In 1924, the International Olympic Committee decided to consider winter sports competitions as a separate Olympics. The first Winter Olympics were held in the French city of Chamonix.
The main part of the Olympics - in summer sports - took place in 1924 in Paris. At the same time, it was decided to transfer part of the competition to Chamonix in order to organize championships between skiers on alpine tracks.
In total, athletes from 17 countries took part in the first Winter Olympics. The USSR did not participate in either the winter or summer games, since this state was not recognized by most of the countries of the world. Only teams from Europe and North America attended the games.
The first Winter Games had full opening and closing ceremonies. However, the head of the host state did not participate in the opening of the Olympics, which was a slight violation of tradition. The Olympic flame was not lit, as this tradition appeared later, but the Olympic oath was already being pronounced.
Starts were held in 9 sports, among them were cross-country skiing, bobsleigh, hockey, ski jumping, speed skating. Women could only compete in figure skating - singles and in pairs.
The first place in the unofficial team event went to Norway. Skiers of this country turned out to be traditionally strong rivals. They have received almost all gold medals in their disciplines. The Finnish team won the second place. The Finns took a significant part of the podium in speed skating. The third was Austria, which received two gold medals in figure skating.
Canada, without becoming the leader in the medal standings, has confirmed its position as the world leader in hockey - the Canadian team won gold.
In general, the first Winter Olympic Games were so successful that the International Olympic Committee decided to hold them every 4 years, like the summer ones. And since 1994, the cycle of the Winter Olympics has been changed - now they are held 2 years later than the summer ones.
