Chamonix is a small town in the French Alps, which today has a permanent population of less than 8,000 people, up from 3,500 in 1924. At an altitude of 1,035 metres, the town hosted more than 200 athletes from 16 countries, the first Winter Olympics.
In fact, in order not to provoke resistance from the Nordic countries, the Games were held under the name of the first "International Winter Sports Week". Of the 16 countries participating in the Chamonix Winter Olympics, 14 were European, and the presence of the United States and Canada brought a bit of internationality to the competition – although the five rings on the Olympic flag did not match, and countries in Asia, Africa, Central America, South America and Oceania did not participate. In stark contrast, the Summer Olympics, held a few months later in Paris, featured athletes from 44 countries on five continents. At the same time, the Chamonix Winter Olympics also rarely featured female athletes. Only figure skating allowed female athletes to participate in women's singles and pairs skating, and it was unthinkable that women could also engage in physically demanding sports like cross-country skiing or speed skating, fiercely confrontational sports like ice hockey, or dangerous sports like snowmobiling and ski jumping.
Judging from the distribution of medals, the Nordic countries occupied an absolute dominance in the first Winter Olympics. With 17 medals, Norway pushed Finland (11) to become the country with the most medals. Together, the two Nordic countries won about three-fifths of the medals of the first Winter Olympics. Chamonix's "International Winter Sports Week" was not officially renamed the Winter Olympics until two years later. In 1925, in view of Chamonix's success, the International Olympic Committee decided to host the Winter Olympic Games, and in 1926 the 24th IOC Plenary Session in Lisbon decided to make it the first Winter Olympic Games.
Nearly a hundred years later, the Winter Olympics have been held for the 24th, and Beijing and Zhangjiakou have become the world's first "double Olympic city" that has hosted both the Summer Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games, and there will be more than 100 participating countries, marking that winter sports have become popular around the world. On the occasion of the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, "From Chamonix to Beijing - A Hundred Years of the Winter Olympics" was published by Gerald Sarre, a former senior reporter of the French "Team Newspaper", and Wan shang Laudette, former president of the Overtime Publishing House of the French "Team Newspaper". With the permission of the publisher, Interface Culture (ID: Booksandfun) has excerpted excerpts from the first Winter Olympics for the benefit of readers.
From Chamonix to Beijing - A Hundred Years of the Winter Olympics
This book was written by the group
People's Publishing House 2022-1 "The First Winter Olympics - Chamonix 1924" (excerpt)
The Nordic countries lead the Chamonix Winter Olympics
In 1924, although people had not yet begun to discuss climate change, the weather was capricious. At the end of December of the previous year, Chamonix had seen more than 1.7 metres of snowfall in 24 hours. The first International Winter Sports Week will soon be held here, the first In its history. The heavy snowfall is unusual for this town in the French Alps, with the city center at an altitude of 1,035 meters. As a reinforcement, the army was mobilized during the Christmas and New Year holidays and participated in snow clearing in the first three weeks of January. At that time, the equipment was very rudimentary, and shovels were used to shovel snow.
After the temperature rose, a heavy rain disrupted the prelude to International Winter Sports Week. The first runners had already arrived at the playing field, but could not start training. On the eve of the opening ceremony, which was scheduled for January 25, the vast skating rink was like a lake, and the organizers had seriously considered whether several races needed to be cancelled. But a miracle happened: the temperature dropped suddenly, the water turned to ice, and the venues were able to be reconditioned to ensure that all the events went smoothly. The Winter Olympics lasted for 13 days from January 25 (opening ceremony) to February 5 (closing ceremony and award ceremony), and the competitions were successfully completed and successful. With the first experience, the IOC decided to continue hosting the Winter Olympics. The participation reflects the current situation of winter sports in countries around the world. Fourteen of the 16 countries participating in the Chamonix Winter Olympics are European. There should have been 15 European countries, but according to the IOC's decision, only member states of the League of Nations (the predecessor of the United Nations) could participate in the Paris Olympics and Chamonix Winter Sports Week. As a result, Germany, which launched World War I (1914-1918), was banned from participating. The arrival of the delegations of the United States and Canada has made the Winter Olympics a certain global one. However, countries in Asia, Africa, Central America, South America and Oceania did not participate. The five rings symbolizing the continents on the Olympic flag were not worthy of the name in Chamonix, and a few months later in Paris, 44 countries representing the five continents participated in the Summer Olympics.
