The1924Winter Olympics, officially known as theI Olympic Winter Games (French:Iers Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known asChamonix 1924 (Arpitan:Chamôni 1924), were a wintermulti-sport event which was held in 1924 inChamonix, France. Organized by the French Olympic Committee and held as part of an "International Winter Sports Week", the competitions took place in Chamonix and Haute-Savoie, France, from 25 January to 5 February 1924. Although not initially termed "Winter Olympics", theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to retrospectively grant the Chamonix competitions the status of the first Winter Olympic Games at the committee's 26th session on May 6, 1926.[2][3]
The tradition of holding the Winter Olympics in the same year as the Summer Olympics would continue until1992, after which the current practice of holding a Winter Olympics in the second year after each Summer Olympics began.
Although figure skating had been an Olympic event in bothLondon andAntwerp and ice hockey had been an event in Antwerp, winter sports had always been limited by the season. At the 1921 IOC convention inLausanne, there was a call for equality for winter sports. After much discussion, it was decided that France, host nation for the1924 Summer Olympics, would hold an "international week of winter sport" in Chamonix.
While not one of the official 16 events (nor one of the 6sports) during the "International Winter Sports Week", the closing ceremony included Pierre de Coubertin presenting gold medals in "Alpinism" (mountaineering) to the members of the1922 British Mount Everest expedition, represented in Chamonix byLt Col Edward Strutt, deputy expedition leader.[4][a]
Sonja Henie ofNorway, at just eleven years old, took part in the ladies' figure skating competition. Although she finished last, she became popular with fans and went on to take gold at the following three Winter Olympics.[7]
Figure skaterGillis Grafström ofSweden became the first athlete to successfully defend his Summer Olympic title at the Winter Olympics (having won a gold medal in1920).
The Canadian ice hockey team (Toronto Granites) finished their qualifying round with three wins against Czechoslovakia (30–0), Sweden (22–0), and Switzerland (33–0), scoring a total of 85 goals and conceding none.[8]
Finding themselves in the same situation as Gillis Grafström, the Canadian ice hockey team is the last to defend their Summer Olympics title at the Winter Olympics successfully. Canada would dominate ice hockey in early Olympic competitions, winning six of the first seven gold medals awarded.
For the first time in the history of the modern Olympics, the host country (in this case,France) failed to win any gold medals, finishing with three bronze medals. The same outcome occurred at thenext Winter Olympics in St. Moritz whereSwitzerland won only a single bronze medal, the lowest ever output by a host nation at an Olympics. Later host nations to finish without gold medals includedCanada at the1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal,Yugoslavia at the1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, andCanada for a second time at the1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.
In 1925, theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to organize the Olympic Winter Games every four years, independent of the Olympic Games proper, and recognized the International Winter Sports Week as the first Olympic Winter Games in retrospect.
The final individual medal of Chamonix 1924 was presented in 1974. Theski jumping event was unusual because the bronze medalist was not determined for fifty years. Norway'sThorleif Haug was awarded third place at the event's conclusion, but a clerical error in calculating Haug's score was discovered in 1974 by skiing historianJakob Vaage, who further determined thatAnders Haugen of the United States, who had finished fourth, had actually scored 0.095 points more than Haug. This was verified by the IOC. On 12 September 1974, Anders Haugen, at the age of 85, came to Norway and was presented the bronze medal by Anna Maria Magnussen, Thorleif Haug's youngest daughter.[10]
In 2006, the IOC confirmed that the medals awarded to the 1924curling andmilitary patrol teams were official.[11] The IOC verified that curling was officially part of the program, after theGlasgow Herald newspaper filed a claim on behalf of the families of the team.[12]
Medals were awarded in 16 events contested in 5 sports (9 disciplines). Many sources do not list curling and the military patrol as Olympic events, or list them as demonstration events. However, no such designation was made in 1924. In February 2006, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ruled that curling and military patrol were part of the Olympic program, and have included the medals awarded in the official count.
Athletes from 16 nations competed in the first Winter Olympic Games.Germany was banned from competing in the games, and instead hosted a series of games calledDeutsche Kampfspiele.
Estonia speed skaterChristfried Burmeister was also in the list of participants but the message about his withdrawal was not sent to the organizers.[17]
Pierre de Coubertin—founder of theIOC & father of the modern Olympics movement—personally awarded, in addition to the medals awarded in the sports competitions, 21 gold medals to members of the1922 British Mount Everest Expedition including 12 Britons, 7 Indians, 1 Australian and 1 Nepalese.[18][19] Only the gold medal from 1924 is assigned to theWinter Olympics by the IOC in its database to theMixed team,[20][21] while the medals from 1932 and 1936 are assigned to theSummer Olympics for the respective NOCs.[22][23]
^Thirteen names were included at the 1924 closing ceremony. An additional eight expedition members were later awarded gold medals, after a request to theInternational Olympic Committee by 1922 expedition leader GeneralCharles Granville Bruce.[4]
^The official website of the Olympic Movement now treats Men's Military Patrol at the 1924 Games as an event within the sport ofBiathlon.[13][14] However, the 1924 Official Report treats it as an event and discipline within what was then called Skiing and is now calledNordic Skiing.[15][16]
^Official Report (1924), p 646: Le Programme ... II. — Epreuves par équipes - 12. Ski : Course militaire (20 à 30 kilomètres, avec tir). (The Programme ... II. — Team events - 12. Skiing : Military Race (20 to 30 kilometres, with shooting)).
^Official Report (1924), p 664: CONCOURS DE SKI - Jurys - COURSE MILITAIRE. (Skiing Competitions - Juries - Military Race)
