A Brief History of the Winter Olympic Games
Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013
Origins of the Winter Olympic Games
The Nordic Games, which were first held in 1901, are often considered a sort of ancestor to the current version of Winter Olympic Games. Like the current games, they were held every four years and were focussed around winter sports only. They were the first international winter sporting event to feature multiple sports in an Olympic-like format rather than just a focus on a single sport.
From 1901 onwards, there were various attempts to incorporate winter games into the Olympics in one way or another. Early attempts to incorporate figure skating into the Olympics resulted in the sport becoming part of the 1908 games in London but they did not remain part of the programme for future events.
In 1924, the first official Winter Olympic Games were held. It was decided that the Olympics in 1924, to be hosted by France, would incorporate a separate “International Sports Week.” The event was a huge success, and so the Olympic committee decided to hold a full-scale Winter Olympics event thereafter. The 1924 “Winter Sports Week” was redesignated as the first Winter Olympics and in 1928 the event was held in full force alongside the Summer Olympics in Switzerland.
Depression and Wartime
Soon after the Winter Olympics became official they began to suffer from the influence of World Events. In 1932, the Winter Olympics were held outside Europe for the first time being hosted in the USA. By this time, the Great Depression had hit the world following the Wall Street Collapse three years earlier. As the journey to the games site was a particularly long and expensive one, many competitors did not make the journey due to lack of money and attendance suffered.
A few years later, the onset of the Second World War interrupted the Winter Olympics for several years. The 1940 games had been awarded to Japan, but this decision was withdrawn in 1938 due to the Japanese invasion of China. In 1939, war broke out and the games had to be suspended altogether.
1948-Present
In 1948, the first post-war Winter Olympics took place in the Swiss city of St. Moritz, which had previously hosted the 1928 games. As Switzerland had been neutral during the war, the city had not suffered bomb damage in the way that many other countries had. This meant most of the venues from the 1928 games were still in place and were able to be utilized in the 1948 games.
Since the end of World War Two, the Winter Olympic Games have generally been able to proceed ahead smoothly. However, though nothing has interrupted them the way the war did, there have been some problems. For example, in 1972 and 1976, Canada refused to send teams in protest of the fact they could not use professional league players. This was particularly troublesome for the Ice Hockey strong country.
The Future
Sochi, Russia has been selected to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Russia beat locations in Austria and South Korea. However, this decision has become controversial and is again causing difficulties for the Winter Olympic Games. Recent laws introduced by Russia have led to legal persecution of LGBT individuals within the country. Many people, including celebrities and politicians have campaigned to have the games withdrawn from Russia in protest at these laws. Nonetheless, the games seem set to proceed as planned. Meanwhile, the 2018 games have been awarded to Pyeongchang, South Korea, who lost out to Russia in a bid to host the 2014 games.
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