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It begins in 1924, in Chamonix, our long journey through the history of the Winter Olympic Games were born exactly 89 years ago in the French town at the foot of Mont Blanc.
Friday 27 December 2013 11 minutes reading time
As all fans know, the first edition of the modern Olympics was held in Athens in 1896 and already in 1900 in the CIO there were those who pushed for the introduction of winter sports in the program in five circles, in particular was the Swede Viktor Gustaf Balck, one of the first members of the International Olympic Committee (1894) and founder of the Nordic Games (1901) to advocate this possibility. But Pierre de Coubertin was against it because he felt that winter sports were too niche to be able to have a great popularity worldwide. However, the baron founder of the Games could do nothing in the face of the introduction into the Olympic program for London 1908 Summer Games figure skating competitions: the artistic male (won by Sweden's Ulrich Salchow, who gave his name to one of the jumps skating), one female, one pair and the "special shapes".
In 1912 Stockholm was to be held a week dedicated to winter sports on the proposal of Vercelli Count Eugenio Brunetta d'Usseaux but the countries of Northern Europe resisted, knowing that the birth of a hypothetical Winter Olympics within the Olympics would meaning the death of their Nordic Games. In 1916 he was scheduled "Skiing Olympia", a series of Nordic ski races that were supposed to contend in the Black Forest, but this time it was the Great War to blow up everything. In 1920 he went to Antwerp in the three races of the artistic scene already played in London (finally abolished special shapes) plus the first men's ice hockey tournament, won by Canada.
Finally, in early June of 1921, during the Congress of Lausanne, the IOC sponsored an "International Winter Sports Week", so named for the Nordic soften the opposition, to be sailed in the first weeks of 1924. Was chosen as the venue the French town of Chamonix, at the foot of Mont Blanc, as the Olympics were to be held that year in Paris and then one week dedicated to snow and ice would have been a sort of prologue real Olympics own. But those races, which actually took place over ten days, were a resounding success and unexpected, pace of de Coubertin: more than 10000 paying spectators, a huge amount for the time. Therefore the congress in Prague at the end of May 1925 the races were retroactively renamed "first Winter Olympics" and it was determined that this new event should contend every four years and in the same year as summer.
The official program of those early games included white Nordic skiing (cross-country, jumping and combined), the race of military patrols, a kind of ancestor of the biathlon, bobsled, figure skating is that of speed and finally, as a sport team, ice hockey and curling. It was not yet the time of alpine skiing, despite the efforts of his adviser Sir Arnold Lunn. The first Olympic champion "official" was the American Charles Jewtraw, 23 year-old native of Clinton County, near the future Olympic town of Lake Placid, New York, January 26, 1924 that the 500-meter speed skating with a time of 44 & rdquo , 0 pounded by two-tenths Norwegian Oskar Olsen, third ex-aequo to 8/10 were the other Norwegian Roald Larsen and Clas Thunberg of Finland. The latter (pictured) was one of the matadors of these Games: In addition to bronze on the shortest distance won gold in the 1500, the 5000 and nell'allround, a title that always assigns to the World Cup but not to the Games is assigned, also was defeated by compatriot silver on 10000 Julius Skutnabb.
In the artistic male Swede Gillis Grafström, heir to Salchow, defends the success of the assault Antwerp Austrian Willy Böckl, also excelled in the women's favorite, the winner of the last two World Cups, the Hungarian Herma Planck-Szabo, finished eighth and last a Norwegian girl of 12 years, Sonja Henie, which will re talking in the next episodes of this story, in the artistic success of the Austrians in pairs Helene Engelmann and Alfred Berger. The quartet Swiss preceded the Finnish and French military patrols in the race, in Nordic skiing the Norwegian Thorleif Haug, the other protagonist of these Games, he won the 50 km, the 18 km and combined, in this case, excelling both in the race bottom is shorter than the trampoline specific for the test strip. In the special jump wins his compatriot Jacob Tullin Thams and it is in this race that you experience one of the most amazing episodes in the whole history of the Olympics.
The judges award the bronze Haug but many years later, it turns out the judges have made a sensational miscalculation and that the medal should have gone to Anders Haugen, who was born in Norway in the county of Telemark well known but naturalized American. Moral of the story: the medal is delivered in a special ceremony in Oslo, September 12, 1974, by Anna Maria Magnussen, daughter of Haug, who died at age 40 in 1934. 50 years after the Games in Chamonix the 85 year old Haugen can finally have its rightful bronze and die in peace ten years later. In bob race, where you can have a choice of crews of four or five people, won the Swiss Eduard Scherrer. In curling obvious success of Britain, made up entirely of Scots, even more obvious in hockey triumph of Canada: the North American mark 110 networks in five games and conceded only 3! Among the 16 participating nations there is also Italy, which did not win any medals: Lodovico Obexer is sixth in bobsled, the last of those who have completed the test, while the Cortina Enrico Colli and Giuseppe Ghedina are ninth in the 50 km and tenth, the first non-Nordic.
Summary
1st edition of the Olympic Winter Games
Host city and date of the event: Chamonix (France), January 26th-February 4th, 1924
Athletes participating: 292 (279 men, 13 women)
Participating countries: 16
Italian participants: 23 (all men)
Italian flag-bearer: Leonardo Bonzi (bob)
Securities allotted: 16 in 9 sports
Official opening: Secretary of State'' s physical education Gaston Vidal
Olympic athletes' oath: Camille Mandrillon (military patrols)
The medal
Norway: 4 gold 6 silver 7 bronze
Finland: 4 gold 4 silver 3 bronze
Austria: 2 gold 1 silver
Switzerland: 2 gold 1 bronze
United States: 1 gold 2 silver 1 bronze
Great Britain: 1 gold 1 silver 2 bronze
Sweden: 1 gold 1 silver
Canada: 1 gold
France: 3 bronze
Belgium: 1 bronze
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