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Categories: 1924 in sports | Winter Olympic Games

1924 Winter Olympics

Originally called Semaine des Sports d'Hiver ("International Winter Sports Week") and held in association with the 1924 Summer Olympics, the sports competitions held in Chamonix between 25 January and 5 February 1924, organised by the French Olympic Commitee, were in retrospect designated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the I Olympic Winter Games.

Ist Olympic Winter Games

Host city	Chamonix, France
Nations	16
Athletes	258
Events	16 in 9 sports
Opened	January 25 1924
Closed	February 5 1924
Opened by:	Gaston Vidal
Olympic Oath:	Camille Mandrillon

Contents

1 Highlights

1.1 Prologue
1.2 Day 2
1.3 Day 4
1.4 Day 6
1.5 Day 8
1.6 Day 10
1.7 Epilogue

2 Medals awarded

3 Medal count

4 See also

5 External links

Highlights

Prologue

Although Figure Skating has been an Olympic event in both London and Antwerp, and Ice Hockey has been an even in Antwerp, the wintersports have always been rather limited by the season. In 1921, on the convention of the IOC in Lausanne, there is a call for equallity for wintersports, and after much discussion it is decided to organise an "international week of winter sport" in 1924 in Chamonix.

Day 2

The very first gold medal awarded in the Olympic Winter games was won by Charles Jewtraw , in the opening event, the 500 meter speedskating.

Day 4

Though she will not reach higher than the 8th and last place, when the ladies' figureskating event begins a Norwegian female athlete gets a lot of sympathy from the public, since she's barely eleven years old. Her name is Sonja Henie, and for the next three games she'll win the gold in this event.

Day 6

Finding himselves in a unique situation, the figure skater Gilles Grafström is the first one ever to succesfully defend his Summer Olympics title at the Winter Olympics.

Day 8

The Canadian ice-hockey team finish their qualifying round with 4 wins, and in total score against Switzerland, Czechoslowakia, Sweden, and Great Britain of 104-2.

Day 10

Finding themselves i the same situation as Gilles Grafström, the Canadian ice-hockeyers are the last ever to succesfully defend their Summer Olympics title at the winter Olympics.

Epilogue

At the closing of the games a prize was awarded for a sport that didn't lend itself very well for tournaments: Pierre de Coubertin presented a prize for alpinisme to Charles Bruce , the leader of the expedition that tried to climb Mount Everest in 1922.

In 1925, the IOC decided to organize Olympic Wintergames every four years, independent of the Olympic Games proper, and recognized the International Winter Sports Week as the first Olympic Winter games in retrospect.

In 1974 the final medal of Chamonix 1924 was presented. Anders Haugen, who until then had been concidered fourth in the Ski Jump, received a bronze medal. After fifty years an error had been discovered in the score of Thorleif Haug , winner of the bronze, which caused the two man to change places.

Medals awarded

Medals were awarded in 16 events, and 9 sports. Many sources do not list curling and the military patrol, or list them as demonstration events. However, no such designation was made in 1924, nor by the IOC at any time, and many Olympic historians now consider them to be full medal events.

Medal count

1924 Winter Olympics medal count
Pos.	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Finland	5	4	3	12
2	Norway	4	7	7	18
3	Austria	2	1	0	3
4	Switzerland	2	0	1	3
5	United States	1	2	1	4
6	Great Britain	1	1	2	4
7	Sweden	1	1	0	2
8	Canada	1	0	0	1
9	France	0	0	3	3
10	Belgium	0	0	1	1