98 Fun Facts About Winter Olympics

In which town were the first Winter Olympics held, in 1924?

Chamonix: it was billed as an 'International Winter Sports Week', not the Olympics, and only later recognised by the IOC as the first Winter Games.

Whose ex-husband orchestrated the attack on skater Nancy Kerrigan weeks before the 1994 Winter Olympics?

Tonya Harding: she was still allowed to skate at those Games, but finished eighth while Kerrigan took silver.

Which resort was the first to host the Winter Olympics twice?

St. Moritz: in neutral Switzerland most of its 1928 venues were still available, so it could host the first post-war Games.

Where were the Winter Olympics first held outside Europe?

Lake Placid: the worldwide Depression kept teams away, so only 17 countries took part.

Which figure skater finished last at the first Winter Olympics, aged just 11?

Sonja Henie: four years later she won the first of three straight Olympic titles, then became a Hollywood film star.

Olympic curling stones are made from granite quarried on which uninhabited Scottish island?

Ailsa Craig: its rare microgranite is unusually hard and resistant to impact, which is why Kays of Scotland makes Olympic stones from it.

Gillis Grafström, first to win gold at both Summer and Winter Games, competed in which sport?

Figure skating: he won his first gold at the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games, which included skating, then two Winter golds and a 1932 silver.

Eddie Eagan won a 1932 bobsleigh gold after winning a 1920 gold in which sport?

Boxing: after his 1920 light-heavyweight title, Eagan went on to study at Oxford, and twelve years later won gold in the four-man bobsled.

Which leader opened the Winter Olympics where alpine skiing made its debut?

Hitler: his regime took down antisemitic signs before those Games and let Jewish player Rudi Ball join Germany's hockey team.

The cancelled 1940 Winter Games had originally been awarded to which city?

Sapporo: as Japan's war with China dragged on, the city withdrew in July 1938, and it finally hosted the Winter Games in 1972.

The 1952 Oslo flame was lit in the fireplace of which skiing pioneer's house?

Sondre Norheim: the flame came from the hearth of his birthplace in Morgedal and was carried to Oslo in a relay run entirely on skis.

At the 1956 opening ceremony, final torchbearer Guido Caroli entered the stadium how?

On ice skates: the speed skater tripped over a wire and fell, but he wasn't hurt, the torch stayed lit, and he went on to light the cauldron.

Which country won ice hockey gold at its first Winter Olympics, in 1956?

The Soviet Union: its upset hockey win began decades of dominance, and it topped the medal table on its Winter Olympic debut.

Which Hollywood figure ran the opening and closing ceremonies at the 1960 Winter Olympics?

Walt Disney: a snowstorm delayed the opening by an hour, but his show still went ahead, releasing 2,000 birds over the arena.

Through 2026, which host city held the only Winter Olympics without bobsleigh?

Squaw Valley: a poll found only nine nations would send teams, so organisers refused to build a bob run despite the bobsleigh federation's petitions.

Who hauled snow and ice to the venues when Innsbruck ran short in 1964?

The Austrian army: soldiers hauled snow to the ski courses and packed it down after a warm foehn wind left them bare.

Which city hosted the 1968 Winter Olympics?

Grenoble: there Peggy Fleming won the women's skating gold, seven years after a plane crash had killed the entire US skating team.

Which skier won all three men's alpine events at the 1968 Winter Olympics?

Jean-Claude Killy: he matched Toni Sailer's 1956 sweep, but his slalom win came only after a rival's disqualification.

Which Austrian skier was banned from the 1972 Winter Olympics as a professional?

Karl Schranz: IOC president Avery Brundage made an example of him over ski-maker deals, though almost every top skier had such contracts.

Francisco Fernández Ochoa won 1972 slalom gold as the first Winter champion from where?

Spain: his slalom win was a major upset, and his sister Blanca won Spain's second Winter Olympic medal, a slalom bronze, 20 years later.

Which U.S. city gave up the 1976 Winter Olympics after voters rejected public funding?

Denver: after the 1972 vote the city withdrew, and Innsbruck, host in 1964, stepped in to stage the Games again.

Which American speed skater won five individual golds at the 1980 Winter Olympics?

Eric Heiden: after retiring he became a professional cyclist and finished the 1985 Giro d'Italia, then trained as an orthopaedic surgeon.

The 1980 "Miracle on Ice" U.S. hockey team was composed of whom?