At the opening ceremony, the participating flag bearers circled around to take the Olympic oath. (Image source: Photo provided by the publisher)
Very few female athletes compete: only figure skating is open to women's singles and pairs. Only 11 women competed in the Winter Olympics, and the Paris Summer Olympics had more than 10 times as many women. It was true that there were not many female players, but at the time, it was hard to imagine that women could also engage in physically demanding sports like cross-country skiing or speed skating, fierce confrontational sports like ice hockey, and dangerous sports like snowmobiling and ski jumping.
Three female figure skaters, from left to right, are Austria's Herma Berger. Planck-Sauber (Gold Medal), Essell S. Thompson of the United Kingdom Margaret (bronze medal) and Beatrix of the United States Lokeren (Silver). (Image source: Photo provided by the publisher)
It was a historic moment: on January 25, 1924, the first Winter Olympics kicked off in Chamonix. Chamonix is a small town of 3,500 inhabitants at the foot of Mont Blanc (4,809 meters above sea level), the highest point of the 1,200-kilometer Stretch of the Alps. In order not to provoke resistance from the Nordic countries, the Games were not initially called the Winter Olympics. However, the performances are difficult to hide from the eyes of onlookers: the opening ceremony on the afternoon of January 24, the ceremony process was very similar to the "real" Olympic Games at that time. Jean LaVervre, mayor of Chamonix, delivered a welcome speech in the town hall square where the procession queues gathered. The procession included not only members of the city's associations, but also delegations playing with local military bands and walking through the city streets. The 16 participating countries are sorted alphabetically by French name: Austria is at the top of the list, and Yugoslavia is at the end of the queue. In each delegation, participants march in the order of competition: first speed skaters, then figure skaters, cross-country skiers, military patrollers (active officers), ice hockey players and curlers, and finally snowmobile players.
The procession marched towards the Olympic Stadium, which, since it was built on the banks of the Arbor River, had to be built with a levee to maintain the elevated foundation. It was a large venue with a total area of 36,000 square meters: the internal ice rink (20,620 square meters) was the largest artificial ice rink in the world at that time, and it was built thanks to cutting-edge scientific and technological progress. The ice rink is rectangular in shape, with a semicircular track at both ends with a diameter of 90 meters and a long distance of 227 meters. In addition, a 5,000-square-meter track and a 2,040-square-meter curling track have been added. There is also an equestrian ski track and a sports club. These venues feature five grandstands, the most luxurious of which can accommodate 400 people, while the larger, covered grandstands can accommodate 1,000 people. By the time the participating delegations entered the stadium, the stands were already packed.
At the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, teams from various countries first crossed the city streets and then entered the arena. (Image source: Photo provided by the publisher)
It's hard not to see this "Winter Sports Week" as a disguised Olympics like a fake package. Accompanied by members of the International Olympic Committee, the President of the French Olympic Committee, Count Giustnican Clari, opened the ceremony and delivered a welcome speech. In his speech, Gaston Vidal, Deputy Minister of Sport and Deputy Secretary of State of France, said: "Chamonix Winter Sports Week is held in the same year as the Eighth Modern Olympic Games. Subsequently, the flag bearers of the various countries formed a circle next to the French flag bearer Sergeant Camille Mandryon, who took the Olympic oath on behalf of all the athletes. A similar ceremony was held at the Antwerp Summer Olympics four years ago.
Twelve days later, on the morning of February 5, 1924, the same ceremony was arranged at the closing ceremony at the same venue (the Olympic Stadium, also known as the Ice Stadium), still witnessed by many spectators. Baron Pierre de Coubertin summed up the results of the International Winter Sports Week in his speech, after which the Secretary-General of the French Olympic Committee, Franz Rechelle, read out the results of the competitions. Winter Sports Week officially came to an end, and medals were awarded to the winners one by one. With some of the champions already returning home, Franz Rechel presented medals to members of the delegation who received the awards on his behalf. A year later, the medal content increased significantly: in view of the success achieved at Chamonix, the International Olympic Committee officially designated the International Winter Sports Week as the first Winter Olympic Games at its congress in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on 27 May 1925. The resolution was then confirmed at the 24th Plenary Session of the International Olympic Committee, held in Lisbon, Portugal. The Prague Conference also adopted the Olympic Charter for the Winter Olympics, and although the Winter Olympics are held in the same year as the Summer Olympics, the Winter Olympics have been separated from the Summer Olympics and held separately.
