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.

The Belgian team took silver in the four-man, with a crew that included a remarkably talented sportsman in Max Houben.

Italy’s Nino Bibbia first arrived in St Moritz at the age of three, when his father came to the area to sell fruit, and was to develop a long love affair with the place. 

This was the only the second time that skeleton had been included in the Olympic programme, and you had to go back two decades to find the first incidence. The reason was that the Cresta Run in St Moritz was considered the sport's home, so when the Winter Games had last visited St Moritz, in 1928, skeleton had been included. After that, it was taken away again.