In 1924, a tournament called "International Winter Sports Week" was held in chamonix, a French town in the Alps. Two years later, it was confirmed as the first Winter Olympics. At that time, only 16 of the competition events in the first Winter Olympic Games have undergone nearly a hundred years of evolution and development, and now in the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, 109 sports will set a record for the Winter Olympics.
The most beautiful event slid from the Summer Olympics to the Winter Olympics
In the second half of the 18th century, a masterpiece by a European painter, the famous German poet and playwright Goethe is showing off his graceful figure skating figure on the ice rink in Frankfurt, while a lady next to him is enjoying it. This elegant winter sports, at that time in Britain, Germany, the United States, Canada and many other European and American countries are very popular, because the sport shows extraordinary sports beauty, so people also call figure skaters as ice artists.
The pairs skating champion at the 4th Garmisch Partenkirchen Winter Olympics in 1936 was dancing on the ice, and the male players in suits and ties were very old-fashioned.
However, at that time, figure skating was relatively simple in content and form, and even making a stop action was very dangerous. The reason for this, in addition to the problem of skill, is also difficult to blame for the "line head" that does not give strength. The most critical ice knife under the ice artist's feet is made of pure iron, which has no grooves and therefore cannot slide out more tricks. It was not until 1850 that the all-steel ice knife appeared, and the situation in which figure skating skills were subject to "shoes" was completely changed. At this time, a ballet master went one step further, the first to screw a steel ice knife firmly on the sole of the shoe, creating more cool movements made it possible. This master is the American Jackson Haynes.
The American legend who has made outstanding contributions to the figure skating project has a bumpy road to innovation. In 1864, Haynes had already won the National Figure Skating Championship twice. He tried to use musical accompaniment for free skating, but this innovative performance full of modernity was not recognized. For the sake of his ideals, he had to leave the United States and go to Europe. But when he arrived in England, he also suffered a cold reception. Later, he traveled to Austria, and finally found Zhiyin in the music city of Vienna.
On various ice rinks in Vienna, he tirelessly danced the most popular waltz of the time. In the melodious round dance music, his dashing ice dance posture and original crouching and rotating action exude the charm of figure skating to the fullest, and people are completely fascinated. Figure skaters flock to Haynes as a teacher and learn from his wonderful ice waltz. Haynes is also known as the "father of modern figure skating" for his pioneering effort to integrate skating techniques with the art of dance.
Figure skating is known as "the most beautiful sport in the world". It was the first winter ice and snow event to enter the Olympic Games - at the Fourth London Summer Olympics in 1908, the first figure skating competition surprised the audience and contributed to the smooth birth of the Winter Olympics. At the first Chamonix Winter Olympics in 1924, figure skating was one of the few events at the time, and it was called the veteran sport of the Winter Olympics.
At the second Winter Olympics in St. Moritz in 1928, curlers were preparing for the exhibition match.
The steel frame snowmobile has been two out and three in 74 years
As a sport that allows people to "fly close to the ground", athletes are under as much pressure as fighter pilots during their participation in steel-frame snowmobile competitions. This most thrilling sport has gone through a long 74 years of entry, cancellation, re-entry, cancellation, and final entry at the Winter Olympics.
In 1928, the second Winter Olympics were held in St. Moritz, Switzerland. As the birthplace of the steel frame snowmobile, Switzerland decided to include the project in the Winter Olympic Games, which was approved by the International Olympic Committee. The athletes in this project have to lie head-forward on a simple snowmobile similar to the shape of a human skeleton, but this simple-constructed snowmobile can reach a staggering top speed of 135 kilometers per hour, and it has no braking system, and the athlete can only gradually slow down through the buffer zone after crossing the finish line.
