Winter Olympic Games

The ***Olympic Winter Games*** (official name) is a major international sporting event held once every four years, for sports practised on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympics, the 1924 Winter Olympics, was held in Chamonix, France. The original five sports (broken into nine disciplines) were bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, Nordic skiing (consisting of the disciplines military patrol, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, and ski jumping), and skating (consisting of the disciplines figure skating and speed skating). The Games were held every four years from 1924 to 1936, interrupted in 1940 and 1944 by World War II, and resumed in 1948. Until 1992 the Winter and Summer Olympic Games were held in the same years, but in accordance with a 1986 decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to place the Summer and Winter Games on separate four-year cycles in alternating even-numbered years, the next Winter Olympics after 1992 was in 1994.

### Origins

A predecessor, the Nordic Games, were organised by General Viktor Gustaf Balck in Stockholm, Sweden in 1901 and were held again in 1903 and 1905 and then every fourth year thereafter until 1926. Balck was a charter member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and a close friend of Olympic Games founder Pierre de Coubertin. He attempted to have winter sports, specifically figure skating, added to the Olympic programme but was unsuccessful until the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. Four figure skating events were contested.

Three years later, Italian count Eugenio Brunetta d'Usseaux proposed that the IOC stage a week of winter sports included as part of the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. The organisers opposed this idea because they desired to protect the integrity of the Nordic Games and were concerned about a lack of facilities for winter sports. The idea was resurrected for the 1916 Games, which were to be held in Berlin, Germany. A winter sports week with speed skating, figure skating, ice hockey and Nordic skiing was planned, but the 1916 Olympics was cancelled after the outbreak of World War I.

The first Olympics after the war, the 1920 Summer Olympics, were held in Antwerp, Belgium, and featured figure skating and an ice hockey tournament. At the IOC Congress held the following year it was decided that the host nation of the 1924 Summer Olympics, France, would host a separate "International Winter Sports Week" under the patronage of the IOC. Chamonix was chosen to host this "week" (actually 11 days) of events. The Games proved to be a success when more than 250 athletes from 16 nations competed in 16 events. Athletes from Finland and Norway won 28 medals, more than the rest of the participating nations combined. In 1925 the IOC decided to create a separate Olympic Winter Games and the 1924 Games in Chamonix was retroactively designated as the first Winter Olympics.

### 1924 - 1936

#### January 25 - February 5, 1924: Chamonix, France

The ***1924 Winter Olympics***, officially known as the I Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. Originally called Semaine Internationale des Sports d'Hiver ("International Winter Sports Week") and held in association with the 1924 Summer Olympics, the sports competitions were held at the foot of Mont Blanc in Chamonix, and Haute-Savoie, France between January 25 and February 5, 1924.[1] The Games were organized by the French Olympic Committee, and were in retrospect designated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the I Olympic Winter Games.

#### February 11 - 19, 1928: St Moritz, Switzerland

The ***1928 Winter Olympics***, officially known as the II Olympic Winter Games, were held in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The 1928 Games were the first true Winter Olympics held on its own as they were not in conjunction with a Summer Olympics. The preceding 1924 Games were retroactively renamed the inaugural Winter Olympics, though they had been in fact part of the 1924 Summer Olympics. All preceding Winter Events of the Olympic Games were the winter sports part of the schedule of the Summer Games, and not held as a separate Winter Games. These games also replaced the now redundant Nordic Games, that were held quadrennially since early in the century.

##### Winning Nations

* **Norway** (six Gold, four Silver and five Bronze medals)
	+ **Cross-country skiing**: shared with Sweden (one each Gold, Silver and Bronze)
	+ **Figure Skating**: shared with Sweden and France (one Gold each)
	+ **Nordic combined** (Gold, Silver & Bronze)
	+ **Ski Jumping** (Gold & Silver)
	+ **Speed Skating** (two Gold, one Silver, three Bronze)
* **United States** (two each Gold, Silver and Bronze)
	+ **Bobsleigh** (Gold, Silver); Great Britain (9th & 10th)
	+ **Skeleton** (Gold & Silver); Great Britain (Bronze)
* **Sweden** (two Gold, two Silver and one Bronze)
	+ **Cross-country skiing**: shared with Norway (one each Gold, Silver and Bronze)
* **Finland** (two Gold, one Silver and one Bronze)
* **Canada** and **France** (one Gold each)
	+ Canada: **Ice Hockey** (Great Britain, 4th)
* **Austria** (three Silver and one Bronze)
* **Belgium**, **Czechoslovakia**, **Germany**, **Great Britain** and **Switzerland** (one Bronze each)

#### February 4 - 15, 1932: Lake Placid, New York, USA

The ***1932 Winter Olympics***, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event in the United States, held in Lake Placid, New York.

#### February 6 - 16, 1936: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany

The ***1936 Winter Olympics***, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1936 in the market town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, Germany. Germany also hosted that year's Summer Olympics in Berlin. 1936 is the last year in which the Summer and Winter Games were both held in the same country (the cancelled 1940 games would have been held in Japan, with that country likewise hosting the Winter and Summer games).

### 1948 - 1960

#### January 30 - February 8, 1948: St. Moritz, Switzerland

The ***1948 Winter Olympics***, officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated in 1948 in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The Games were the first to be celebrated after World War II; it had been 12 years since the last Winter Games in 1936. From the selection of a host city in a neutral country to the exclusion of Japan and Germany, the political atmosphere of the post-war world was inescapable during the Games. The organising committee faced several challenges due to the lack of financial and human resources consumed by the war.

