Winter Olympics - A slow, but successful start
The Summer Olympic Games made its debut in 1896 (Athens, Greece), but the introduction of the official Winter Olympics did not get its start until years later. Figure skating was the first non-summer event to be presented to the world, but the sport only emerged during an appearance at the 1908 Summer Games - held in London, England. Amongst the winners, during those Games, was Sweden’s Ulrich Salchow - creator of the legendary “Salchow” jump - who won the Gold in the men’s individual figure skating competition. Non-summer sports events once again tried to make an appearance during the 1916 Summer Games, to be held in Berlin, Germany. However, the planned “Skiing Olympia” presentation was cancelled due to World War I. The final combined “Summer / Winter Olympics” were held during the Antwerp, Belgium Summer Games in 1920. In addition to figure skating, ice hockey was included in the competition. Both events were easily held within indoor ice rinks. Canada took home ice hockey’s first Gold medal, and the United States brought home the silver. Theresa Blanchard was the first United States non-summer event Olympic medalist, taking home the Bronze in figure skating.
The first Winter Olympics were held in 1924, at Chamonix, France. However, at the time, they were not officially designated as the “Winter Olympics”. Instead, the International Olympic Committee only authorized an “International Sports Week”, which included the biathlon, bobsledding, curling, figure skating, hockey, cross country skiing, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and speed skating events. The naysayers, however, proposed to call the sports event, an “Olympic Carnival / Festival”. The first “Games” also had United States Bronze medalist, Anders Haugen, waiting a long time for acknowledgement of his success. Because of a scoring mishap, Haugen (who would be 83 years-old at the time of recognition) was left waiting 50 years before receiving his medal. Despite all the controversy, surrounding the new worldwide competition, the “Carnival / Festival” or “Sports Week” was immensely popular, and was subsequently accepted and documented as the very first Official Winter Olympics to take place!
Since that time, the Winter Olympics have been held every 4 years, with the exception of the 1940 and 1944 Games, which were cancelled due to World War II. The 2006 Torino, Italy Games have just come to a close, and the next Winter Olympics will be held in the beautiful city of Vancouver, in 2010.
During the course of history, the Winter Olympics has captivated millions of international viewers, and has brought out the best and worst in athletes. For example, who could ever forget the thrill of the 1980 Lake Placid, New York Games - where the U.S. Hockey Team pulled off a miracle win, or the tragedy of the 1994 Lillehammer, Norway Winter Olympics, which featured the bad-girl Tonya vs. good-girl Nancy ice skating performances?
For better or worse, the competition marches on, and every few years, the world is witness to a new and exciting spectacular display of the best athletes (and drama) that the Winter Olympics has to offer!