50 Fun Facts About Winter Olympics

The first Winter Olympics, in 1924, were held in which French town?

The IOC only retroactively named the 1924 event the first Winter Games, in 1925.

Which country has hosted the Winter Games four times, more than any other?

Lake Placid twice, Squaw Valley and Salt Lake City, with Utah due again in 2034.

Which resort was the first city to host the Winter Olympics twice, in 1928 and 1948?

Its 1928 venues were still standing, which made it an easy post-war pick.

Which 1932 host was the first Winter Olympic city outside Europe?

Only 17 nations made the trip, which was too long and costly in the Depression.

Which Norwegian, aged 11, finished last in 1924 but became a crowd favourite?

She came back four years later and won, then defended the title twice.

How old was the 1928 ladies' skating champion, the youngest Olympic winner for 70 years?

The record held until a 13-year-old relay skater won gold in 1994.

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

He won his 1920 gold at the Antwerp Summer Olympics, then three more Winter golds.

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

He remains the only Olympian to win gold in different sports at Summer and Winter Games.

Alpine skiing made its Olympic debut at which Games?

Ski instructors were barred as professionals, so the Swiss and Austrians boycotted the races.

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

The award was rescinded in 1938 after the Japanese invasion of China.

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

It was the first Winter Olympic flame, and the relay was run entirely on skis.

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

His skate caught a cable, he fell and burned his arm, but the cauldron was lit.

Which Games were the first Winter Olympics to be televised?

No TV rights were actually sold until the 1960 Summer Games in Rome.

Which company produced the opening and closing ceremonies at the 1960 Games?

The Squaw Valley organisers built the whole resort from scratch for about $80 million.

Which 1960 host remains the only Winter Games held without bobsleigh?

Too few countries entered to justify the cost of a track, so a world championship filled in.

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

Unexpected warm weather had melted the stockpile the organisers had saved.

Which 1968 host staged the first Olympic Games broadcast in colour?

TV rights fetched $2 million, more than double the Innsbruck price.

Which French skier swept all the men's alpine events in 1968?

Only Toni Sailer had done it before him, in 1956.

Which Austrian skier was excluded from the 1972 Games for earning too much money?

IOC president Avery Brundage threatened to bar every skier who had attended a U.S. ski camp.

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

Through the 2022 Games he remained his country's only Winter Olympic champion.

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

Colorado voted 3:2 against paying in November 1972, and Innsbruck stepped in.

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

He set an Olympic or world record in every one of his five events.

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

They beat the seasoned Soviet side and went on to win gold.

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

Every judge gave them 6.0 for artistic impression.

Which 1988 host staged the first Winter Games to span three weekends?

Curling, short track and freestyle skiing all appeared there as demonstration sports.

Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards set a British ski-jump record of how many metres in 1988?

He finished last in both events but became the most famous man at the Games.

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

The 1988 Games inspired two films, the other being Eddie the Eagle.

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

Dutch skater Yvonne van Gennip matched his three golds on the ice.

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

The IOC had voted in 1986 to put the two Games on separate cycles.

Which 1994 host is the northernmost city ever to stage the Winter Games?

Juan Antonio Samaranch called them "the best Olympic Winter Games ever".

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

Women's hockey debuted at the same Games, with the U.S. taking gold.

Which piece of equipment drove a wave of speed-skating records in 1998?

The hinged blade stays on the ice longer with each stride.

Nagano's organisers blamed their huge 1998 bill largely on extending what?

Turin's 2006 Games cost about $3.6 billion by comparison.

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

Both the Russian and Canadian pairs ended up with gold medals.

Steven Bradbury, first Winter gold medallist from the southern hemisphere in 2002, was from where?

He won the 1,000 m short track after every rival fell in the final.

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

Bjørnar Håkensmoen's generosity cost his own team, who finished fourth.

Which host nation set a record of 14 golds at its own Games in 2010?

It had failed to win any gold at all in Montreal 1976 or Calgary 1988.

The 2014 Sochi Games cost about how much, making them the most expensive ever?

All the mountain venues had to be built from scratch in Krasnaya Polyana.

Which team took 23 speed-skating medals and four podium sweeps in 2014?

Ireen Wüst led them with two golds and three silvers.

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

She was the first woman to win Olympic gold in two sports at one Winter Games.

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

Venues there and in Zhangjiakou ran entirely on renewable energy.

Which country won its first Olympic men's ice hockey gold on the last day of the 2022 Games?

They beat the Russian Olympic Committee in the final.

Which region was awarded the 2030 Winter Olympics in 2024?

The IOC awarded the Games in July 2024; they are billed as the first Winter Games with full gender parity among athletes.

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

Salt Lake City hosted in 2002.

In which year were the Winter Games first held in a different year from the Summer Games?

The 1996 Games were brought forward two years to start the new cycle.

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

General Viktor Balck, a friend of Coubertin, organised them every four years until 1926.

Which Italian count proposed a week of winter sports for the 1912 Summer Games in Sweden?

The Swedish organisers refused, wanting to protect their own Nordic Games.

Which team staged the only national boycott of a Winter Olympics, in 1980?

It refused to compete as "Chinese Taipei" and left before the opening ceremony.

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

Military patrol was a medal sport in 1924 and became an official sport again 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.