From Chamonix to Utah: Stuff you might not know about the Winter Olympics

Whether it’s artistic swimming or sport climbing in the Summer Olympics or curling and ski-mountaineering in the winter, it’s not uncommon to watch the Olympic Games and say, “Wow! I’ve never seen that sport before.”

But there are a whole bunch of fun facts about the Olympics you might not know.

The first Olympic Games were held in Greece nearly 3,000 years ago, with the first recorded champion winning a sprint race in 776 BCE, Britannica reported. As a tribute to those early games, the first “modern” Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece, in April 1896. Fourteen countries competed, with all the countries being in Europe except for the United States. All the athletes were men.

The Winter Games were started in 1924, with the first competition held in Chamonix, France. At the base of Mont Blanc in the Alps mountain range, Chamonix was the perfect place for the first international Winter Olympics sporting competition, which included ski jump, bobsled, figure skating, speed skating, hockey and curling.

Eleven women competed at that first Winter Games, Time reported. This included Herma Planck-Szabo, of Austria, who won the gold medal for figure skating, and 11-year-old Sonja Henie, of Norway. Henie came in last place that year, but she won three Olympic gold medals for figure skating in 1928, 1932 and 1936 — and then became a movie star.

Because the Winter Olympics depend on having snow and ice, many countries have climates that are too warm and do not send athletes to the Winter Games. The 1993 movie “Cool Runnings” is very loosely based on a real story of two Americans who had the idea to start Jamaica’s first bobsled team, according to HBO.

The cost of winter sports training facilities — think of how much more it would cost to safely run a ski jump than a basketball court — also limits competition.

The United States has hosted the Winter Games four times. Two of those games, in 1932 and 1980, were in Lake Placid, New York. The other Olympic Games in the United States were in Squaw Valley, Calif., in 1960, and in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2002.

Although Salt Lake City is listed as the official location of the 2002 Winter Olympics, many of the events were held in Park City, about 30 miles away. The Utah Olympic Park in Park City hosted ski jumping, bobsled, luge and the first Olympic skeleton competition.

Skeleton competitors ride a small sled face down and head first. Visitors to the Olympic Park can visit a ski museum that has a model of a skeleton sled you can try. It’s scary to imagine hurtling down a frozen track in that position!

Comments: erin.jordan@thegazette.com