College players: their opponents were veteran pros with nominal day jobs, yet the students won 4–3 and went on to take gold.

Torvill and Dean's perfect-scoring 1984 free dance was set to which piece?

Boléro: all nine judges gave Torvill and Dean a perfect 6.0 for artistic impression, and the pair turned professional soon afterwards.

At which 1988 host city did Dutch skater Yvonne van Gennip win three speed-skating golds?

Calgary: the same Games saw favourite Dan Jansen fall in both his races after learning that his sister had died.

Taron Egerton played which 1988 Winter Olympian in a 2016 biopic?

Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards: a plasterer with poor eyesight, he finished last in both ski jumps yet set British records in each.

Cool Runnings is about which nation's 1988 bobsled team?

Jamaica: the real four-man team lost control and crashed on its third run at those Games.

Which Finnish ski jumper won all three events in his sport in 1988?

Matti Nykänen: 1988 was the first Games with a team ski-jumping event, so his three golds made him the most successful jumper at a single Games.

Which 1992 host staged the last Winter Games held in the same year as a Summer Games?

Albertville: the IOC had decided in 1986 to split the cycles, so the next Winter Games followed after only two years.

Through 2026, which host city was the northernmost ever to stage the Winter Olympics?

Lillehammer: at its opening ceremony a ski jumper carried the flame down the hill, standing in for a teammate who was hurt in practice.

Which country won the 1998 men's hockey tournament, the first with NHL players?

Czech Republic: led by goaltender Dominik Hašek, the Czechs upset Russia in the final after the NHL paused its season for the Games.

Which piece of equipment made its Olympic debut on the 1998 Nagano oval?

The clap skate: once early adopters won medals with it in 1996–97, the rest of the field switched to it before Nagano.

The 2002 pairs-skating judging scandal centred on a judge from which country?

France: judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne was suspended, and within days Salé and Pelletier were given gold alongside Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze.

Short-track skater Steven Bradbury won a famous 2002 gold for which country?

Australia: Bradbury was trailing the final until every rival crashed on the last corner, leaving him to glide through for gold.

In 2006, a Norwegian coach helped skier Sara Renner to a silver by lending her what?

A ski pole: hers had been broken by a rival, and Norway, whose coach Bjørnar Håkensmoen handed it over, finished fourth.

Which country finally won Olympic gold on home soil at the 2010 Winter Games?

Canada: after winning no gold as host in 1976 or 1988, it launched 'Own the Podium' and topped the gold count in 2010.

Which country swept the men's 500, 5,000 and 10,000 metres podiums at the 2014 Winter Olympics?

Netherlands: in the 10,000 metres, Jorrit Bergsma upset favoured teammate Sven Kramer, whose lane blunder had cost him gold four years earlier.

Who won 2018 golds in both super-G skiing and snowboard parallel giant slalom?

Ester Ledecká: mainly a snowboarder, she won the super-G by just 0.01 seconds over defending champion Anna Veith.

Which city became the first to host both a Summer and a Winter Olympics, in 2022?

Beijing: with little natural snow at its mountain venues, organisers relied on man-made snow, while many arenas were reused from 2008.

Which country won its first Olympic men's ice hockey gold in 2022?

Finland: the Finns went unbeaten through the tournament and beat the Russian Olympic Committee in the final.

Which region was awarded the 2030 Winter Olympics in 2024?

The French Alps: the IOC's award was only conditional, because the national government, in political flux, could not yet give financial guarantees.

The 2034 Winter Olympics were awarded to which U.S. state?

Utah: the IOC wrote in a clause letting it take the Games away if the US undermines the World Anti-Doping Agency's authority.

Under which flag did North and South Korea march together at the 2018 Winter Olympics?

A unification flag: the two Koreas also combined their players into a single women's ice hockey team.

The Nordic Games, a forerunner of the Winter Olympics, began in 1901 in which city?

Stockholm: partly to protect the Nordic Games, Sweden resisted adding Olympic winter events to its 1912 Summer Games.

Which snowboarder won halfpipe gold at the 2006, 2010 and 2018 Winter Olympics?

Shaun White: born with a congenital heart defect, he needed two open-heart surgeries before his first birthday.

Which team withdrew from the 1980 Winter Olympics in a row over its name and flag?

Taiwan: after the IOC recognised the People's Republic of China, its team arrived with the old flag, anthem and 'Republic of China' uniforms.

The modern sport of biathlon descends from which discontinued early Olympic event?

