14-year-old Carolyn Wood was the youngest member of the US team in Rome, but she already had the resolve of a champion. A swimmer with a gift for butterfly, she was also entered in the freestyle and the relay events.

Less than a week before the Olympic trials, American swimmer Jeff Farrell underwent surgery to have his appendix removed. It was a devastating blow which in most people's eyes ruled him out of qualifying for the Games. Surely it would be impossible to recover from such a major operation and then swim to international standards just a few days later?

The Soviet Union had dominated the international women’s cross country scene since the inclusion of women’s events on the FIS World Championship programme in Falun (SWE) in 1954.

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.

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.