History of Winter Olympics

A HISTORY OF THE WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES

Winter Olympic History

Table Of Contents

Title Page

Table Of Contents

Overview

Scams and Stories # 1

Scams and Stories # 2

Scams and Stories #3

Scams and Stories #4

Sports # 1

Sports # 2

Sports # 3

Timeline # 1

Timeline # 2

Timeline # 3

Closing

Photo Gallery

Bibliography

Overview

Did You Know?

Norway has won the most Winter Olympic medals with 263 !

The Winter Olympic games are held every four years. An Italian man came up with the idea to host a Winter Olympic sports week. The idea expanded and the first Winter Olympic games were held in Chamonix, France in 1924. The idea was difficult to get through because another winter sports week was already being held in Europe. At the 2006 Winter Olympics a record of 80 countries participated.

Russian Figure Skating Scandal

Ross Rebagaliati

Ross Rebagaliati is a Canadian snowboarder who was almost stripped of his gold medal in the 1998 Winter Olympics because he tested positive for marijuana. The decision to take his medal away was overturned because it is not a performance-enhancing drug.

Random Snowboarder by DennyMont

Other Scandals

A French skier claimed a man in black crossed his path in the 1968 Winter Olympics. The slalom run was held with bad visibility so we can’t be sure if it actually happened. The skier was given a re-run and got the best time.

The husband of a figure skater arranged an attack on one of his wife’s rivals before the 1994 Winter Olympic Games.

It was found that Salt Lake City organizers bribed IOC members to get them to vote for Salt Lake City.

Stephan Bradbury

Stephen Bradbury was an Olympic speed skater who won medals in 1994 and 2002.

In the 2002 Winter Olympics, Stephen was racing in the men’s short-track 1000m when he finished 3 rd in the Quarter finals (he needed 2 nd to qualify) but someone was disqualified, so he made the semi’s.

In the semi-finals, Stephen was in last place, but three competitors crashed and he got 2 nd .

In the finals, Stephen was again in last place, but four of the competitors crashed, letting him win.

After crossing the finish line, cameras caught Stephen apparently mouthing a certain explicit exclamation.

Ice Hockey

Ice Hockey has been in the Olympics since the 1920 Summer Games in Antwerp.

Women's Ice Hockey became a Winter Olympic sport in 1998 in Nagano.

Six people are on the ice at a time, one goalie, two defence and three forward although less players are on during penalties.

Ice Hockey games consist of three 20 minute periods with intermissions of 15 minutes between periods.

If a game ends in a tie after the three periods a game goes into overtime if there is still not a goal the game goes into a shootout.

Canada is ranked best in the world although in the last Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Sweden took gold.

Did You Know? Canada won six of seven first Olympic tournaments that were played in the Winter Olympics. But when they saw more of their players go into professional hockey, Canada started to loose tournaments.

Skating

Skating was first meant for transportation for people in places where they had to cross frozen water areas.

In the Winter Olympics there is Speed Skating and Figure Skating.

For men, Speed Skating has been in the Olympics since the first Winter Olympics in 1924.

The first women's Speed Skating were at the Winter Olympics in 1960.

Figure Skating was first held at the 1908 Summer Olympic Games in London.

Figure Skating became a Winter Olympic sport in 1924.

Did You Know? The first skates were believed to be made around 20,000 b.c. using bones underneath sandals.

Skiing

Skiing is another way of Winter transportation now in the Winter Olympics.

Skiing has been in the Winter Olympics since 1924.

There are five types of skiing in the Winter Olympics, Alpine, Freestyle, Cross-Country, Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined.

People used skis as far back as 5,000 years ago.

The Norwegian's were one of the first to discover skiing.

A ski jumper in the air. Photo by Morgan Goodwin

Timeline

-1924 Chamonix, France

-1928 St. Moritz, Switzerland

-1932 Lake Placid, New York

-1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

-1948 St. Moritz, Switzerland

-1952 Oslo, Norway

-1956 Cortina d’ Ampezzo, Italy

-1960 Squaw Valley, California

-1964 Innsbruck, Austria

-1968 Grenoble, France

-1972 Sapporo, Japan

-1976 Innsbruck, Austria

-1980 Lake Placid, New York

-1984 Sarajevo, Yugoslavia

-1988 Calgary, Canada

-1992 Albertville, France

-1994 Lillehammer, Norway

-1998 Nagano, Japan

-2002 Salt Lake City, Utah

-2006 Turin, Italy

Timeline

-1924 Chamonix, France- First Winter Olympic Games

-1932 Lake Placid, New York- Eddie Eagan becomes the only person ever to win gold in both Olympics

-1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany- Big controversy in skiing causing Austria and Switzerland to boycott

-1952 Oslo, Norway- First Winter Olympics with women cross-country skiing

-1956 Cortina d’ Ampezzo, Italy- First Winter Olympic games to be televised

-1960 Squaw Valley, California- First biathlon and first games with speed skating

-1964 Innsbruck, Austria- First Olympic games with the sport of Luge

Timeline

1976 Innsbruck, Austria- Ice Dancing was first introduced to the Winter Olympic games

1988 Calgary, Canada- Canada hosts Winter Olympics for the first time

1992 Albertville, France- Last Winter Olympics to be held in the same year as the Summer Olympics

1996 Nagano, Japan- First Winter Olympic Games with snowboarding for men and women

2002 Salt Lake City, Utah- Women's bobsledding for the first time in Winter Olympics

2006 Turin, Italy- First Winter Olympic Games with Snowboard Cross

Closing

From 1924 to now the Winter Olympic Games are one of the most popular sporting events in the world. In the future the Winter Olympics will only get more popular and have more countries participate.

Photo Gallery Olympic flame photo by Snowdog Curling rink photo by Glenlarson Speed Skating photo by McSmitt Olympic Ceremony photo by Antmoose

Bibliography