Military patrol: a 1924 medal event, it survived only as a demonstration sport until biathlon, its descendant, joined the programme in 1960.

Which city shared hosting of the 2026 Winter Olympics with Cortina d'Ampezzo?

The two host sites are about 410 km apart by road.

Officials asking CBS to review tape of a 1960 Winter Olympics slalom run inspired which TV staple?

Instant replay grew out of that request: officials were unsure whether a skier had missed a gate. CBS first aired one in 1963, re-running a play from the Army–Navy football game.

Which tenor gave his final performance, 'Nessun dorma', at the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony?

Luciano Pavarotti sang it as the last act of the ceremony in Turin. Unsure of his voice because of ill health, he mimed to a recording made in advance, and he died the following year.

Which star violinist skied the 2014 Winter Olympics giant slalom for Thailand under her father's surname?

Vanessa-Mae raced as Vanessa Vanakorn and was the last of the finishers. Her qualifying races in Slovenia were later annulled, though her own four-year ban was overturned on appeal.

Which Pacific nation's flagbearer marched shirtless and oiled into the freezing 2018 Winter Olympics?

Tonga's Pita Taufatofua had told reporters he would cover up this time. A taekwondo fighter at the 2016 Summer Games, he qualified in cross-country skiing and finished 114th of 119 in his race.

Which Olympic sliding sport sends racers feet-first on their backs and is timed to a thousandth of a second?

Luge is the fastest of the three sliding sports, with sleds passing 140 km/h. Skeleton racers face the other way, lying face down and head-first.

Which hockey legend rode a truck through downtown crowds to light the outdoor cauldron at the 2010 Winter Olympics?

Wayne Gretzky had just helped light the indoor cauldron, where one of its four arms failed to rise. Word then spread that he was the final torchbearer, and fans ran after his police escort.

Which ABC broadcaster's line about believing in miracles greeted the final seconds of the 1980 'Miracle on Ice' game?

Al Michaels got the job because he was the only ABC announcer who had called a hockey game before. Americans heard his 'Do you believe in miracles? Yes!' hours later, on tape delay.

Bing Dwen Dwen, the 2022 Winter Olympics mascot who wore a full-body shell of ice, was which animal?

A giant panda in a suit of ice surprised even its designer with how popular it became. His team had once given up on the idea because pandas were such a common choice of mascot.

Which TV show's viewers funded the US speed skating team for the 2010 Winter Olympics after its sponsor went bankrupt?

The Colbert Report's viewers covered the shortfall, and skaters wore a 'Colbert Nation' logo in the races before the Games. Host Stephen Colbert was named the team's assistant sports psychologist.

Prince Albert, who raced bobsleighs at five straight Winter Olympics, later became the ruler of which tiny state?

Monaco's future sovereign never finished higher than 25th in his five Games from 1988 to 2002. His wife, Charlene, is an Olympian too: she swam for South Africa at the 2000 Summer Games.

Which 1984 Winter Olympics host city saw its bobsleigh track turned into an artillery position during a 1990s siege?

Sarajevo's track on Mount Trebević, overlooking the city, was held by Bosnian Serb forces. Its concrete curves later drew graffiti artists and bike riders, and restoration began in 2014.

The 2014 Winter Olympics torch relay reached which spot for the first time, aboard a nuclear-powered icebreaker?

The North Pole was one stop on the longest relay in Winter Games history. An unlit torch was also carried on a spacewalk and taken into the depths of Lake Baikal.

At the 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony, a giant snowflake famously failed to unfold into what?

An Olympic ring stayed shut while the other four opened. Russian broadcasters cut to rehearsal footage to hide it, and the closing ceremony joked about the glitch with a circle of performers that opened late.

Which 17-year-old American landed back-to-back 1080s to win women's snowboard halfpipe gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics?

Chloe Kim had been too young to enter the Games four years earlier, though she took X Games silver that same winter. In 2022 she became the first woman to win two Olympic halfpipe golds.

Which skier became the first American woman to win Olympic downhill gold, at the 2010 Winter Olympics?

Lindsey Vonn won a week after revealing a severely bruised shin from training. She finished 0.56 seconds ahead of her longtime rival and teammate Julia Mancuso.

Which American short-track speed skater won eight Olympic medals and the TV contest Dancing with the Stars?

Apolo Ohno collected two golds, two silvers and four bronzes across three Winter Games. He won the dance show in 2007 with professional partner Julianne Hough.

