The Growth and Rebranding of the Olympic Winter Games: 1908 to 2022* By Richard Baka "The Seed is Sown”: 1908 to 1921» - Winter Sports in the Summer Games and the Emergence of a Stand-Alone Event Suppltm -nfo della Gazzctta del Popolo A ~ - IV N . f m , .* IV H..- l»M From 1896 to 1904 the Olympic Games were solely the domain of summer sports, with no winter sports included in the programme. Shortly after this, figure skating was included in the 1908 London Summer Games and the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games. Likewise, ice hockey was added as an event at the 1920 Summer Olympics. Since both of these sports could be played indoors and did not rely on winter weather conditions it was obvious as to why they were the first winter sports chosen to be in the Summer Games fixture. There is reasonably strong support for the Winter A successful trial: the Olympic Games having their origins in the Nordic International Winter Games, a regional event that preceded the Winter Sport Week 1921, in Games. As Ron Edgeworth pointed out: Chamonix was recog­ The Nordic Games took place between 1901 and 1926, nised retrospectively mostly in Stockholm, Sweden. They began, and were two years later as the perpetuated, largely by the work of the influential first Olympic Winter Swedish sports administrator, Viktor Gustaf Balck. The Games. Left: the Italian Nordic Games were not without political problems, team in a romanticised nor were they originally planned as precursors to representation. It was the Olympic Winter Games, as often stated. In fact, customary that the despite Balck's influential status on the IOC, he and athletes carried their Introduction other Swedish and Norwegian sporting leaders sports equipment with opposed early suggestions to start Olympic Winter them at the Opening As the Summer Olympic Games have expanded and Games. The Olympic Winter Games themselves began Ceremony. grown to the point of earning the label of the world’s only after several heated IOC debates concerning their Photos: Vulker Kluge Archive number one sporting event, obviously an enormous merits. The Nordic Games ended after 1926, partly body of knowledge hcs accumulated. In contrast, there because of the growth of the Olympic Winter Games, have been more limited investigations and research on partly because of Balck's death and the loss of his the Winter Games - as a type of poor relation. However, leadership, and partly because of the growth of the with the growing popularity of the Winter Games, an Fédération Internationale de Ski.h increasing number of investigations have emerged. One of the classics in tnis category is The Complete Book on the Winter Olympic Games' - a type of reference R ich ard B ak a *1951. BPE, BA, MA, Ph.D. He has been encyclopaedia covering many facets of this multi-sport employed at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. event. Research specific to analyzing the growth and Dr. Baka teaches a number of subjects in the College of Sport and Exercise Science including 'Olympic Studies' and expansion of the Wint?r Games is limited but studies by supervises postgraduate students. His main area of research Baka", Winterton and Hess3 illustrate that information is the Olympic Movement. He has written numerous research in this field is expanding. Three time periods were papers. An Olympic-themed book which he co-edited with Dr. Robert Hess titled On the Periphery: New Perspectives on identified after reviewing the Winter Olympic Games the Olympic Movement (2013). and how they have grown in scope over their history. The American Jennison Due to ongoing lobbying by winter sports federations Heaton was victorious and a desire to placate Olympic nations with a winter ontheCresta Run in sports culture, the IOC reacted by staging the 1924 the skeleton at the International Winter Sports Week in Chamonix, France 1928 Games. At this with six sports comprising nine sports disciplines-figure time there was only a skating, speed skating, curling, ice hockey, cross-country piste in St. Moritz, so skiing, ski jumping, nordic combined, military patrol this sport disappeared and bobsleigh. This first event proved to be successful from the Olympic enough that during the IOC's 1926 Congress it retroactively programme only to renamed this event the First Winter Olympic Games. From return in 2002. then on, the Winter Games became entrenched as a permanent fixture in the Olympic Games schedule. Photo. Volker Kluge Archive medals and 258 athletes. But this quadrennial event "Stabilization and Slow Steady Growth": grew steadily overthenexteightdecades with only WW2 The Winter Olympic Games from 1928 to 1992 causing a disruption as the 1940 and 1944 events were cancelled alongwith the summer version. Bythe 1992 This era was characterized