Here is a collection of Winter Olympic Games firsts, a sub-section of the Winter Olympic Games trivia.
- The FIRST Winter Olympic Games were held in Chamonix, France in 1924.
- The FIRST Winter Olympic gold medalist was Charlew Jewtraw, from Lake Placid in the United States, when he won the 500 meters speed skating title in 1924.
- The FIRST Winter Olympic female gold medalist was Herma Planck Szabo of Austria in the Figure Skating Event in 1924.
- The FIRST Winter Games to be held in a different country from the Summer Olympics was at St Moritz, 1928.
- The FIRST Winter Games hosted in a national capital city was Oslo in 1952.
- The FIRST time an athlete village was built for the Winter Olympics was for Oslo 1952.
- The FIRST Winter Games to be televised were the 1956 Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
- The FIRST Winter Games to have a dedicated athlete's village was in 1960 Squaw Valley, USA.
- The FIRST Winter Games to use a computer (courtesy of IBM) to tabulate results was in 1960 Squaw Valley, USA.
- The FIRST Winter Games to be broadcast in color was in Grenoble, France in 1968.
- The FIRST games (both winter and summer) for a mascot to appear was in 1968 in Grenoble - Schuss - a man on skis.
- The FIRST Olympic Games (both Summer and Winter) where gender testing was introduced was in Grenoble, France in 1968.
- The FIRST Games to use artificial snow was the 1980 Games in Lake Placid.
- The FIRST country to boycott the Winter Games was Taiwan when they refused to change their name from the Republic of China as the IOC tried to appease China in 1980.
- The FIRST person to win five individual gold medals in one Games (Summer and Winter) was Eric Heiden, when he won all five men's speed skating titles in 1980 (three of Mark Spitz's swimming gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics were in relays).
- The FIRST Winter Olympics to be held in a socialist country was the 1984 Games in Sarajevo.
- The FIRST black African skier to compete in the Winter Olympics was Senegal's Lamine Guèye, who made his debut at Sarajevo 1984.
- The FIRST black female skier to compete in the Winter Olympics was Seba Johnson from the US Virgin Islands. She competed in the giant slalom and Super-G at the 1988 winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada.
- The FIRST time the Winter Olympics speed skating events were held indoors was in Calgary 1988.
- The FIRST black athlete to win a Winter Olympic medal was Debi Thomas of the United States, finishing third in figure skating at the 1988 Games in Calgary.
- The FIRST athlete ever to win five medals in one event was German luge great Georg Hackl.
- The FIRST Winter Olympic medalist from the southern hemisphere was New Zealand skier Annelise Coberger who won a silver medal in the women's slalom at Albertville in France in 1992.
- The FIRST black athlete to earn winter gold was USA's Vonetta Flowers in the women's bobsleigh, at Salt Lake City in 2002.
- The FIRST black male gold medal winner was Canadian ice hockey player Jarome Iginia, at Salt Lake City in 2002.
- The FIRST disabled athlete to compete in both the Winter Olympics and the Winter Paralympics was Italian Orazio Fagone, short track speed skating at the Winter Olympics from 1988 until 1994, and sledge hockey at the 2006 Winter Paralympics.
- The FIRST Winter Olympic gold medalist from the southern hemisphere was Australian speed skater Steven Bradbury.
- The FIRST Winter Olympics host city to hold the opening and closing ceremonies indoors is Vancouver in 2010.
- The FIRST athlete to participate in both short track (1500m) and long track (5000m) speed skating was Haralds Silovs in 2010. He also became the FIRST to compete in two different disciplines on the same day.
- The FIRST Winter Olympics held by the sea was in Vancouver in 2010, and some venues, such as the Richmond Olympic Oval are at sea level.
- The FIRST time any competitions of the Winter Olympics will be held before the Opening ceremony was in 2014 when a team event was added to the figure skating program, requiring the competition to start earlier.
- The FIRST Winter Olympic Torch relay leg in space was for the Sochi 2014 Games - one leg of the relay involved a spacewalk by Russian cosmonauts.
- The FIRST gold medal tie ever for an Olympic alpine skiing event was in 2014 when two gold medals, one to Slovenia and one to Switzerland, were awarded for Women's downhill skiing.
- The FIRST openly gay man to win gold at the Winter Olympics was Canadian figure skater Eric Radford in 2018, winning the team figure skating event alongside his partner Meagan Duhamel.
- The FIRST athlete to win gold medals in two different sports at the Winter Olympics was the Czech Ester Ledecka, after winning the snowboard parallel giant slalom and the Alpine skiing super-G in 2018.
- The FIRST city to host both the winter and summer Olympics was Beijing - the Summer Games in 2008 and the Winter Games in 2022.
- The FIRST woman to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics for two different countries was Kaillie Humphries. She won gold in bobsleigh for Canada in 2010, 2014, and gold for the USA in 2022.
- The FIRST black woman to win a gold medal in an individual event at the Winter Games was US skater Erin Jackson in the 500 meters speed skating at the 2022 Beijing Games.
- The FIRST time a sport will be conducted outside of the Winter Olympics host country will be at Milan Cortina 2026, the sliding sports being held elsewhere.
- The FIRST Olympic Games officially featuring multiple host cities will be in 2026 Milan & Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Related Pages
- Oldest and Youngest Competitors at the Winter Olympics
- Related Winter Olympians
- Winter Medal Trivia
- More Sports Trivia
- Summer Olympics Trivia including some Summer Firsts