Norwegian speed skater Knut Johannesen arrived in Squaw Valley with his sights firmly set on Olympic glory, having come within a second of gold in the 10,000m at Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956, where he lost out to Sweden’s Sigvard Ericsson.

Sweden’s Sixten Jernberg had been the most successful athlete at Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956, featuring on every single one of the men’s cross country podiums. As well as gold in the 50km, he had taken silvers in the 30km and 15km and bronze in the 4x10km relay.

Born on 23 March 1931 in Tula, some 200 kilometres south of Moscow, Yevgeny Romanovich Grishin was a skilled track cyclist and a keen skier in his formative years. At the age of 14. however, he decided to devote his energies to speed skating, honing his skills with CSKA Moscow. A trainee engraver at the time and a silversmith in later life, Grishin excelled at the 500m, the shortest speed skating distance, and quickly made his mark in national and then international competitions.

Coached by husband-and-wife team Andree and Pierre Brunet – the Olympic pairs champions of 1928 and 1932 – the USA’s Carol Heiss was a teenage star of the 1950s international figure skating scene, winning silver behind her compatriot Tenley Albright at the 1955 ISU World Championships and repeating the feat at the following year’s Winter Games at Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Alexander Cushing, a landowner in Squaw Valley – an uninhabited valley overlooking Lake Tahoe and perched 1,900 metres above sea level in California’s Sierra Nevada and 300 kilometres east of San Francisco – dreamed of transforming the place into a world-class winter sports destination. His vision began to take shape when he built a lodge and then a ski lift in the middle of what was still an untamed landscape.