Winter Olympic Games

The Winter Olympic Games, also called the Olympic Winter Games or simply the Winter Olympics, is a big international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports played on snow and ice. These games usually happen in February during the winter in the Northern Hemisphere. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) governs the Olympic Movement, and its rules are defined in the Olympic Charter. In 2026, Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy will host the Winter Olympics, with the next games set for February 1–17, 2030, in the French Alps.

The Winter Olympics started in 1924 in Chamonix, France, and have grown over time. Originally, there were five main sports with nine different events, such as bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, and Nordic skiing. Since then, many new sports like alpine skiing, luge, short track speed skating, freestyle skiing, skeleton, and snowboarding have become regular parts of the games. Some sports, like curling and bobsleigh, were dropped and later brought back, while others, such as military patrol, are no longer included. The Winter Olympics were inspired by the ancient games held in Olympia, Greece, and the modern Olympic movement was started by Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France in 1894.

These games have been held in thirteen different countries across three continents, all in the Northern Hemisphere. The United States has hosted four times, France and Italy three times each, and several other nations have hosted twice. Norway leads in total medals won in Winter Olympics history, followed by the United States and Germany. The Winter Olympics were interrupted only during World War II but have continued to bring together athletes from around the world to compete in exciting winter sports.

History

Early years

A predecessor event called the Nordic Games was organized in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1901 by Viktor Gustaf Balck. It was held every four years until 1926. Balck tried to add winter sports like figure skating to the Olympic Games but succeeded only at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, where four figure skating events were held.

In 1912, an Italian count suggested including a week of winter sports at the Summer Olympics in Stockholm. The organizers opposed this idea to protect the Nordic Games and due to concerns about facilities for winter sports.

Plans for a winter sports week were made for the 1916 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, but these Games were canceled because of World War I.

1920 to 1936

The first Olympics after the war, the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, included figure skating and ice hockey. Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey were not allowed to compete.

In 1924, France agreed to host a separate "International Winter Sports Week" in Chamonix. This event, with over 250 athletes from 16 nations, was later recognized as the first Winter Olympics. Norway and Finland won most of the medals. Charles Jewtraw of the United States won the first gold medal in speed skating. Sonja Henie of Norway, only 11 years old, competed in ladies' figure skating.

St. Moritz, Switzerland, hosted the second Winter Games in 1928. Weather challenges affected the events, and some were canceled. Sonja Henie returned to win the ladies' figure skating at age 15, becoming the youngest Olympic champion at the time. Gillis Grafström of Sweden won his third consecutive figure skating gold.

The next Winter Olympics were held in Lake Placid, New York, United States, the first outside Europe. Seventeen nations participated. Virtually no snow fell for two months before the Games, and there was not enough snow to hold all the events until mid-January. Sonja Henie defended her Olympic title, and Eddie Eagan of the United States, an Olympic champion in boxing in 1920, won the gold medal in the men's bobsleigh event.

The 1936 Winter Games were held in Garmisch and Partenkirchen, Germany. Alpine skiing made its Olympic debut, but skiing teachers were barred from competing because they were considered professionals. Because of this decision the Swiss and Austrian skiers refused to compete at the games.

World War II interrupted the Winter Olympics. The 1940 games awarded to Sapporo, Japan, were moved because of the Japanese invasion of China. The games were then to be held at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, but the 1940 games were cancelled following the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Due to the ongoing war, the 1944 games, originally scheduled for Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, were cancelled.

1948 to 1962

St. Moritz hosted the first post-war games in 1948. It became the first city to host a Winter Olympics twice. Some controversy emerged when two hockey teams from the United States arrived, both claiming to be the legitimate U.S. Olympic hockey representative. There was unprecedented parity at these games, during which 10 countries won gold medals—more than any games to that point.

The Olympic Flame tradition was introduced at the 1952 games in Oslo. Bandy, a popular sport in the Nordic countries, was featured as a demonstration sport. Norwegian athletes won 17 medals, led by Hjalmar Andersen who won three gold medals in four events in the speed skating competition.

