20 Days

The top Olympic ski jumpers fly about 20 feet (6.1m) over the ground. I've been to the top of a ski jump in Lake Placid. That is one sport I don't think I'll be trying any time soon.

It was unclear whether or not there would be a Winter Olympics in 1948, right after World War II. There was a twelve year break because of the war, but St. Moritz, Switzerland was chosen to host the Winter Games. This choice was made mostly due to the fact that St. Moritz had hosted the Winter Olympics 20 years beforehand, and their sports facilities were still mostly intact, as a result of Switzerland’s neutrality in World War II.

Everyone has heard of the "Miracle on Ice" at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY when the U.S. hockey team came out of nowhere to beat the Soviet team and then proceeded to win gold, which no one expected them to do. Well 20 years prior to that, there was a lesser known "Miracle on Ice" also on home turf, in 1960 in Squaw Valley, California. Another U.S. hockey team shocked everyone when they beat the Soviet favorites 3-2 and then went on to beat Czechoslovakia 9-4 to win the first gold medal for U.S. hockey.