On
January 25, 1924 athletes from 16 nations gathered at the foot of Mont Blanc in Chamonix, and Haute-Savoie,
France for an International Winter Sports Week.
The event was considered by its host, the French Olympic Committee, to be an informal extension of the Olympics
Games held that summer in Paris. It was in response to a clamor, particularly by Nordic
countries for an international venue
for amateur winter sports.
It
was only after the conclusion of the
successful games that the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) decided
to formally inaugurate the Winter Games at their meeting in 1925,
that they retroactively proclaimed
the Chamonix games the I Olympic Winter
Games. Thereafter the games would be
held every four years in the same years as the Summer Games—interrupted by World War II—until 1994 when the current schedule or holding the game two years after the last
Summer event was adopted.
Norway dominated Alpine events like the ski slalom.
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The
French event was not, however the first time some winter sports were part of
Olympic games. Figure Skating had been an Olympic event in both London and Antwerp, and Ice Hockey
was contested in Antwerp on indoor rinks. Obviously those events which had to be held outdoors could not be accommodated
in a normal Olympic schedule.
The sole American Gold Medal was in Speed Skating.
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The
first games were totally dominated
by Nordic teams. Norway won four Gold Medals
and 17 total medals, Finland had
four Golds and 11 total. The United States only took a Gold in Speed Skating, a very distant Silver in Hockey, Silver in Lady’s Figure Skating, and a Bronze for Men’s Ski Jump. But that was
better than the hapless home team,
despite fielding the second largest number of athletes. The French won just three Bronze medals, one
of them not actually awarded until 2006.
An unofficial sport at the games, curlers were finally awarded medal for the competition in 2006. Note the woman on this team--the only event in which women competed along side men.
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Curling had been
presented during the games, but was not considered an official sport. In 2006, the
IOC retroactively awarded medals to
the 1924 curling teams after an appeal
on behalf of the victorious British by
a Glasgow newspaper.
The
Curling medals were not the only ones awarded tardily. When officials in 1974 discovered a misentered score in a ski jumping
event, American Anders Haugen was
elevated from fourth place to third and the 86 year old athlete finally
received his Bronze.
The
last medal presented during the competition was awarded to a sport that was not
even contested during the games. The
French Olympic Committee presented a Gold Medal for alpinisme to Charles Granville Bruce, the leader of
the expedition that tried but failed
to climb Mount Everest in 1922.
Athletes
at the games competed in 16 events in 9 sports—Bob Sled, Curling, Ice Hockey, Military
Patrol, Figure Skating, Speed Skating, Cross
Country Skiing, Nordic Combined
Skiing, and Ski Jumping.
Norway's 13 year old Sonja Henie placed last in 1924 but was the darling of the games. She went on to win Gold Medals in the next three Winter Games and a career in Hollywood movies.
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In
Figure Skating Sweden’s Gillis Grafström became the first—and
last—individual to successfully defend
a Gold Medal won at a previous Summer
game, Antwerp in 1920. He would go on to notch a third win in 1928
and a Silver in 1932. On the distaff side 11 year old Sonja Henie skated for Norway. She finished last but became the darling of the competition. She would go on to win the next three
consecutive Gold Medals, a career as one of the highest paid movies stars in Hollywood,
and the first ice show queen.
Then
there was Ice Hockey. The Canadians,
like Grafström defending Gold won at Antwerp, achieved the most devastating complete domination of an event in
Olympic history, Summer or Winter. They
finished their qualifying round with 4 wins, and a total score of 110–3 against
Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, and Great Britain then breezed to a win
topping the U.S. This domination
continued through most of early Olympic history. The Canadians won six of the first seven Gold
Medals. Frankly, the whole country has
had a swelled head and been a dick about this ever since.
Since their crushed all opposing teams in hockey 110 to 3 points and dominated the first seven Winter Games, the Canadians have been all about the puck.
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All
in all it was an exciting and successful week of completion. Unlike the enormously expensive Summer games
that year in Paris, the winter events even turned a modest profit. They helped popularize winter sports in Europe and
North America. Not a bad debut.
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