	It helped transform sports into mass entertainment and turned the U.S. West Coast into a coveted destination for anyone who
0:55.2	likes to spend their time zipping about on snow or ice.
0:59.0	Myself very much included.
1:01.3	You changed the course of winter sports in the West.
1:05.0	Yet how these Olympic Games came to be in California is kind of a miracle.
1:10.0	It's a David and Goliath's story.
1:18.0	This is Bicurious. I'm Olivia Allen Price. Pull on your snow bands because on this week's episode we revisit those 1960 Olympic Games.
1:24.4	This story has razzle dazzle, it has controversy, it has a little romance.
1:29.8	We'll get to that right after this.
1:41.0	Support for Bay Curious is brought to you by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, still family owned, operated, and argued over.
1:44.8	Explore their brews wherever fine beverages are sold and taste how trailblazing runs in the
1:50.1	family. Visit Sierra Nevada.com to find your new favorite beer today.
	...

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