The 1994 Winter Olympics (Norwegian: Vinter-OL 1994), officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games (French: Les XVIIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver), was a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Lillehammer failed to win the bid for the 1992 event. Lillehammer was awarded the 1994 Winter Olympics in 1988, after beating Anchorage, United States; Östersund, Sweden; and Sofia, Bulgaria. Lillehammer is the northernmost city to ever host the Winter Games. The Games were the first to be held in a different year from the Summer Olympics, the first and only one to be held two years after the previous winter games, and the most recent to be held in a small town. The Games were the second winter event hosted in Norway, after the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, and the fourth Olympics in the Nordic countries, after the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, and the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.