Winter Olympic Games

Events > Olympics > Winter > Trivia

Facts and Trivia from Previous Games

• The first Winter Olympic Games were held in Chamonix, France in 1924.

• No country in the Southern Hemisphere has ever hosted a Winter Games.

• 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).

• 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 athletes is six by speed skater Bonnie Blair.

• Norway has won the most number of medals at the Winter Games.

• 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