1924- First Winter Olympics Occur

The first Winter Olympics took place at Chamonix in the French Alps. Six sports and 12 events, including Ski Jump and Bobsledding occurred during the “International Winter Sports Week” as it was called then. The next Olympics was sceduled to be in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in 1928 by the International Olympi Committee (IOC).

The first Summer Olympics, or Nordic Games, took place in 1896 in Sweden, where only Scandinavian contried played in. in 1911, the IOC wanted to set a seperate time for winter sports. Sweden declined to protect the Nordic Games. The Winter Olympics were set to occur in Berlin, Germany, but World War I cancelled it.  Figure Skating became an official Oympic Sport in 1920 and Canada won the gold for hockey.

In 1925, Scandinavians, finally willing to join in, took over the speed rinks and sloped, and Norway won the unofficial team competition with 17 medals. The U.S came in third,  its only gold metal a 500 meter speed skating award. 13 of the 300 athletes were women- who only competed in figure skating. Finally, Norway won a total of eight skiing medals.

(Taken from: www.history.com)