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.

Squaw Valley 1960-HEISS Carol (USA) 1st.

Portrait of American figure skater and Olympic gold medalist Carol Heiss Jenkins, seated in an ice rink, 1960s. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

1928 St. Moritz Opening date: 11 February 1928 Closing date: 19 February 1928 Country of the host city: Switzerland (SUI) Candidate cities: Davos (SUI), Engelberg (SUI) Nations: 25 Events: 14

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.