Winter Olympic Games
Events > Olympics > Winter > Trivia
Facts and Trivia from Previous Games
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The first Winter Olympic Games were held in Chamonix, France in 1924. more 'Firsts' Trivia.
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Unlike the Summer Olympics, the cancelled 1940 and 1944 Winter Olympics are not included in the official Roman numeral counts for the Winter Games.
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No country in the Southern Hemisphere has ever hosted a Winter Games. (see all hosts)
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Only four athletes have ever won medals at both the Winter and Summer Olympic Games: Eddie Eagan (United States), Jacob Tullin Thams (Norway), Christa Luding-Rothenburger (East Germany), and Clara Hughes (Canada). Eddie Eagan is the only to have won gold meals at both Winter and Summer Olympics - he won gold at the 1920 Games in boxing, and also won gold at the 1932 Lake Placid Games in the team bobsled event.
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The most medals won by any athletes at the Winter Olympic Games is 12 by cross-country skier Bjorn Dählie of Norway. The most medals by an American athlete is six by speed skater Bonnie Blair.
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The youngest athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Games was 15-year-old American figure skater Tara Lipinski in Nagano 1998.
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Norway has won the most number of medals at the Winter Games.
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At the 1960 games at Squaw Valley, California USA, in an effort to impress spectators, Walt Disney was head of the committee that organized the opening day ceremonies. 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.
- For more trivia, see the specific pages on each Winter Games.
