The first Winter Olympic Games were held in 1924 in which country?

The first Winter Olympic Games were held from 25 January to 5 February 1924 at Chamonix, a ski resort in the French Alps. That same year, Paris hosted the Summer Olympics.

About the 1924 Chamonix Games:

The event was originally called the "International Winter Sports Week" and was organised in connection with the 1924 Paris Olympics. In 1925, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to recognise it retroactively as the first Winter Olympic Games.

About 250 athletes from 16 countries took part. Only 13 of them were women, all of them figure skaters.

Sports included skiing (cross-country and ski jumping), speed skating, figure skating, ice hockey, bobsleigh, curling and the military patrol (a forerunner of the biathlon).

Charles Jewtraw of the USA won the first Winter Olympic gold medal, in the 500 m speed skating event.

Norway topped the medal table, and Finland also did very well.

Later developments:

• From 1924 to 1992, the Winter and Summer Olympics were held in the same year.
• After 1992, the IOC moved the Winter Games to a different four-year cycle; the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, were held just two years after the 1992 Games.
• Norway has won the most medals in Winter Olympic history.

India and the Winter Olympics:

• India first took part in 1964 at Innsbruck, Austria, through Jeremy Bujakowski in alpine skiing.
• Shiva Keshavan, a luge athlete, represented India at six Winter Olympics (1998-2018).
• Arif Khan (alpine skiing) was India's only athlete at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
• Upcoming: the 2026 Winter Olympics are held at Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy (February 2026), and 2030 in the French Alps.

Why not the other options?

Switzerland hosted the second Winter Olympics in 1928 at St. Moritz.

Norway hosted the Winter Olympics in 1952 (Oslo) and 1994 (Lillehammer).

USA hosted the 1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid.