1924 Chamonix Winter Olympics
Also called: I Olympic Winter Games, 1924 Winter Olympics, International Winter Sports Week
An “International Winter Sports Week” was held at Chamonix, France; the following year the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognized it as the first Winter Olympic Games.
Auguste Matisse · Public domain · Source
The modern Olympics began with summer sports, and figure skating (London 1908, Antwerp 1920) and ice hockey (Antwerp 1920) were held within the Summer Games. Proposals for a separate winter event met opposition from Sweden, Norway and others, which had their own Nordic Games. So ahead of the 1924 Paris Summer Olympics, France staged an “International Winter Sports Week” at Chamonix, below Mont Blanc, from 25 January to 5 February.
Some 250 athletes from 16 nations contested 16 events in skiing, skating, ice hockey, bobsleigh and curling. The first gold went to Charles Jewtraw of the United States in the 500 m speed skating, and Finland’s Clas Thunberg won three speed-skating golds. Norway and Finland swept most of the medals. Eleven-year-old Sonja Henie of Norway finished last in the women’s figure skating, but was champion four years later.
After this success the IOC decided at its 1925 session in Prague to hold separate Winter Games and retroactively recognized Chamonix as the first. Until 1992 the Winter Games were held in the same year as the Summer Games.
