61-Winter Olympics-History
Winter Olympic Games-Dates    See also   Summer Olympics

Winter Olympic games are a winter multi-sport events held every four years on the pattern of Olympics. All of its sports or games are held on ice, such as Alpine skiing, Cross Country skiing, Figure skating, Bob sledding, and ice hockey. Other events were also added as the Winter Olympic events progressed. They were started in 1924 in France. Since Winter Olympics are related to ice games, very few countries can participate in these Olympics. Before the Winter Olympics were started, skiing and ice hockey were the events of Summer Olympics only. These games were held every four years from 1924 to 1940, when they were interrupted by World War II. Both Summer and Winter Olympics resumed in 1948 and wee celebrated the same year until 1992. In 1992 Winter Olympics split from Summer Olympics and were begun to be held on alternative even years. he first such games were held in Lillehammer in Germany in 1994 with a different schedule.

Till now, up to 2010, 20 Winter Games have been held in various countries - United States (4 times), France (3 times). Italy, Japan, Austria, Norway, Switzerland had hosted them twice. 2010 Winter games are being held in Canada (Vancouver, BC), second time since 1988 when they wee held in Calgary, AB.

Origin of Winter Games
Originally Winter games were started as Nordic Games in 1901 in Norway. They were then held in 1903, 1905, and then very four years - 1909, 1913, 1917, 1921, 1925. Figure skating was tried to include in Olympics but could not be include until Summer Olympics 1908, in London, UK, in which four Figure skating events were held. The first Winter Olympic Games Week, a separate Olympic event, which actually lasted for 10 days, was included in 1924 Summer Olympics, and proved to be great success. More than 200 athletes from 16 nations participated in 16 events. In 1925 IOC decided to hold these games separately, but These Franc games were retrospectively designated as the First Winter Olympic Games.

The first separate Winter Olympics were held in 1928, at Moritz, Switzerland where the weather made this event memorable. Its Opening ceremony was held in blizzard. Its ramrkable even is that Sonja Henie of Norway created a history winning Figure skating competition at the age of 15 and remained the youngest champion in Olympic history for 74 years.

In 1986 IOC recommended for separate Winter Olympics to be held in alternative even numbered years and they started from 1994.