There were 28 nations that marched in the opening ceremonies. Nearly 670 athletes competed in 22 events in four sports. The Games also featured two demonstration sports: military patrol, which later became the biathlon, and winter pentathlon, which was discontinued after these Games. Notable performances were turned in by figure skaters Dick Button and Barbara Ann Scott and skier Henri Oreiller. Most of the athletic venues were already in existence from the first time St. Moritz hosted the Winter Games in 1928. All of the venues were outdoors, which meant the Games were heavily dependent on favourable weather conditions.

##### Winning Nations

* **Norway** and **Sweden** (four Gold, three Silver and three Bronze medals each)
	+ Sweden: **Cross-country skiing** (three Gold, two Silver, one Bronze)
	+ Norway: **Ski Jumping** (one each Gold, Silver, and Bronze)
	+ Norway: **Speed Skating** (three Gold, two Silver and one Bronze)
* **Switzerland** (three Gold, four Silver and three Bronze)
	+ **Alpine Skiing** (two each Gold, Silver and Bronze)
	+ **Bobsled** (one each Gold and Silver)
* **United States** (three Gold, four Silver and two Bronze)
* **France** (two Gold, one Silver and two Bronze)
* **Canada** (two Gold and one Bronze)
	+ **Figure Skating** (one each Gold and Bronze); Great Britain (7th, one Bronze)
	+ **Ice Hockey** (Great Britain, 5th)
* **Austria** (one Gold, three Silver and four Bronze)
* **Finland** (one Gold, three Silver and two Bronze
	+ **Nordic combined** (one each Gold and Silver)
* **Belgium** (one each Gold and Silver)
* **Italy** (one Gold)
	+ **Skeleton** (Great Britain, Bronze)
* **Great Britain**, 13th (last) with 2 Bronzes

### 1964 - 1980

#### February 6 - 18, 1968: Grenoble, France

The ***1968 Winter Olympics***, officially known as the X Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event at which 37 countries participated. The year 1968 marked the first time the IOC first permitted East and West Germany to enter separately, and the first time the IOC ever ordered drug and gender testing of competitors.

##### Winning Nations

* **Norway** (six Gold, six Silver and two Bronze medals)
	+ **Cross-country skiing** (four Gold, two Silver and one Bronze)
* **Soviet Union** (five Gold, five Silver and three Bronze)
	+ **Biathlon** (one Gold, one Silver and one Bronze)
	+ **Figure skating** (shared with United States with one Gold and one Silver each)
	+ **Ice hockey**
* **France** (four Gold, three Silver and two Bronze)
	+ **Alpine skiing** (four Gold, three Silver and one Bronze)
* **Italy** (four Gold)
	+ **Bobsleigh** (two Gold)
* **Austria** (three Gold, four Silver and four Bronze)
* **Netherlands** (three each Gold, Silver and Bronze
	+ **Speed skating** (three Golds, Silvers & Bronzes)
* **Sweden** (three Gold, two Silver and three Bronze)
* **West Germany** (two Gold, two Silver and three Bronze)
	+ **Nordic combined**
* **United States** (one Gold, five Silver and one Bro
	+ **Figure skating** (shared with Soviet Union with one Gold and one Silver each)
* **East Germany** (one Gold, two Silver and two Bronze)
	+ **Luge** (one Gold, one Silver & one Bronze)
* **Finland** (one Gold, two Silver and two Bronze)
* **Czechoslovakia**
	+ **Ski jumping** (one Gold & one Silver)

### 1984 - 1998

#### February 7 - 22, 1998: Nagano, Japan

The ***1998 Winter Olympics***, officially the XVIII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated in Nagano, Japan. The Games saw the introduction of women's ice hockey, curling and snowboarding. National Hockey League players were allowed to participate in the men's ice hockey.

##### Winning Nations

* **Germany** (12 Gold, nine Silver and eight Bronze medals)
	+ **Bobsleigh**, one each Gold and Bronze; Great Britain 5th= with France (one Bronze each)
	+ **Luge**, three Gold, one Silver and one Bronze
	+ **Snowboarding**, one each Gold and Silver
* **Norway** (10 Gold, 10 Silver and five Bronze)
	+ **Biathlon**, two Gold, two Silver and one Bronze
	+ **Nordic combined**, two Gold
* **Russia** (nine Gold, six Silver and three Bronze)
	+ **Cross-country skiing**, five Gold, two Silver and one Bronze
	+ **Figure skating**, three Gold and two Silver; Great Britain 6th
* **Canada** (six Gold, five Silver and four Bronze)
	+ **Curling**, one each Gold and Silver; Great Britain 7th out of eight
* **United States** (six Gold, three Silver and four Bronze)
	+ **Freestyle skiing**, three Golds
* **Netherlands** (five Gold, four Silver and two Bronze)
	+ **Speed skating**
* **Japan** (five Golds, one Silver and four Bronze)
	+ **Ski jumping**, two Gold, one Silver and one Bronze
* **Austria** (three Gold, five Silver and nine Bronze)
	+ **Alpine skiing**, three Gold, four Silver and four Bronze medals
* **South Korea** (three Golds, one Silver and two Bronze)
	+ **Short track speed skating**
* **Italy** (two Gold, six Silver and two Bronze)
* **Czech Republic** won the **Ice hockey** tournament
* **Great Britain** came joint 22nd (last) with **Australia** and **Belgium**