Between the opening and closing ceremonies, from January 26 (Saturday) to February 4 (Monday), the Winter Olympics held a 10-day competition, competing in 6 major events and 16 sub-events under 9 sub-events. Sixteen "Olympic" champions stood out, even though they didn't know it at the time. The 16 champions are well deserved, as few competitions have reached such a high level of competition. In addition to the medal he won, 16 speed skating medals were all pocketed by Nordic athletes: Finland won 8 medals (4 of which were gold) and Norway won 7 medals after losing the 500-meter competition. Both countries also enjoyed cross-country skiing (Norway with 5 medals and Finland with 1 medal) and nordic (Norway winning gold, silver and bronze medals). 50 years later, an American athlete from Norway unexpectedly won the bronze medal in ski jumping (losing to two Norwegian athletes), writing the ending for an incredible story.
It is quite strange that while the Nordic countries continue to produce many individual champions, collective events have become a stage for other countries to compete to show their strength. In the ice hockey competition, Canada from the origin of ice hockey defeated the United States and the United Kingdom to win; in the four-man snowmobile competition, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Belgium won gold, silver and bronze medals; in the curling competition, Sweden won the second place, the first and third places were the British team and the French team respectively; in the military patrol competition, although Finland was the biggest favorite to win the championship, it was defeated by the Swiss team, the second place, and the French team won 1 bronze medal. Today, there are no military patrols in the Winter Olympics, which are the prototype of the later biathlons. At the time, biathlon was a team competition that combined cross-country skiing with rifle shooting, with a total distance of 30 kilometers and a drop of 785 meters. In the middle of the shooting session, each team is required to shoot 18 bullets at a target 250 meters away, and each hit target will be rewarded with 30 seconds.
Figure skating was played on the skating rink inside the Olympic Stadium, but the event's first Olympic champion was not born here: figure skating was already held in the 1908 and 1920 Summer Olympics. At the Chamonix Winter Olympics, figure skating is the only sport allowed for female athletes. On January 28 and 29, women's figure skating took the lead. Only eight players participated in the competition, and Austria's Herma Plank-Schobo was unanimously recognized by the referee and won the gold medal. America's Beatrix Lockelen and Britain's Ethel Maguert won silver and bronze medals, respectively. No one paid much attention to a little Norwegian girl who won the eighth place, her name was Sonia Hennie, who was only 11 years old at the time. For the next three Winter Olympics, she won the figure skating championships for the next three years, earning her the nickname "Queen of Ice". In the men's figure skating event, Sweden's Gillis Grafström, who won the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, narrowly defeated Austria's Willy Berkehl and Switzerland's George Goech to defend the title. Austrian duo Helena Tengelmann and Alfred Berger beat Finnish duo Ludovica and Walter Jacobsson in the pair skate and French duo André Jolly and Pierre Bruyne.
11-year-old Norway's Sonia Haynie is playing the women's singles skating match under the watchful eye of the referee. (Image source: Photo provided by the publisher)
This International Winter Sports Week shows a well-known fact: European countries had absolute dominance over winter sports at that time. Of the 49 medals presented by Chamonix, only five were sidelined (four in the United States and one in Canada), while Norway and Finland, the two countries with the most medals, won 17 and 11 medals respectively, together accounting for about three-fifths of the medals of the Winter Olympics. The first Winter Olympics were almost a replica of the Nordic Games. The most striking winner on the field was a European player from the far north of the continent, where winters are longer and colder, so winter sports are more common. Finland's Klaas Thunberg won five medals in five events of speed skating – three gold, one silver and one bronze – becoming the first Winter Olympics "superstar", and he also helped Finland finish second in the medal table, behind Norway, which won 17 medals. For him, this was just the beginning: like many others, he packed up his medals and began to look to the future. He set his sights on the next event four years from now.
Excerpts from the first chapter of "From Chamonix to Beijing – A Hundred Years of the Winter Olympics" are abridged, with subtitles added by the editor and published with the permission of the publishing house.