24 Fun Facts about the Winter Olympics
Posted in Homeschool View on Thursday, February 3, 2022
Nearly 3,000 top-level athletes from more than 90 nations all over the world have converged upon Beijing, China, for the 2022 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXIV Olympic Winter Games. To prepare you for a fortnight of multi-sport competition, check out these 24 fun facts you may not know about the Winter Olympics!
1. All the events at the Winter Olympics take place on snow or ice.
2. The first Winter Olympics were held in 1924.
3. The Winter Olympics traditionally take place two years after the Summer Olympics.
4. Unlike horses at the Summer Olympics in equestrian events, animals have never officially participated in the Winter Olympics; however, dog sled racing was a demonstration event in 1932, and in 1928 they demonstrated skijoring, an event where athletes on skis are pulled by horses.
5. Athletes competing in skeleton speed down the ice track at up to 80 mph.
6. In the first Winter Olympics, women were only allowed to compete in figure skating.
7. Marit Bjørgen from Norway has won the most medals of any Winter Olympian with a whopping 15 medals.
8. Snow and ice once had to be brought in by the army when the Winter Olympics were set to take place in Innsbruck, Austria.
9. The first Winter Olympic Games were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France, at the base of the Alps.
10. No country in the Southern Hemisphere has ever hosted a Winter Olympics.
11. The U.S. has hosted the Winter Olympics 4 times: Lake Placid in 1932 and 1980, Squaw Valley near Lake Tahoe in 1960, and Salt Lake City in 2002.
12. Going into the 2022 Winter Olympics, Norway has won the most gold medals with 132. The United States is second with 105, and Germany is third with 92.
13. The movie Cool Runnings is inspired by the true Olympic story of the Jamaican bobsled team who debuted at the 1988 Winter Games in Alberta, Canada. For the first time in 24 years, Jamaica again has a bobsled team at this year’s Olympics. (No official word if they have a lucky egg this time!)
14. Beijing is the first city to host both the Summer Olympics (2008) and the Winter Olympics (2022).
15. Olympic gold medals are required to have at least 6 grams of pure gold, but they’re mostly made of silver. Only the plating on the outside is gold.
16. From 1912-1992, the Winter and Summer Olympics were held in the same year. The Winter Olympics were held in 1992 and 1994, which began the pattern of holding the Olympics two years apart.
17. There was a 1,500-year break between the ancient and modern Olympics.
18. Only five athletes have ever won medals at both the Winter and Summer Olympic Games.
19. Walt Disney was the head of the committee that organized the opening day ceremonies for the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley. The Opening Ceremony was filled with high school choirs and bands, releasing of thousands of balloons, fireworks, ice statues, releasing of 2,000 white doves, and national flags dropped by parachute.
20. The world’s youngest Olympic skier was Seba Johnson from the US Virgin Islands. She was only 14 when she competed at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. She was also the first black female Olympic skier.
21. The 1976 Winter Olympics were originally awarded to Denver, Colorado, but the city later rejected the bid due to financial and environmental considerations. They remain the only city to ever pull out after being awarded the games.
22. Only three nations have won more medals at the Winter Games than at the Summer Games: Norway, Austria, and Liechtenstein.
23. Six countries have won medals at every Winter Olympic Games: Austria, Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the United States.
24. Winning a gold medal can be lucrative. In 2014, any Kazakhstani athlete who claimed gold could earn a cool $250,000 USD for their efforts. Latvia offered its athletes $192,000 USD for a gold medal, and Ukrainian gold medalists were offered $150,000 USD.
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