History of the Olympic Winter Games

Chamonix, France, 1924

The Chamonix Games were originally staged as International Winter Sports Week, a meet sponsored by the IOC but not sanctioned as an official Olympic Games. Well-organized and equipped with new facilities, the event was a success and led the IOC to amend its charter in 1925, establishing the Winter Games. Chamonix was thereafter recognized as the first Winter Olympics.

Some 250 athletes representing 16 countries attended the Games, competing in 16 events. The 11 female athletes participated in the figure skating competition, the only sport open to women until the addition of the Alpine (skiing) combined in the 1936 Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

Finnish speed skater Clas Thunberg turned in the most impressive performance at Chamonix, capturing three gold medals, one silver, and one bronze. Norwegian Thorleif Haug was the star of the Nordic skiing competition, winning three events. Canada dominated the ice hockey competition, winning games by as many as 33 goals before defeating the United States in the championship game 6–1. Chamonix marked the Olympic debut of 11-year-old figure skater Sonja Henie of Norway. Though she would become one of the greatest figure skaters of all time, she finished last in the standings.

St. Moritz, Switzerland, 1928

The second Winter Olympics, held at a ski resort, were marred by bad weather. The culprit was the foehn, a strong wind that carried with it warm air, causing temperatures to soar above 75 °F (24 °C) some afternoons. Numerous events were rescheduled, and one contest—the 10,000-meter speed skating event—was canceled, though some books list American Irving Jaffee, who held the lead after the first run, as the winner. St. Moritz also marked the return of German athletes, who had been banned from Olympic competition following World War I; the country claimed only one medal, a bronze in the four-man bobsled.

Standouts among the 464 competing athletes were speed skater Clas Thunberg (Finland) and Nordic skier Johan Gröttumsbråten (Norway), who each won two gold medals. In figure skating Gillis Grafström (Sweden) captured his third title, while 15-year-old Sonja Henie (Norway) won the first of her three gold medals. Canada continued to dominate in ice hockey. The team’s obvious superiority led officials to devise a new tournament format in which Canada went straight to the final round, awaiting the winners of the three pools. Canada still won, posting victories over Sweden (11–0), Switzerland (13–0), and Great Britain (14–0). St. Moritz featured the debut of skeleton sledding, a contest in which competitors, lying headfirst on sleds, raced down the 1,213-meter- (0.75-mile-) long Cresta Run.

Lake Placid, New York, U.S., 1932

The worldwide economic depression cast a shadow over the third Winter Olympics. Only 17 countries attended, represented by some 250 athletes, over half of whom were from Canada and the United States. The Games generated little revenue, and organizers, who had built a new stadium and bobsled run, suffered huge financial losses.

Controversies surrounding the speed skating competition drew much attention. Pack-style skating was introduced, whereby the competitors raced each other instead of skating in pairs and racing against the clock. Europeans, unfamiliar with this style, fared poorly as two Americans, Irving Jaffee and Jack Shea, swept the events, each winning two gold medals. Legendary Finnish speed skater Clas Thunberg refused to compete, and pack skating was dropped from Olympic competition following the Lake Placid Games. Turmoil also ensued in the 1,500- and 10,000-meter events. In the former, judges stopped the second heat, claiming the skaters were “loafing,” and ordered them to start over. In the 10,000-meter event, a rule requiring each contestant to assist in setting the pace led to the disqualification of three skaters in the first heat, though protests led to the contest’s being rerun.

The two-man bobsled was introduced at the 1932 Games, and the American brothers J. Hubert Stevens and Curtis Stevens won gold with their practice—then highly unorthodox and now illegal—of heating the sled’s runners with a blowtorch before competition. Poor weather forced the four-man bobsled competition to be completed after the closing ceremonies. Eddie Eagan, a member of the winning American team, became the first athlete to win a gold medal at both the Winter and Summer Games; in 1920 he had won the light heavyweight boxing title. The 1932 Games marked the final Olympic appearance of Norwegian Johan Gröttumsbråten, who helped his country capture all three medals in the Nordic combined event for the third consecutive Winter Olympics. In figure skating three-time champion Gillis Grafström (Sweden) was dethroned by Austrian Karl Schäfer.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, 1936

Held in a Bavarian resort, the fourth Winter Olympics were opened by Chancellor Adolf Hitler. Although not as politically charged as the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin, the event was manipulated by the Nazi regime, which suppressed unfavorable press coverage and staged lavish celebrations to mark the openings of new facilities. The IOC had forbidden Germany to exclude Jews from its Olympic team, but only one Jewish athlete represented the country—Rudi Ball, who was invited to participate on the ice hockey team after having fled Germany months before.

For the first time female athletes were allowed to compete in a sport other than figure skating with the inclusion of the Alpine combined, an event held over several days, which featured the downhill and two slalom runs. Over Swiss and Austrian protests, the IOC ruled that hotel ski instructors were professional athletes and thus ineligible. Germany collected the gold and silver in both the men’s and the women’s competition.

The biggest upset of the Games occurred in the ice hockey competition, Great Britain defeating Canada to win its only gold medal in the event. Controversy over the eligibility of several British players, however, clouded Britain’s victory. The 1936 Games marked the end of two stellar careers. In his final Olympic appearance, speed skater Ivar Ballangrud (Norway) turned in the most successful performance at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, winning three gold medals and one silver. After narrowly winning her third women’s figure skating title, Sonja Henie (Norway) turned professional and pursued a career in film. Another Norwegian, Birger Ruud, made a great impression at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, winning his second gold medal in the ski jump and placing first in the Alpine downhill race, then a demonstration event.