Which American skater beat favourite Michelle Kwan in 1998 to become the youngest Olympic women's singles champion?

Tara Lipinski was just 15. Kwan drew five marks of 5.7 for technical merit, which left the judges room to place the younger skater ahead.

Which East German skater won her second Olympic title in 1988's 'Battle of the Carmens' against American Debi Thomas?

Katarina Witt and Thomas had each chosen music from Bizet's opera Carmen for the free skate. Witt later starred in the film Carmen on Ice, built around her winning programme.

What nickname do Olympic skaters give the rinkside area where they wait with coaches for the judges' marks?

The kiss and cry was named on the spot in 1983, when TV technicians mapping a Helsinki arena asked an organiser what the area was called. The term now appears in skating's official regulations.

Which now-standard aid for ski racing was used in Olympic competition for the first time at the 1980 Winter Olympics?

Artificial snow has since become essential: the 2018 and 2022 Games both needed vast quantities of it. Racers say it packs into a harder piste than the natural kind.

Fans throw Winnie-the-Pooh toys onto the ice for which skater, the men's Olympic champion of 2014 and 2018?

Yuzuru Hanyu began carrying a Pooh tissue box to competitions in 2010, and his fans made the toy shower a custom. In 2018 he became the first man in 66 years to retain the Olympic title.

Which skater landed an illegal backflip on one blade during her free skate at the 1998 Winter Olympics?

Surya Bonaly did it knowing the move was against the rules: backflips had been banned since 1977 as too dangerous. She wanted to leave a trademark at her last Games, and the ban stood until 2024.

Which jump did Midori Ito become the first woman to land at the Olympics, late in her 1992 free skate?

The triple Axel had failed at the start of her programme, so she tried it again near the end and landed it on the way to silver. It is the only basic jump that takes off facing forwards.

Which Austrian skier won two 1998 Olympic golds days after cartwheeling through safety nets in the downhill?

Hermann Maier flew off the course, landed partly on his head and tore through two layers of netting, then walked away. The former bricklayer's escape fed his nickname, the Herminator.

Which flamboyant Italian became the first alpine skier to retain an Olympic title, in the 1992 giant slalom?

Alberto Tomba, known as 'Tomba la Bomba', beat Marc Girardelli to keep the crown he had won in 1988. He went on to win at least one World Cup race in 11 straight seasons.

Which bespectacled Swiss ski jumper, likened to Harry Potter, won both individual golds in 2002 and again in 2010?

Simon Ammann drew the comparison for his youthful, bespectacled look on the 2002 podium. He had crashed and been injured in training before those Games.

Which Norwegian cross-country champion delayed a 1998 medal ceremony to wait at the finish for Kenya's Philip Boit?

Bjørn Dæhlie had just won the 10 km and waited about 20 minutes, saying the last finisher deserved encouragement. The two became friends, and Boit named one of his children Dæhlie.

Which Norwegian cross-country skier won all six men's events at the 2026 Winter Olympics, a first for any Winter Games?

Johannes Klæbo became the first athlete to win six golds at a single Winter Games. The sweep ran from the sprint to the 50 km and took his career total to eleven golds by the end of those Games.

Which American speed skater fell hours after his sister died in 1988, then won gold in his final Olympic race?

Dan Jansen fell in the 500 metres that day and again in the 1,000 four days later. Gold finally came in 1994, and he later named a daughter Jane after his sister.

Which Norwegian, dubbed the 'King of Biathlon', won all four men's biathlon golds at the 2002 Winter Olympics?

Ole Einar Bjørndalen took the three individual races and anchored the relay. Days earlier he had finished fifth in a 30 km cross-country race, chasing medals in two sports at once.

Which actor played coach Herb Brooks in Miracle, the 2004 film about the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team?

Kurt Russell led a cast of real hockey players, picked because the director thought it easier to teach them acting than to teach actors the sport. Brooks died in a car accident before the release.

Which country's team traditionally enters first in the Parade of Nations at a Winter Olympics opening ceremony?

Greece leads the parade in honour of the ancient Games, a custom dating from 1928, while the host nation enters last. No Greek team went to a Winter Games until 1936, so other nations led the earliest parades.

Organisers of the 2018 Winter Olympics spelled host 'PyeongChang' with a capital C to avoid confusion with which city?

