Winter Olympic Games
The Olympic flame in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics
Games
1924 • 1928 • 1932 • 1936 • 1940 • 1944 • 1948 • 1952 • 1956 • 1960 • 1964 • 1968 • 1972 • 1976 • 1980 • 1984 • 1988 • 1992 • 1994 • 1998 • 2002 • 2006 • 2010 • 2014 • 2018 • 2022
Sports (details)
Alpine skiing • Biathlon • Bobsleigh • Cross‑country skiing • Curling • Figure skating • Freestyle skiing • Ice hockey • Luge • Nordic combined • Short track speed skating • Skeleton • Ski jumping • Snowboarding • Speed skating

The Winter Olympic Games is a sporting event, which occurs every four years. The first celebration of the Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, France, in 1924. The original sports were alpine and cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping and speed skating. The Games were held every four years from 1924 until 1936 when they were interrupted by World War II. The Olympics resumed in 1948 and were celebrated every four years. The Winter and Summer Olympic Games were held in the same years until 1992, when the governing body for the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), decided to place the Summer and Winter Games on separate four-year cycles in alternating even-numbered years.

The Winter Games have evolved since their inception. Sports have been added and some of them, such as luge, short track speed skating and freestyle skiing, have earned a permanent spot on the Olympic programme. Others, such as speed skiing, bandy and skijoring, were demonstration sports but never incorporated as Olympic sports. The rise of television as a global medium for communication enhanced the profile of the Games. It created an income stream, via the sale of broadcast rights and advertising, which has become lucrative for the IOC. This allowed outside interests, such as television companies and corporate sponsors, to exert influence. The IOC has had to address several criticisms, internal scandals, the use of performance enhancing drugs by Winter Olympians, as well as a political boycott of the Winter Olympics. Nations have used the Winter Games to showcase the claimed superiority of their political systems.

The Winter Olympics have been hosted on three continents, but never in a country in the southern hemisphere. The United States has hosted the Games four times; France has been the host three times; Austria, Canada, Italy, Japan, Norway and Switzerland have hosted the Games twice. In 2014 Sochi will be the first Russian city to host the Winter Olympics. The IOC has selected Pyeongchang, South Korea, to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.

History[link]

Early years[link]

Ulrich Salchow at the 1908 Olympics

The first international multi-sport event for winter sports was the Nordic Games held in Sweden in 1901. Originally organised by General Viktor Gustaf Balck, the Nordic Games were held again in 1903 and 1905 and then every fourth year thereafter until 1926.^[1] 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.^[1] Four figure skating events were contested and at which Ulrich Salchow (10-time world champion) and Madge Syers won the individual titles.^[2][3]

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.^[4][5][6] 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.^[5]

The first Olympics after the war were held in Antwerp, Belgium and featured figure skating and ice hockey tournament.^[5] 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.^[7] Athletes from Finland and Norway won 28 medals, more than the rest of the participating nations combined.^[8] 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.^[5][7]

St. Moritz, Switzerland, was appointed by the IOC to host the second Olympic Winter Games in 1928.^[9] Fluctuating weather conditions challenged the hosts. The opening ceremony was held in a blizzard while warm weather conditions plagued sporting events throughout the rest of the Games.^[10] Because of the weather the 10,000 metre speed-skating event had to be abandoned and officially cancelled.^[11] The weather was not the only note-worthy aspect of the 1928 Games; Sonja Henie of Norway made history when she won the figure skating competition at the age of 15. She became the youngest Olympic champion in history, a distinction she would hold for 74 years.^[12]

The next Winter Olympics was the first to be hosted outside of Europe. Seventeen nations and 252 athletes participated.^[13] This was less than in 1928 as the journey to Lake Placid, United States, was a long and expensive one for most competitors who had little money in the midst of the Great Depression. The athletes competed in fourteen events in four sports.^[13] Virtually no snow fell for two months before the Games, it was not until mid-January that there was enough snow to hold all the events.^[14] Sonja Henie defended her Olympic title and Eddie Eagan, who had been an Olympic champion in boxing in 1920, won the gold in the men's bobsleigh event to become the first, and so far only, Olympian to have won gold medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics.^[13]

The German towns of Garmisch and Partenkirchen joined to organise the 1936 edition of the Winter Games, held on February 6–16.^[15] This would be the last time the Summer and Winter Olympics were held in the same country in the same year. Alpine skiing made its Olympic debut, but skiing teachers were barred from entering because they were considered to be professionals.^[16] Because of this decision the Swiss and Austrian skiers refused to compete at the Games.^[16]

World War II[link]

World War II interrupted the celebrations of the Winter Olympics. The 1940 Games had been awarded to Sapporo, Japan, but the decision was rescinded in 1938 because of the Japanese invasion of China. The Games were moved to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, but the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which precipitated the commencement of World War II in Europe, forced the cancellation of the 1940 Games.^[17] Due to the ongoing war the 1944 Games, originally scheduled for Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, were cancelled.^[18]

1948 to 1960[link]

St. Moritz was selected to host the first post-war Games in 1948. Switzerland's neutrality had protected the town during World War II and most of the venues were in place from the 1928 Games, which made St. Moritz a logical choice to become the first city to host a Winter Olympics twice.^[19] Twenty-eight countries competed in Switzerland, but athletes from Germany and Japan were not invited.^[20] Controversy erupted when two hockey teams from the United States arrived, both claiming to be the legitimate U.S. Olympic hockey representative. The Olympic flag presented at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp was stolen, as was its replacement. There was unprecedented parity at these Games, during which 10 countries won gold medals—more than any Games to that point.^[21]

