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First Winter Olympic Gold Medal Winners from Each Country

Over 40 countries have won at least one gold medal at the Winter Olympics (many more have won gold at the Summer Olympics). We have compiled a list of the first gold medal winners (male or female) from each country. For some countries, there were numerous gold medallists at the same Olympiad, and in these cases, we have looked closely at the events and dates and tried to determine which of the athletes won their medal first.

Country Year Sport Event Athlete
Australia 2002 Short Track Speed Skating 1,000 m, Men Steven Bradbury
Austria 1924 Figure Skating Singles, Women Herma Planck-Szabo
Belarus 2010 Freestyle Skiing Aerials, Men Aliaksei Hryshyn
Belgium 1948 Figure Skating Pairs, Mixed Micheline Lannoy / Pierre Baugniet
Bulgaria 1998 Biathlon 15 km, Women Ekaterina Dafovska
Canada 1924 Ice Hockey Ice Hockey, Men Canada
China 2002 Short Track Speed Skating 500 m, Women Yang Yang (A)
Croatia 2002 Alpine Skiing Combined, Women Janica Kostelić
Czechia 1998 Ice Hockey Ice Hockey, Men Czech Republic
Estonia 2002 Cross Country Skiing 15 km, Men Andrus Veerpalu
Finland 1924 Speed Skating 5,000 m, Men Clas Thunberg
France 1928 Figure Skating Pairs, Mixed Andrée Joly / Pierre Brunet
Germany 1936 Alpine Skiing Combined, Women Christl Cranz
Great Britain 1924 Curling Curling, Men Great Britain
Hungary 2018 Short Track Speed Skating 5,000 m Relay, Men Hungary
Italy 1948 Skeleton Skeleton, Men Nino Bibbia
Japan 1972 Ski Jumping Normal Hill, Individual, Men Yukio Kasaya
Kazakhstan 1994 Cross Country Skiing 50 km, Men Vladimir Smirnov
Korea (South) 1992 Short Track Speed Skating 1,000 m, Men Kim Gi-Hun
Latvia 2014 Bobsleigh Four, Men Latvia 1
Liechtenstein 1980 Alpine Skiing Giant Slalom, Women Hanni Wenzel
Netherlands 1964 Figure Skating Singles, Women Sjoukje Dijkstra
Norway 1924 Cross Country Skiing 50 km, Men Thorleif Haug
Poland 1972 Ski Jumping Large Hill, Individual, Men Wojciech Fortuna
Russia 1994 Speed Skating 500 m, Men Aleksandr Golubev
Slovakia 2010 Biathlon 7.5 km Sprint, Women Anastasia Kuzmina
Slovenia 2014 Alpine Skiing Downhill, Women Tina Maze
Soviet Union 1956 Cross Country Skiing 10 km, Women Lyubov Kozyreva
Spain 1972 Alpine Skiing Slalom, Men Francisco Fernández Ochoa
Sweden 1924 Figure Skating Singles, Men Gillis Grafström
Switzerland 1924 Military Ski Patrol Military Ski Patrol, Men Switzerland
Ukraine 1994 Figure Skating Singles, Women Oksana Baiul
USA 1924 Speed Skating 500 m, Men Charley Jewtraw
Uzbekistan 1994 Freestyle Skiing Aerials, Women Lina Cheryazova


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