After the Winter Olympics, the third and fourth Winter Olympics cancelled the race due to the difficulty of finding a track that met the conditions. It was not until 20 years later, in 1948, that St. Moritz hosted the Winter Olympics again, that the steel-framed snowmobile was re-included in the competition. But because the danger of the steel frame snowmobile was too high, the project was cancelled after the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz. After a long wait, it was not until 1998 that the steel frame snowmobile project finally returned to the Winter Olympic family. Since the 19th Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, steel-framed snowmobiles have not been absent from the Winter Olympics.
At the first Chamonix Winter Olympics in 1924, the gold medalist in figure skating danced on the ice in thick dresses.
Snow surfing comes from children's games
One winter day in 1965, Sherman Poppen, an American engineer who loves skiing and surfing, walked out of the house and saw the children frolicking in the thick snow, and on a whim, he fixed a pair of his daughter's children's skis modeled on sea surfboards, and set up control ropes at the front of the snowboards to make the world's first snowboard, which was named "Snurfer" (Chinese means "snow surfing").
For the next 10 years, it was loved by children. Among the young people who grew up with snowboarding in their childhood was a young man named Jay Bo Carpenter. During the play, he came up with the idea of developing snowboards, and eventually created a new type of snowboard that did not require the control of ropes. Snowboarding has attracted more and more young people to join, and the "snow surfing" boom has swept the world.
Because of its strong ornamental and popular with the public, snowboarding became an official event of the 18th Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998. In every winter Olympic games since then, it has attracted countless young figures to take off and jump in the snow, in the air, innovative challenges, highlighting the personality and excitement of youth.
At the 23rd Winter Olympics in PyeongChang in 2018, snowboarders flipped "spreading clouds" in the air.
Curling is friendly to all ages
Also in 1998, a very popular sport entered the Winter Olympics. The sport was called "ice skating", which is what we now know as curling.
Curling originated in Scotland in the 14th century. During the cold Scottish winter, people are fascinated by a kind of ice catapult game similar to boccia. Every year, when the national competition is held, people rush to the arena from all directions, and thousands of people compete at the same time on the frozen lake, which is a spectacular scene.
Later, curling spread to North America and quickly spread in Canada. Every winter, millions of Canadians take part in curling, and some even describe it this way: there are 3 kinds of buildings everywhere in Canada, post offices, banks and curling halls.
Curling and the Winter Olympics are "old friends" with deep fate. Since the first Chamonix Winter Olympics in 1924, curling has been on the Stage as a performance event. Since then, ice hockey has been listed as a performance event a total of 6 times. After strictly fulfilling all the IOC regulations on the new project, curling was finally "regularized" at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics and became a well-known gold medal event in the Winter Olympics.
Due to its safety, fun and low threshold, ice hockey is known as a sport that can be played from 9 to 99 years old, so it is quite popular in the folk. In addition, the sport is a particular test of intelligence, so it is also called "chess on ice".
Beijing has the most winter Olympics events
In two days, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will begin. This Winter Olympic Games has added 7 new competitions, with a total of 109 projects, which is the largest number of events in the history of the Winter Olympics, and will also become the largest number of women's competitions in the history of the Winter Olympics.
Women first entered the Olympic games at the Second Summer Olympics in 1900, breaking the stereotype of banning women from participating in the Olympic Games since ancient times. The Winter Olympics are the first time to have female athletes appear. Nowadays, there are not only female athletes in speed skating and cross-country skiing, but also female athletes who do not let their eyebrows be raised in snowboarding and steel frame snowmobiles that are thrilling and challenge the limits of human physical fitness.
The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics added seven new events, six of which were women's or mixed team events. The Beijing Winter Olympic Games will become the one with the largest number of women's competitions and the highest proportion of female athletes in the history of the Winter Olympic Games, and will surely create a better new era for women to fully participate in the Olympic Movement!
This edition is partially provided with a picture of Visual China
For more information, please pay attention to the Winter Olympics.
Source Client The Winter Olympics | Reporter Huang Yuying
Edited by Kang Dian
Process Editor Wu Yue