| 1976 Winter Olympics medals | |
|---|---|
| Location | Innsbruck, Austria |
| Highlights | |
| Most gold medals |  Soviet Union (13) |
| Most total medals | Soviet Union (27) |
| Medalling NOCs | 16 |
The1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games, was a wintermulti-sport event held inInnsbruck,Austria, from 4 to 15 February 1976. A total of 1,123 athletes representing 37National Olympic Committees (NOC) participated in 37 events from 10 differentsports and disciplines.[1] Two events were contested for the first time: thefigure skating discipline ofice dancing, and the men's 1,000 metres inspeed skating.[1][2]
Sixteen NOCs won at least one medal, and twelve of them secured at least one gold. TheSoviet Union clinched the first place in the gold and overall medal counts, with 13 and 27, respectively. Moreover, the Soviet team also collected the most silver (6) and bronze (8) medals. The host nation,Austria, concluded its participation with a total of six medals (two golds, two silvers, and two bronzes).[1]
Liechtenstein won its first Olympic medals: two bronzes byWilli Frommelt andHanni Wenzel in thealpine skiing slalom events.[3][4]East German athletes achieved gold medal sweeps inluge andbobsleigh,[5] which accounted for five of the country's seven Olympic titles. Alpine skierRosi Mittermaier won the women's downhill and slalom events to giveWest Germany's two gold medals in these Games. She came close to winning a third in the giant slalom, which would have made her the first woman to win all three Olympic alpine skiing events.[1][6]Cross-country skierHelena Takalo contributed three ofFinland's seven medals by reaching podium place finishes in all of the women's events.[2] TwoDutch speed skaters were responsible for five of their country's six medals:Piet Kleine won the men's 10,000 metres and came second in the 5,000 metres, whileHans van Helden secured bronze medals in the same events and also in the 1,500 metres.[7] Before these Games, Great Britain's last Winter Olympic medal had been a gold at the1964 Games, also held in Innsbruck.[8] Twelve years later in the same city, theBritish team won again a single gold medal, this time by figure skaterJohn Curry in the men's singles with a still-standing record total score.[1][9] The two bronze medals won bySwedish athletes were not enough to prevent this team's performance from becoming the weakest ever in the nation's Winter Olympic history.[10]
Andorra andSan Marino sent their first delegations to the Winter Olympics,[11][12] whereas theRepublic of China competed for the second and last time before its return asChinese Taipei at the 1984 Winter Olympics; none of these teams medalled.
The medal table is based on information provided by theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) and is consistent with IOC convention in its published medal tables. The table uses theOlympic medal table sorting method. By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won, where a nation is an entity represented by aNational Olympic Committee (NOC). The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next, and then the number of bronze medals.[13][14] If teams are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by theirIOC country code.[15]
* Host nation (Austria)
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soviet Union | 13 | 6 | 8 | 27 |
| 2 |  East Germany | 7 | 5 | 7 | 19 |
| 3 |  United States | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 |
| 4 |  Norway | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| 5 |  West Germany | 2 | 5 | 3 | 10 |
| 6 |  Finland | 2 | 4 | 1 | 7 |
| 7 | Austria* | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| 8 |  Switzerland | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| 9 |  Netherlands | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| 10 |  Italy | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 11 |  Canada | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 12 |  Great Britain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 13 |  Czechoslovakia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 14 |  Liechtenstein | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
 Sweden | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| 16 |  France | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (16 entries) | 37 | 37 | 37 | 111 | |
Galina Kulakova of theSoviet Union finished 3rd in the women's 5 km ski event, but was disqualified due to a positive test for banned substanceephedrine. She claimed that this was a result of using the nasal spray that contained the substance. Both theFIS and theIOC allowed her to compete in the 10 km and the 4×5 km relay.[16] This was the first stripped medal at the Winter Olympics.
| Galina Kulakova | Soviet Union |  | Cross-Country Skiing, Women's 5 km | [17] |
