The History of the Winter Olympics
By Sherril Steele-Carlin
The ancient Greek sports that turned into the Olympic Games didn't include winter sports, so how did the Winter Games evolve?
Old History
The modern Olympic Games began in 1894, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was formed. However, the ancient Olympic Games did not include winter events, and the IOC saw no reason to change this – at first.
Many proponents of winter sports began to lobby the IOC, and in 1908, the summer games included men's and women's ice skating events.
A winter sports week was to be included in the 1916 Summer Games, but those games were cancelled due to World War I beginning.
In 1920, ice skating continued and ice hockey debuted. These sports were such a success that the IOC decided to sponsor a "Winter Sports Week" in 1924. This week was so successful the IOC decided to hold winter games every four years, and the 1924 events were eventually designated as the first Winter Olympic Games. Sports included ice hockey, ice skating, speed skating, and Nordic skiing, including ski jumping.
Olympic Firsts
The first Winter Olympics (1924) were held in Chamonix, France. The first Olympic athletes came from 16 nations. There were over two hundred of them, and they competed in 18 events. The first athlete to ever win a medal in the Winter Olympics was American Charlie Jewtraw who won the 500 meter speed skating event.
The first North American Winter Olympics was held in Lake Placid, New York in 1932. The second Winter Olympics held in North America, and the first in the West took place in 1960 at Squaw Valley, California, near Lake Tahoe. These were the first televised Winter Olympics.
2006 Winter Olympic Games
This year's Winter Olympics take place in Turino, Italy, after extremely successful games in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2002. Those games hosted 2399 athletes from 77 nations who competed in 78 events in and around the Salt Lake area.
The most controversial event at the Salt Lake Games was a dispute in the pair figure skating judging, which resulted in sweeping changes to how figure skating is scored and judged. The 2006 Winter Olympics will be the first Olympic Games to use the new scoring method for all figure skating events.
