Chamonix 1924 invented the Winter Olympics
Snow and ice sports meet every four years under the International Olympic Committee—usually in a Northern Hemisphere February. The first edition, retroactively crowned later, was Chamonix 1924: more than 250 athletes from sixteen nations in sixteen events.
Original programme sports were bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, Nordic skiing (military patrol, cross-country, Nordic combined, ski jumping), and skating (figure and speed). Alpine skiing, luge, short track, freestyle, skeleton, and snowboarding later earned permanent slots; military patrol vanished though biathlon descends from it; speed skiing, bandy, and skijoring stayed demonstration-only. Games ran 1924–1936, paused for World War II in 1940 and 1944, and resumed in 1948. Until 1992 they shared years with the Summer Games; a 1986 IOC decision staggered the cycles, so 1994 (after 1992) realigned winters onto even years opposite summers. Milan–Cortina hosts 2026; the French Alps are set for 1–17 February 2030.
Thirteen Northern Hemisphere countries have hosted across three continents—four times in the United States, thrice each in France and Italy, twice in Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Japan, and Canada, once each elsewhere including China 2022. Twelve nations have attended every Winter Games; six have medaled every time; only the United States owns gold at every edition. Norway leads the all-time medal table among current states. Precursors include Viktor Gustaf Balck's Nordic Games from 1901 and figure skating at London 1908, where Ulrich Salchow and Madge Syers took individual titles. A planned 1916 Berlin winter week died with World War I; Antwerp 1920 revived skating and hockey before France's 1924 "International Winter Sports Week" became official history in 1925.
Charles Jewtraw won the first gold in the 500-metre speed skate; eleven-year-old Sonja Henie finished last yet charmed crowds, then took gold at fifteen in 1928—youngest champion for seventy years—and defended twice more. Gillis Grafström won figure gold in both Summer 1920 and Winter 1924, then again in 1928. St. Moritz 1928 fought blizzards and thaws that cancelled the 10,000-metre skate. Lake Placid 1932 was the first non-European host; Eddie Eagan added bobsleigh gold to his 1920 boxing title—still the only dual-season golds in different sports as of 2020. Oslo 1952 lit a flame in Sondre Nordheim's hearth and ran ninety-four skiing torchbearers; Cortina 1956 offered the first Winter Games televised internationally.
Source: Winter Olympic Games