Pyongyang is the capital of neighbouring North Korea, and in English the two names differ by only a few letters. The mountain county had earlier lost the votes for the 2010 and 2014 Games.

Lucas Pinheiro Braathen's 2026 giant slalom gold was the first Winter Olympic medal for which South American country?

Brazil had never reached a Winter podium, and nor had any other tropical nation. Braathen, born in Oslo to a Brazilian mother, raced for Norway until 2023 and switched flags a year later.

Soohorang, the mascot of the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, was modelled on which sacred guardian animal?

A white tiger, or baekho, watches over mountains and villages in Korean folklore. The choice also nodded to Hodori, the tiger mascot of the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul.

In Olympic curling, the advantage of throwing the last stone of an end is known by which tool's name?

The hammer passes to whichever team failed to score in the previous end. In the four-player game a scoreless end leaves it with the holder, so teams sometimes blank an end on purpose.

Through 2026, Nordic combined was the only Winter Olympic sport whose programme had never included what?

Women's events never arrived: the IOC refused them for 2026, then dropped the sport from the 2030 programme altogether. It had been contested at every Winter Games since 1924.

The 2022 Winter Olympics big air ramp stood beside cooling towers on the site of which kind of closed factory?

A steel mill had operated there until 2011, when it was shut over its air pollution. The ramp built among the relics became the world's first permanent big air venue.

Which sport made its Olympic debut at Bormio during the 2026 Winter Olympics, with sprint races and a relay?

Ski mountaineering has racers climb on skis fitted with grippy skins, or carry them where it gets steep, then ski back down. Athletes from 13 nations qualified for the first Olympic races.

Which San Francisco-born freestyle skier won two golds and a silver for China at the 2022 Winter Olympics?

Eileen Gu won big air and halfpipe gold plus slopestyle silver, the first three-medal haul by a freestyle skier at one Winter Games. She had begun competing for China in 2019.

Which Italian bobsledder lent British rivals a bolt in 1964, earning the first Pierre de Coubertin trophy?

Eugenio Monti watched Tony Nash and Robin Dixon take gold with his bolt while he settled for bronze. Criticised at home, he insisted the pair had won on speed, not because of the bolt.

East German speed skater Christa Luding-Rothenburger won a 1988 Summer Olympics silver medal in which other sport?

Cycling made her the only athlete to win Winter and Summer medals in the same year. Her coach had talked her into riding in the off-season, and the feat is now impossible because the Games alternate.

Which sport, demonstrated only once at the Winter Olympics in 1928, has skiers towed along behind horses?

Skijoring takes its name from a Norwegian word meaning 'ski driving', and it can also be done behind dogs or motor vehicles. Its Olympic outing was an exhibition only.

Which American ski jumper received his 1924 Olympic bronze medal 50 years late, after a scoring error was found?

Anders Haugen was 85 when a historian rechecked the sums and found he had outscored Norway's Thorleif Haug. Haug's youngest daughter presented him with the medal at a ceremony in Norway.

Ice hockey made its Olympic debut at the 1920 Summer Games, four years before the first Winter Olympics, in which city?

Antwerp's tournament was played in April 1920 and doubled as the first World Championship. The opening game was an 8–0 win for Sweden over the hosts, Belgium.

Which American speed skater won the first gold medal ever awarded at a Winter Olympics, over 500 metres in 1924?

Charles Jewtraw was a pure sprinter: he finished only eighth in the 1500 metres and 13th in the 5000. His medal now sits in the Smithsonian's Museum of American History.

Which American won bobsleigh gold at 16 in 1928 and died as an RAF pilot in the Battle of Britain?

Billy Fiske drove the winning sled again in 1932 and carried the American flag at those Games. He joined the RAF's 601 Squadron in July 1940 and was killed in action the following month.

Which speed skater lost the 2010 Olympic 10,000 metres gold after his coach shouted him into the wrong lane?

Sven Kramer finished first in 12:54.50, then learned he had been disqualified for an incorrect lane change late in the race. His coach, Gerard Kemkers, had called out the wrong directions.

Olympic ski jumpers lose style points unless they land one foot ahead, in a style named after which Norwegian county?

Telemark also lends its name to Telemark skiing, whose stance the landing mimics: one ski forward, knees slightly bent.

Under which three-letter code did cleared Russian athletes compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics after a doping ban?

OAR stood for Olympic Athletes from Russia. The country's flag and anthem were barred, so its medallists stood under the Olympic flag, as the Unified Team had in 1992.