It’s Old, It’s Cold, But It Still Counts as Gold.

For the last 90 years, nations around the globe have been in participating, viewing, and supporting one of the biggest games known to man. During it’s 90 year end run, the winter Olympics have been producing monumental memories that will go down in history. Although the modern day Olympics are seen as a celebration of the world putting aside their differences and joining to battle for the best, the road to the winter Olympics that we know and love today was long journey of conflict and troublesome. Thankfully this conflict resulted in the creation of the memorial Chamonix Games in 1924 and everlasting international winter sport’s competition.

The first international winter sports festival recorded in history was the Nordic Games. The Nordic Games began in 1901 and were held every four years in 1905, 1909, 1913, 1917, 1922, and 1926. The Nordic Games were a week long games arranged by the Swedish Central Association for the Promotion of Sports (SCFIF). Nobody exactly knows what the purpose of the Nordic Games were and why the SCFIF established it, however many people believed that the reasoning of the Games was because of Scandinavian nationalism and Swedish commercialism. During the creation of the Nordic Games, advisors put together a competition that was beyond a sport contest. The Nordic Games involved theater, gala performances, visits to the archipelago and the open air museum Skansen, and celebrations. The believed intent of the Nordic Games was to showcase Sweden to the world. However, Sweden’s strong and unchanging nationalistic and commercial ambitions also led them to conflict (Edgeworth).

Ever since the creation of the summer Olympics, there was a movement for a competition opposite of the summer games. People peopl...

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... The overall teams of Norway and Finland were known for dominating the 1924 Olympics Games by winning 28 of the 43 medals awarded (First Winter Olympics).

Around the world more than 10,000 spectators watched the 1924 athletes perform in Chamonix. Due the large amount of views, the International Olympic Committee declared the first “International Winter Sports Week” a success. A year later, in 1925, the IOC decided to stage an Winter Olympic Games ever four years (The First Olympics). From the Nordic Games to the creation of first official Winter Olympic games, the journey has paved way for one of the most view television programs in history. With the first opening ceremony being viewed by 5,000 specters to the XXII opening ceremony with 37.2 million viewers, the Olympics have came a long way. What results from a Swedish conflict has became a beloved competition.