Winter Olympic Games

The Winter Olympics were initiated in 1924 and were held in Chamonix, Paris for the first time. However, it wasn't until 1926 at the 24th International Olympic Committee Session in Lisbon, that the 1924 events in Chamonix were retroactively designated as the first Winter Olympics. The Winter Games since then have been successfully conducted after a gap of every four years. The Winter Olympic Games in contrast to Summer Olympic Games witnesses less participation by the countries. This is owing to the fact that the nations close to the equator do not enjoy popularity of the Winter Games and access to winter sport training facilities are relatively limited and non-existent. The most recent winter Games were held in 2006 at Turin, Italy and the next Winter Olympiad will be held in Vancouver, Canada in 2010. Given below is chronology of the Winter Olympic Games.

• Chamonix, 1924 - Initially called the 'International Sports Week 1924', it was retroactively named the First Olympic Winter Games.
• St. Moritz, 1928 - The Games held in Switzerland witnessed the introduction of a new event 'Skeleton' and at the same time 10,000 m speed skating was cancelled owing to the condition of the ice.
• Lake Placid, 1932 - Athletes from 17 nations participated at the III Winter Olympiad unlike 25 nations in the II Winter Olympiad.
• Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 1936 - Alpine Skiing events were introduced for the first time at the Games hosted by twin Bavarian towns. 28 nations participated at the games sending representation for seventeen events.
• St. Moritz, 1948 - The Games were held after a gap of twelve years owing to the II world War. Chile, Denmark, Lebanon, Korea and Island made their debut at these Winter Olympic Games.
• Oslo, 1952 - A total of thirty nations participated at the Games, with New Zealand and Portugal participating in the Games for the first time.
• Cortina d'Ampezzo, 1956 - The 1956 Winter Olympic Games witnessed soviets sending their team for the first time. The Soviets in their very first winter Olympics put up a spectacular show and won more medals than any other nations.
• Squaw Valley, 1960 - Women participated in speed skating for the first time during these games.
• Innsbruck, 1964 - 36 nations participated in the IX Olympic Winter Games and a total of 34 events were held. The Games were also threatened by a lack of snow. It was the Austrian Army that came to the rescue getting ice mountain tops at the site of the Games.
• Grenoble, 1968 - The Grenoble Winter Olympic Games were the first Games to be broadcast in color on television.
• Sapporo, 1972 - Held in Japan, it was for the first time that the Winter Olympics were held outside USA or Europe.
• Innsbruck, 1976 - These Games witnessed Olympic debut for ice dancing. Also for the first time, two Olympic Flames were lit.
• Lake Placid, 1980 - During and prior to the games many snow machines were used to ensure that the competitions took place in the best possible snow conditions.
• Sarajevo, 1984 - For the first and only time so far, the Winter Olympic Games took place in a socialist country. 49 nations participated in the XIV Winter Olympic Games.
• Calgary, 1988 - Canada hosted the Winter Olympic Games for the first time. These were also the first smoke-free games, with signs of No-Smoking placed everywhere around at the venue.
• Albertville, 1992 - During these games, Croatia and Slovenia participated as independent nations for the first time. Also this was the last time, when both the summer and winter Olympic Games were held together in the same year.
• Lillehammer, 1994 - The winter games for the first time were held two years apart. The summer Olympics and Winter Olympics are hence as a result are held alternately every two years.
• Nagano, 1998 - The Games were officially opened by His Majesty the emperor Akihito. Women took part in ice Hockey for the first time in Olympic history.
• Salt Lake City, 2002 - The judges put to use technology in the games as they used instant video replay in figure skating. China and Australia also made history at the games as they earned their first gold medals in Winter Olympics.
• Turin, 2006 - At the XX Winter Olympic Games, 80 nations participated. These games also witnessed the most stringent anti-doping controls ever as a record 1,219 tests were administered.
• Vancouver, 2010 - the XXI Winter Olympic Games are sue to held in Canada for the second time in February 2010.
• Sochi, 2014 - The International Olympic committee has granted the XXII Winter Olympic Games to Sochi, Russia. The Russian city won votes against Salzburg, Austria and PyeongChang, Republic of Korea.