28 Facts About Olympic Winter Games

1.

Winter Olympic Games is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice.

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2.

The modern Olympic Games were inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD.

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3.

Original five Winter Olympic Sports were bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, Nordic skiing, and skating.

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4.

The Olympic Winter Games were held every four years from 1924 to 1936, interrupted in 1940 and 1944 by World War II, and resumed in 1948.

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5.

Winter Olympic Games have been hosted on three continents by thirteen countries.

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6.

Also, the Winter Olympic Games have been held just once each in Germany, Yugoslavia, Russia, South Korea, and China.

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7.

Predecessor, the Nordic Olympic Winter Games, were organized by General Viktor Gustaf Balck in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1901 and were held again in 1903 and 1905 and then every fourth year thereafter until 1926.

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8.

Olympic Winter Games attempted to have winter sports, specifically figure skating, added to the Olympic programme but was unsuccessful until the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.

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9.

The organisers opposed this idea because they desired to protect the integrity of the Nordic Games and were concerned about a lack of facilities for winter sports.

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10.

Two Olympic flames were lit because it was the second time that the Austrian town had hosted the Winter Games.

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11.

The 1976 Olympic Winter Games featured the first combination bobsleigh and luge track, in neighbouring Igls.

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12.

In 1980 the Winter Olympics returned to Lake Placid, which had hosted the 1932 Games.

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13.

The Olympic Winter Games were well-organised and not affected by the run-up to the war that engulfed the country eight years later.

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14.

New events were added in ski-jumping and speed skating, while future Olympic Winter Games sports curling, short track speed skating and freestyle skiing made their debut appearance as demonstration sports.

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15.

Political changes of the time were reflected in the composition of the Olympic teams competing in France: this was the first Games to be held after the fall of Communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall, and Germany competed as a single nation for the first time since the 1964 Games.

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16.

Olympic Winter Games is the only ski racer to have won the same event at three Olympics, winning the Super-G in 1992,2002 and 2006.

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17.

Olympic Winter Games finished the Olympics with three golds, a silver and a bronze.

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18.

Vancouver Olympic Winter Games were notable for the poor performance of the Russian athletes.

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19.

The Olympic Winter Games were the most expensive until the date, with a cost of £30 billion.

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20.

Lead-up to the 2018 Winter Olympics was affected by the tensions between North and South Korea and the ongoing Russian doping scandal.

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21.

Olympic Winter Games saw the addition of big air snowboarding, mass start speed skating, mixed doubles curling, and mixed team alpine skiing to the programme.

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22.

The Olympic Winter Games included a record 109 events over 15 disciplines in seven sports with seven new medal events, including mixed team competitions in freestyle skiing aerials, ski jumping, and snowboard cross.

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23.

The Olympic Winter Games were held between 4 February and 20 February 2022 at venues in Beijing and Zhangjiakou which for the first time were run entirely on renewable energy.

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24.

Olympic Winter Games went on to win the women's 10km and 30km cross-country distances.

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25.

Olympic Winter Games failed to win an individual medal after falling in her final routine.

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26.

The gifts received by IOC members from the Japanese Organising Committee for Nagano's bid for the 1998 Winter Olympics were described by the investigation committee as "astronomical".

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27.

The organisers of the Nagano Olympic Winter Games claimed that the cost of extending the bullet train service from Tokyo to Nagano was responsible for the large price tag.

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28.

Finally, any prospective host city planning to bid for the Games is required to add a "legacy plan" to their proposal, with a view to the long-term economic and environmental impact that hosting the Olympics will have on the region.

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