Winter Olympic Games

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Winter Olympics Firsts

• The FIRST Winter Olympic Games were held in Chamonix, France in 1924.

• The FIRST Winter Olympic gold medallist was Charlew Jewtraw, from Lake Placid in the United States, when he won the 500 meters speed skating title in 1924.

• The FIRST Winter Olympic female gold medallist was Herma Planck Szabo of Austria in the Figure Skating Event in 1924.

• The FIRST Winter Games to be held in a different country from the Summer Olympics was at St Moritz, 1928.

• The FIRST Winter Games hosted in a national capital city was Oslo in 1952.

• The FIRST Winter Games to be televised were the 1956 Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

• The FIRST Winter Games to have a dedicated athlete's village was in 1960 Squaw Valley, USA

• The FIRST Winter Games to use a computer (courtesy of IBM) to tabulate results was in 1960 Squaw Valley, USA.

• The FIRST Winter Games to be broadcast in color was in Grenoble, France in 1968.

• The FIRST Olympic Games (both Summer and Winter) where gender testing was introduced was in Grenoble, France in 1968.

• The FIRST Games to use artificial snow was the 1980 Games in Lake Placid.

• The FIRST country to boycott the Winter Games was Taiwan when they refused to change their name from the Republic of China as the IOC tried to appease China in 1980.

• The FIRST person to win five individual gold medals in one Games (Summer and Winter) was Eric Heiden, when he won all five men's speed skating titles in 1980 (three of Mark Spitz's swimming gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics were in relays).

• The FIRST Winter Olympics to be held in a socialist country was the 1984 Games in Sarajevo.

• The FIRST time the Winter Olympics speed skating events were held indoors was in Calgary 1988.

• The FIRST black athlete to win a Winter Olympic medal was Debi Thomas of the United States, finishing third in figure skating at the 1988 Games in Calgary.

• The FIRST athlete ever to win five medals in one event was German luge great Georg Hackl.

• The FIRST black athlete to earn winter gold was USA's Vonetta Flowers in the women's bobsleigh, at Salt Lake City in 2002.

• The FIRST black male gold medal winner was Canadian ice hockey player Jarome Iginia, at Salt Lake City in 2002.

• The FIRST Winter Olympics host city to hold the opening and closing ceremonies indoors is Vancouver in 2010.

• The FIRST Winter Olympics held by the sea will be in Vancouver in 2010, and some venues, such as the Richmond Olympic Oval are at sea level.

Related Pages

• Winter Olympics main page.
• more sports trivia
• Summer Olympics Trivia including some Summer Firsts