Winter Olympics

The Winter Olympics have a significantly shorter history than the summer variant, which was held as early as 776 BC and since 1896 in the modern variant. The Winter Olympics were first held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. At least in retrospect those were the first winter games. Founder of the modern games Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) was not in favor of separate games especially for winter sports and it could also be that figure skating was on the summer program in 1908 and ice hockey in 1920. In addition to the Coubertin, there was also fear of competition for their own competitions in the classic winter sports countries, mainly Norway and Sweden.

However, the Semaine des Sports d'Hiver, 'the winter sports week' organized by the IOC in 1924 in Chamonix, was such a great success that the IOC later renamed the tournament the first Winter Olympics in 1925. From that moment on, the IOC also wanted the winter sports variant every four years. In Chamonix, athletes from 16 countries took part and competed in just seven disciplines, namely long track speed skating, ice hockey, ski jumping, figure skating, Nordic combined, downhill skiing and cross country skiing.

In 2022 there are fifteen different sports with a total of 109 different parts. The Winter Games are always held every four years in February and until 1992 they coincided with the Summer Games. Since Lillehammer 1994, the two different Games have been organized alternately with an interval of two years.

During the Second World War, no Olympic Games were held, they were to take place in 1940 in St. Moritz, Switzerland and in 1944 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Because winter sports require a cold climate, no country from the southern hemisphere has ever hosted the event, but the Olympic fire has been lit on three continents: North America, Europe and Asia.