Denver was awarded the 1976 Winter Olympics before voters rejected funding and the Games moved to Innsbruck.
The International Olympic Committee selected Denver, Colorado, to host the 1976 Winter Games in 1970. The proposed Olympics would have taken place during the United States Bicentennial year, linking the event to the broader national celebration planned for 1976.
Colorado voters rejected a referendum intended to provide public funding after concerns about cost, environmental effects, and the scale of the project. Denver consequently withdrew as host. The International Olympic Committee then awarded the Games to Innsbruck, Austria, which had already hosted the 1964 Winter Olympics.
The 1976 Winter Olympics therefore were not held in the United States. This fact is sometimes confused with the 1976 Summer Olympics, which took place in Montreal, Canada. The United States later hosted Winter Games at Lake Placid in 1980 and Salt Lake City in 2002.