The 1994 Winter Olympics (officially the XVII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lillehammer 1994) were a winter multi-sport event held between 12 and 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Lillehammer failed to win the bid for the 1992 event, but was awarded the 1994 Winter Games in 1988, after beating Anchorage, Alaska; Östersund, Sweden; and Sofia, Bulgaria. The Games were the first to be held in a different year than the Summer Olympics, the only one to be held two years after the previous winter Games, and the last to be held in a small town. The Games were also the second hosted in Norway, and the second Winter Olympics in the Nordic Countries, after Oslo 1952.