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The Olympic Winter Games have provided a host of memorable moments and performances turned in by skiers, sledders, speedskaters and figure skaters alike. Do you remember how U.S. women's figure skater Dorothy Hamill charmed audiences at the 1976 Innsbruck Games, or Scott Hamilton's wild backward flip during his gold medal performance at Sarajevo in 1984?
And who can possibly forget the exciting and nerve-racking match between the United States and Soviet ice hockey teams at Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1980?
With each staging, the Winter Games have become more and more popular. When the first Games were held in Chamonix, France, in 1924, only 16 nations sent teams to compete in 14 events. At the last Olympics, held in Lillehammer in 1994, 67 countries were represented, and they vied for medals in more than 60 events. In 1998, 83 countries are expected to participate.
In the Beginning
The road to the first Olympic Games was not an easy one. A proposal early in this century to hold a sports winter gathering met with stiff opposition from the Scandinavian countries. They did not want a large international gathering to interfere or compete with their own Nordic games, which were initiated in 1901.
Two "winter sports" were actually added to the program of the 1920 Olympic Summer Games in Antwerp, Belgium -- ice hockey and figure skating. In 1922, the French Olympic Committee decided that the time had come for a Winter Olympics to be held, whether the Scandinavians agreed or not.
First Winter Games
Subsequently, for two weeks in late January and early February 1924, the first Winter Games were successfully staged in Chamonix, France. Oddly enough, they were not officially sanctioned as a "Winter Olympics" by the International Olympic Committee until the following year.
Like their Summer counterparts, the Winter Games could not avoid being affected by world events. Two planned Games, set for Sapporo, Japan, in 1940 and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, in 1944 were canceled because of events leading to and during World War II. Both locations however, would be re-awarded Winter Games after the war.
Alternating Years
Since their inception, the Games have undergone a number of changes. The number of sports and individual events has grown substantially over the years, and, in 1986, a major scheduling change in the Games was announced. The Summer Games and the Winter Games would from 1992 forward alternate at two-year rather than four-year intervals. |