by a period of steady growth Albertville Winter Games the steady expansion saw an in the number of participating nations, the number increase in this sporting event to include 64 nations, of sports and events and the number of athletes. For 57 sports events, 171 medals and 1801 athletes a very example, at the 1924 Chamonix Winter Games there substantial growth when compared to the first Winter were 16 nations represented with 16 sports events, 49 Games (See Ta b le . Table 1: Olympic Winter Year of Games/Host City No. of NOCs/No. of Sports No. of athletes No. print media/ No. of Games Statistics and No. of Disciplines/ (males/females) No. broadcast volunteers Figures1 No. of Events staff No.of Medals 1924 Chamonix 16/6/9/16/49 258 (11F, 247M) 1928 St. Moritz 25/4 /8 /14/3 9 * 464 (26F, 438M) 1932 Lake Placid 17/I+/7/1I+/4 2 252 (21F, 231M) 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen 2 8/4 /8 /17/51 6i+6 (80F, 566M) 1948 St. Moritz 28U+/9/22/66 6 6 9 (77F, 592M) 1952 Oslo 30rl+/8/22/66 694 O09F, 585M) 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo 32/4 /8 /24 /72 821 (i3i+F, 687M) 1960 Squaw Valley 30.4/8/27/81 665 (li+i+F, 521M) 1964 Innsbruck 36.6/10/34/104 1091 (149F, 892M) 1968 Grenoble 37/6 /10/35/117* 1158 (211F, 947M) 1972 Sapporo 35'6 /io /35/io 5 1006 (205F, 801M) 1976 Innsbruck 37/6/10/37/111 1123 (231F, 892M) 1980 Lake Placid 37/6/10/38/114 1072 (232F, 840M) 1984 Sarajevo 4 9 /6 /10/39/117 1272 (274 F, 9 9 8 M) 2363/5630 10,450 1988 Calgary 57/6 /10/4 6/138 1423 (301F.1122M) 2477/4361 9.498 1992 Albertville 6 4 /6 /12/57/171 1801 (i+28F, 1313M) 2271'3623 6,647 1994 Lillehammer 67/6/12/61/183 1737 (522F, 1215M) 2615/4018 9.054 1998 Nagano 72/7/14 /6 8 /20I+ 2176 (522F, 1215M) 2856/5743 32,000 2002 Salt Lake City 77*7/15/78/236 2398 (8 8 6 F, 1513M 266/6069 22,000 2006 Turin 8 C/7/15/8 4 /252 2508 <96oF,15l*8M) 268 3/6720 18,000 2010 Vancouver 82/7/15/86/258 2566 (lOi+t+F, 1522M) 2803/8000 18,500 2014 Sochi 88/7/15/98/295* 2873 (1120F, 1753M) 13,477 25,000 2018 PyeongChang ?/7/l5/l02/306 2900 (Estimate) •sometimes extra medals were awarded due to a tie in one of the top three placings Year of Games/ Demonstration Sport(s) Addition of NevTSports & Dropping of Sports Host City Disciplines 1908 London figure skating 1920 Antwerp figure skating, ice hockey 1924 Chamonix bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, figure skating speed skating, military patrol, nordicskiing, ski jurrping, nordic combined, skeleton 1928 St. Moritz military patrol curling skijoring 1932 Lake Placid sled dog racing, speed skating - military patrol women, curling skijoring, skeleton 1936 Garmisch­ military patrol alpineskiing curling, s ed dog racing Partenkirchen ice stock sport speed skating - women 1948 St. Moritz military patrol, winter pentathlon skeleton 1952 Oslo bandy skeleton, military patrol, winter pentathlon 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo bandy 1960 Squaw Valley biathlon, speed skating - women bobsleigh 1964 Innsbruck ice stock sport luge, bobsleigh 1968 Grenoble Ice dancing ice stock sport 1972 Sapporo ice dancing 1976 Innsbruck Ice dancing 1980 Lake Placid 1984 Sarajevo disabled alpine skiing - men 1988 Calgary freestyle, short trace, curling disabled alpine & nordic skiing 1992 Albertville speed skiing freestyle - moguls, short track disabled alpine & nordic skiing 1994 Lillehammer freestyle skiing - aerials curling, freestyle - moguls, speed skiing 1998 Nagano freestyle - moguls, curling, snowtoarding, ice lockey - women 2002 Salt Lake City skeleton, bobsleigh - women 2006/10 Turin/VancoL ver 2014 Sochi added 12 new events (refer to text) 2018 PyeongChang added four newevents (referto text) snowboard parallel slalom What about alterations to the sports events on the ate.) added overthe ensuing years. Skeleton appeared on Table 2: Adding/ programme? Over the course of the Winter Games there the programme in 1928 and 1948 and then was off the Dropping of Winter have been as few as four sports, seven disciplines and 14 schedule for 54 yea ts before reappearing in 2202. Finally, Games' Demonstration events up to as many as nine sports, 15 discipli ne sand bobsleigh was in eve'y Winter Games apart from 1960 in Sports, Sports & 102 events (See Table 1). Curling which appeared in 1924 Squaw Valley5 (SeeTab e2). Disciplines." was dropped from the programme in 1928, and then During this era, tie host cities for Winter-Games also had demonstration status for the 1932, 1988 and 1992 eventually moved away from the dominant European Games. The popular sport of alpine skiing made its first theatre w th the event held in 1932 and -980 in Lake appearance in 1936 and has remained one of the key Placid (USA), 1960 in Squaw Valley (USA), 19): in Sapporo fixtures of every Winter Games since that t me.