The Olympic Flame for the 1952 Games in Oslo, was lit in the fireplace by skiing pioneer Sondre Nordheim and the torch relay was conducted by 94 participants entirely on skis.^[22][23] Bandy, a popular sport in the Nordic countries, was featured as a demonstration sport; though only Norway, Sweden and Finland fielded teams. Norwegian athletes won 17 medals, which outpaced all the other nations.^[24] They were led by Hjalmar Andersen who won three gold medals in four events in the speed skating competition.^[25]

After not being able to host the Games in 1944, Cortina d'Ampezzo was selected to organise the 1956 Winter Olympics. At the opening ceremonies the final torch bearer, Guido Caroli, entered the Olympic Stadium on ice skates. As he skated around the stadium his skate caught on a cable and he fell, nearly extinguishing the flame. He was able to recover and lit the cauldron.^[26] These were the first Winter Games to be televised, though no television rights would be sold until the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.^[27] The Cortina Games were used to test the feasibility of televising large sporting events.^[27] The Soviet Union made its Olympic debut and had an immediate impact, winning more medals than any other nation.^[28] Chiharu Igaya won the first Winter Olympics medal for Japan and the continent of Asia, when he placed second in the slalom.^[29]

The IOC awarded the 1960 Olympics to Squaw Valley, United States. Since the village was underdeveloped there was a rush to construct infrastructure and sports facilities like an ice arena, speed-skating track, and a ski-jump hill.^[30][31] The opening and closing ceremonies were produced by Walt Disney.^[32] The Squaw Valley Olympics had a number of notable firsts: it was the first Olympics to have a dedicated athletes' village; it was the first to use a computer (courtesy of IBM) to tabulate results; and the first to feature female speed skating events. The bobsleigh events were absent for the first and only time because the organising committee found it too expensive to build the bobsleigh run.^[32]

1964 to 1980[link]

The Herb Brooks Arena, site of the "Miracle on Ice", photo taken ca. 2007

The Austrian city of Innsbruck was the host in 1964. Although Innsbruck was a traditional winter sports resort, warm weather caused a lack of snow during the Games and the Austrian army was asked to transport snow and ice to the sport venues.^[32] Soviet speed-skater Lidia Skoblikova made history by sweeping all four speed-skating events. Her career total of six gold medals set a record for Winter Olympics athletes.^[32] Luge was first contested in 1964, although the sport received bad publicity when a competitor was killed in a pre-Olympic training run.^[33][34]

Held in the French town of Grenoble, the 1968 Winter Olympics were the first Olympic Games to be broadcast in colour. There were 37 nations and 1,158 athletes competing in 35 events.^[35] Frenchman Jean-Claude Killy became only the second person to win all the men's alpine skiing events. The organising committee sold television rights for $2 million, which was more than double the price of the broadcast rights for the Innsbruck Games.^[36] Venues were spread over long distances requiring three athletes' villages. The organisers claimed this was required to accommodate technological advances. Critics disputed this, alleging that the layout was necessary to provide the best possible venues for television broadcasts at the expense of the athletes.^[36]

The 1972 Winter Games, held in Sapporo, Japan, were the first to be hosted outside North America or Europe. The issue of professionalism became contentious during the Sapporo Games. Three days before the Games IOC president Avery Brundage threatened to bar a number of alpine skiers from competing because they participated in a ski camp at Mammoth Mountain in the United States. Brundage reasoned that the skiers had financially benefited from their status as athletes and were therefore no longer amateurs.^[37] Eventually only Austrian Karl Schranz, who earned more than all the other skiers, was not allowed to compete.^[38] Canada did not send teams to the 1972 or 1976 ice hockey tournaments in protest of their inability to use players from professional leagues.^[39] Francisco Ochoa became the only Spaniard to ever win a Winter Olympic gold medal when he triumphed in the slalom.^[40]

The 1976 Winter Games had been awarded to Denver, United States, but in 1972 the city's voters passed a referendum declining to be hosts.^[41] Innsbruck, which had maintained the infrastructure from the 1964 Games, was chosen to replace Denver.^[42] Two Olympic flames were lit because it was the second time the Austrian town had hosted the Games.^[42] The 1976 Games featured the first combination bobsleigh and luge track, in neighbouring Igls.^[40] The Soviet Union won its fourth consecutive ice hockey gold medal.^[42]

In 1980 the Olympics returned to Lake Placid who had hosted the 1932 Games. The first boycott of a Winter Olympics occurred during the 1980 Games when Taiwan refused to participate after an edict by the IOC mandated that they change their name and national anthem.^[43] The IOC was attempting to accommodate China, who wished to compete using the same name and anthem that had been used by Taiwan.^[43] American speed-skater Eric Heiden set either an Olympic or world record in each of the five events he competed in.^[44] Hanni Wenzel won both the slalom and giant slalom and her country, Liechtenstein, became the smallest nation to produce an Olympic gold medallist.^[13] In the "Miracle on Ice" the American hockey team beat the favoured Soviets and went on to win the gold medal.^[45]