Video: '25th January 1924: First Winter Olympic Games begin in Chamonix, France'
(Friday, January 25, 1924) — The 1924 Winter Olympics opened today at the foot of Mont Blanc in Chamonix, in the French Alps, inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.
258 athletes from 16 countries, including the United States, would participate through Feb. 5, 1924
The Games were organized by the French Olympic Committee, and were originally reckoned as the “International Winter Sports Week.” With the success of the event, it was retroactively designated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as “the first Olympic Winter Games.”
Video: '1924 Winter Olympics - Figure Skating Sonja Henie and Gillis Grafstrom'
The tradition of holding the Winter Olympics in the same year as the Summer Olympics would continue until 1992, after which the current practice of holding a Winter Olympics in the second year after each Summer Olympics began.
Although figure skating had been an Olympic event in both London and Antwerp, and ice hockey had been an event in Antwerp, the winter sports had always been limited by the season.
Video: 'The Olympic Games Held At Chamonix In 1924 1925 1080p BluRay'
In 1921, at the convention of the IOC in Lausanne, there was a call for equality for winter sports, and after much discussion it was decided to organize an “international week of winter sport” in 1924 in Chamonix.
The tradition of holding the Winter Olympics in the same year as the Summer Olympics would continue until 1992, after which the current practice of holding a Winter Olympics in the second year after each Summer Olympics began.
