Everything you didn’t know about the Winter Olympics

Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of the Winter Olympics

The 24th edition of the Winter Olympics is almost upon us. Four years after all eyes were on South Korea and Pyeongchang for some snow and ice-based fun, attention will turn to China and Beijing for the next fortnight.

While they may not attract quite the same level of global interest as their summer counterpart, there’s a lot to love about the winter games. They are the quirky, alternative, younger sibling to the traditional, sensible Summer Olympics.

They’re cooler as well, though, in every sense of the word. Give me snowboarding, ski jumping and ice hockey over equestrian, archery and the shot put any day of the week.

Here, we present to you everything you may not know about the Winter Olympics, highlighting some of the more weird and bizarre facts and moments from its colourful history.

Hosts

This year, Beijing will become the first city to have ever hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics.

Remarkably, it will also be only the second capital city to host the winter games, after Oslo did in 1952.

Due to the climate and geographical requirements needed to host events such as Alpine skiing and snowboarding, the games have travelled to a more eclectic mix of destinations than the summer editions. Locations to have hosted a Winter Olympics in the past include Grenoble in France, Palisades Tahoe in the US, and Lillehammer in Norway.

Ever-presents

Just 12 countries have participated in every Winter Olympics. These are Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.

One of these countries is well ahead of the others though in terms of success…

Nordic supremacy

Norway may be a small country of just five million, but they are the undisputed powerhouses of the Winter Olympics, with 368 medals (132 gold, 125 silver, and 111 bronze) – far outpacing the United States, their nearest rivals, on 305.

The likes of Austria, Sweden and Switzerland all feature in the top 10 of the all-time medal table as well, with the obvious link being that these countries are all pretty mountainous and snowy.

As you may expect then, countries with hotter climates don’t fare so well. Australia are the only southern hemisphere nation to have won a gold at the games, with short track speed-skater Steven Bradbury winning their only gold in 2002. Only one other southern hemisphere nation has won a medal of any colour, this was New Zealand in 1992.

The exception to this ‘cold = success’ rule though? Iceland, a nation that has never won a medal of any colour at the Winter Olympics.

The youngest, the oldest, the most successful

Some quick-fire pieces of trivia for you now. The oldest person to receive a medal at the Olympic Winter Games is Anders Haugen, who also holds the record for the longest wait for a medal. He competed in the ski jumping for the US in 1924 but didn’t become a medallist until 1974 when a Norwegian sports historian noticed a scoring error from the games. So at the age of 85 he was finally awarded his bronze in a special ceremony in Oslo, more than 50 years after he competed.

The youngest ever competitor at the Winter Olympics was Great Britain’s Cecilia Colledge, who competed in the figure skating at the 1932 Lake Placid games at the age of just 11 years and four months.

And the most successful winter Olympian of all time is the mighty Marit Bjoergen. She has won a remarkable 15 medals (8 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze) for Norway in cross-country skiing.

The winter and summer double

Five different athletes have won medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. But only one person has won gold at both the games.

American Eddie Eagan won gold in the light-heavyweight boxing event at the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games, before deciding to mix it up a little 12 years later by being a member of the four-man bobsled team that won gold at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.

Ice skating and ice hockey… in the summer?

Figure skating and ice hockey used to be part of the Summer Olympics. The first Winter Olympics wasn’t held until 1924, 28 years after the first summer games.

So in 1908, figure skating was first contested at the London Olympics, and then again 12 years later in Antwerp, where ice hockey made its debut.

But when the Winter Olympics was first held in Chamonix in 1924, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made the wise decision to move both sports to the winter programme.

Too much snow, not enough snow

Weather can often cause an issue at the Winter Olympics, with events having to be postponed if conditions aren’t right.

At the 1964 Innsbruck games there was not enough snow to properly set up the events. This was such an issue that the Austrian army had to be called in to haul giant blocks of snow and ice from the Austrian mountains for the ski slopes and luge events.

The tables were turned in Nagano 34 years later though. In 1998, the Alpine ski competition had to be rescheduled several times because there was too much snow.

It’s all gone to the dogs… and the horses

Events involving horses and dogs have both appeared at the games in the past.

First there was an event called skijoring at the 1928 Games. This involved competitors on skis racing each other as they were towed by riderless horses. Skijoring was a demonstration event during these games, so no medals were awarded and the event was not held in future Olympics.

Then, in the 1932 Lake Placid Winter Games, dog sledding was a demonstration event. Sadly this also never returned to the Olympics, although I reckon we start a petition to see it return.

Save the boycotts for the summer

This year a number of countries have announced diplomatic boycotts of the Beijing games in protest over China’s human rights record, particularly its treatment of the Uyghur Muslim population in Xinjiang province.

But this doesn’t mean they won’t be competing, it just means they won’t be sending any ministers or officials.

In fact, only one country has ever fully boycotted a Winter Olympics. This was in 1980 when Taiwan refused to participate in the 1980 Lake Placid Games after the IOC prohibited it from being called the Republic of China. The IOC made this decision in order to avoid upsetting the People’s Republic of China, which was returning to the Winter Olympics for the first time since 1952. Nowadays, Taiwan competes at the Olympics as ‘Chinese Taipei’ and will do so in Beijing.

Meanwhile, the Summer Olympics of this period were plagued by political boycotts during the Cold War. The USA boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and this was followed by a number of Eastern Bloc countries boycotting the games four years later in LA.

One country, two hockey teams

In 1948, the USA sent two men’s hockey teams to the games – one made up of professionals and backed by the American Hockey Association, the other a strictly amateur squad sponsored by the Amateur Athletic Union and the United States Olympic Committee.

In the end, it was the professional side that was recognised as the official team, and it didn’t go down well with the amateur side, who ended up booing them from the sidelines when they played.

But, of course, this isn’t the most famous US ice hockey story from the Winter Olympics…

The Miracle On Ice

One of the greatest moments in American sport and undoubtedly one of the most incredible upsets the world has ever seen.

It was the 1980 Lake Placid games in New York state, and the US were taking on the Soviet Union in the medal round of the men’s ice hockey.

The Soviet Union were the four-time defending gold medallists. They’d won five of the last six Olympic titles and had a team made up of professionals and experienced international players. The US on the other hand had the youngest team at the tournament, made up mostly of amateurs. Only four of their players had

But in front of a partisan crowd, and against the backdrop of growing political tensions between the US and the Soviet Union, the impossible happened – the US claimed a thrilling 4-3 win, going on to win the gold two days later.

The victory became known as the ‘Miracle on Ice’ thanks to some famous commentary from ABC’s Al Michaels, and in 1999 the moment was named the top sports moment of the 20th century.

Just look at the scenes:

The greatest moment in the history of the games, and a fitting way to round off this list.

Who knows what Beijing 2o22 has in store for us. If there is one thing you can count on with the Winter Olympics though, it’s that it certainly won’t be boring.

"It's a genocide games."

Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers and Tigrayans all told us why they need you to boycott the #winterolympics pic.twitter.com/BwVNcySmnh

— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK) February 3, 2022

Related links:

• How to watch the big events at the Winter Olympics
• Jamaican four-man bobsled team qualifies for 2022 Winter Olympics