CHAPTER 1 THE WINTER GAMES President Theodore Roosevelt top center in white meets members of the 1908 U S Olympic team
The official First Olympic Winter Games took place in France in 1924 But the first winter Olympic sports competition actually happened 16 years earlier during the Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics were special for two reasons First they lasted 187 days the longest Games in modern Olympic history And second they included figure skating a sport that would eventually become a popular winter event British figure skaters in the 1908 Summer Olympics
The 1908 Summer Games began in April and didn't finish until October Just a few days before the closing ceremony as temperatures outside cooled from summer to fall the first winter sports took place at a place called Prince's Skating Club in London England Men and women athletes competed in four figure skating events The athletes danced and twirled and performed all kinds of tricks and the crowd clapped and cheered It was a nice break from all of the summer sports FY The 1924 Winter Olympics were originally known as Winter Sports Week Later the IOC renamed them the First Olympic Winter Games 1908 skating gold medalist Sweden's Ulrich Salchow
However there were no winter events in the 1912 Summer Olympics and the 1916 Games were canceled after the outbreak of World War I That meant fans didn't get any more winter sports until 1920 when the Summer Olympics included figure skating and ice hockey U S hockey team in 1920 Summer Olympics
