LET THE GAMES BEGIN AGAIN
The Winter Olympics survive both World War II and a 12-year hiatus.
LITTLE AMISS WITH SWISS
Logic and logistics preview, and the first postwar Games return to St. Moritz, site of the 1928 Winter Olympics. With Switzerland having remained neutral and its infrastructure untouched by the war, the IOC opts for the Swiss site, which needs to only update gles, Dick Button captures the first gold medal in figure skating won by the United States. A trendsetter in skating like Sonja Henie before, Button sets a new standard with an athletic series of jumps and spins.
ALPINE REDEFINED
Alpine skiing returns to the Olympic program, with separate downhill and slalom events for both men and women joining the alpine combined event that debuted in 1936. American skier Gretchen Fraser captures the womenarrive in St. Moritz for the Olympics, with one sanctioned by the American Olympic Committee and another by the American Hockey Association. An IOC decision allows the AOC team to march in the opening parade and the AHA team to play in the tournament, where it finishes fourth. However, the IOC and the American Hockey Association continue to bicker in the coming months, and the IOC disqualifies the AHA team a year after the fact.
NARROWEST OF MARGINS
In the round-robin ice hockey tournament, Canada and Czechoslovakia post identical 7-0-1 records. Canada claims the gold by overall goal differential, having scored 64 goals to Czechoslovakia
