IN THE BEGINNING
International Sports Week 1924 features 11 days of competition in the French Alps, some 60 miles northeast of Grenoble. Despite poor weather conditions, the 16-nation competition draws more than 250 competitors — reports vary from 258 to 294 — for a well-planned and successful debut.
A WOMANes 13 female athletes. By comparison, nearly 1,000 women would compete in the 1998 Nagano Olympics three-quarters of a century later.
SCANDINAVIAN SUCCESSES
Of the 16 nations participating, Norway and Finland dominate by winning 27 of the 43 medals available, including all four nordic events and four of the five speedskating events. The success results in the Scandinavians withdrawing claims of their quadrennial Nordic Games being undercut and pledging their support in favor of this new, every-fourth-year international competition.
NAME GAME
Two years after the fact, the International Sports Week 1924 is retroactively labeled the First Olympic Winter Games.
STRIKING GOLD FIRST
American speedskater Charles Jewtraw earns the distinction of being the first gold medalist in Winter Olympics competition, with his upset victory in the 500-meter speedskating race coming in the opening event.
TRIPLE-CROWNED
Two athletes earn three gold medals each innish speedskater Clas Thunberg and Norwegian nordic skier and ski jumper Thorleif Haug.
LOPSIDED
In its first four games of the ice hockey tournament, Canada beats Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Sweden and Great Britain by a combined score of 104-2. The Canadians go on to defeat the United States 6-1 in the tourney finale to win the gold medal.
WHOPRETEEN?
An 11-year-old figure skater from Norway finishes last in the ladieserror in Haug
