IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch at the Closing Ceremony on 27 February 1994

«The XVII Winter Olympics did not exist. These were fairy-tale Games, drawn from the imagination, staged in the pages of a children’s book. They could not exist. Reality cannot be this good.»
Sports Illustrated, 7 March 1994

The Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer 1994 were a great success as a major sports event, but also successful in the way that the Games created positive financial development in the region.