France at the Winter Olympic Games
France started sending athletes to compete at the Winter Olympic Games at its own turf in Chamonix in 1924, and has sent teams to every Winter Olympics since then. The nation won three medals, all of them bronze from curling, figure skating and military party on its first appearance. Aside from hosting the inaugural Winter Games the nation also hosted the Winter Olympics in Grenoble (1968) and Albertville (1992).
The nation is strong in alpine skiing, biathlon, snowboarding, figure skating, freestyle skiing and Nordic combined.
The nation’s best showing at the Winter Games so far is in 1968 where they competed as a host and wfinished with a gold-silver-bronze medal haul of 4-3-2 which was good for third place behind Norway and USSR.
Trivia
- France is one of three nations to have taken part in all Winter and Summer editions of the Olympic Games (the others are Switzerland and Great Britain).
- In Grenoble in 1968, France's Jean-Claude Killy won gold in all three Alpine events (after some controversy surrounding the disqualification of Austria's Karl Schranz in the slalom).
- In the 1960 women's slalom Alpine skiing event, three French sisters Anne-Marie, Marguerite and Thérèse Leduc all competed together.
Related Pages
- France at the Summer Olympics
- More Winter Olympics Countries
- Winter Olympics main page.
- About Sport in France
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