After not being able to host the games in 1944, Cortina d'Ampezzo was selected to organise the 1956 Winter Olympics. At the opening ceremonies the final torchbearer, Guido Caroli, entered the Olympic Stadium on ice skates. As he skated around the stadium his skate caught on a cable and he fell and burned his arm, nearly extinguishing the flame. He was able to recover and light the cauldron. These were the first Winter Games to be televised, and the first Olympics ever broadcast to an international audience.

The Soviet Union made its Olympic debut and had an immediate impact, winning more medals than any other nation. Chiharu Igaya won the first Winter Olympics medal for Japan and the continent of Asia when he placed second in the slalom.

The IOC awarded the 1960 Olympics to Squaw Valley, United States. About US$80,000,000 was spent over four years to build cutting-edge infrastructure from scratch. The opening and closing ceremonies were the firsts produced by Walt Disney Company. The Squaw Valley Olympics was the first Winter Games to have a dedicated athletes' village, the first to use a computer to tabulate results, and the first to feature female speed skating events.

1964 to 1980

The Austrian city of Innsbruck hosted the 1964 Winter Olympics. For the first time, the Olympic torch of the Winter Olympic Games was lit at the traditional ritual held in the temple of Olympia. Soviet speed-skater Lidia Skoblikova made history by winning all four-speed skating events. Also, for the first time Luge was added to the Olympic program.

Held in the French town of Grenoble, the 1968 Winter Olympics were the first Olympic Games to be broadcast in colour. There were 1,158 athletes from 37 nations competing in 35 events. French alpine ski racer Jean-Claude Killy became only the second person to win all the men's alpine skiing events.

The 1972 Winter Games, held in Sapporo, Japan, were the first to be hosted on a continent other than North America or Europe. The issue of professionalism was disputed during these Games when a number of alpine skiers were found to have participated in a ski camp in the United States; IOC president Avery Brundage threatened to bar the skiers from competing in the Games. Eventually only Austrian Karl Schranz, who earned more than the other skiers, was excluded from the competition. Canada boycotted the 1976 ice hockey tournaments in protest at not being able to use players from professional leagues.

The 1976 Winter Olympics had initially been awarded to Denver, Colorado, in the United States. However, the increasing costs of the event and the oil crisis led to a local plebiscite held in November 1972, that resulted in the city withdrawing from hosting the Games. Salt Lake City, previously a candidate for the 1972 Winter Olympics, then put itself forward, but a tense political situation led IOC to invite Innsbruck to host the 1976 Games. During the opening ceremonies, two cauldrons were lit because it was the second time that the Austrian town had hosted the Winter Games. The Soviet Union won its fourth consecutive ice hockey gold medal.

In 1980 the Winter Olympics returned to Lake Placid, which had hosted the 1932 Games. American speed-skater Eric Heiden set either an Olympic or World record in every one of the five events in which he competed, winning a total of five individual gold medals and breaking the record for most individual golds in a single Olympics (both Summer and Winter). Hanni Wenzel won both the slalom and giant slalom and her country, Liechtenstein, became the smallest nation to produce an Olympic gold medallist. In the "Miracle on Ice", the American hockey team composed of college players beat the favoured seasoned professionals from the Soviet Union, and progressed to eventually win the gold medal.

1984 to 1998

Sapporo, Japan, and Gothenburg, Sweden, were front-runners to host the 1984 Winter Olympics. It was therefore a surprise when Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, was selected as host. The Games were well-organised and not affected by the run-up to the war that engulfed the country eight years later. A total of 49 nations and 1,272 athletes participated in 39 events.

In 1988, the Canadian city of Calgary hosted the first Winter Olympics to span three weekends, lasting for a total of 16 days. New events were added in ski-jumping and speed skating, while future Olympic sports curling, short track speed skating and freestyle skiing made their debut appearance as demonstration sports. The speed skating events were held indoors for the first time, on the Olympic Oval. Dutch skater Yvonne van Gennip won three gold medals and set two world records, beating skaters from the favoured East German team in every race.

Her medal total was equalled by Finnish ski jumper Matti Nykänen, who won all three events in his sport. Alberto Tomba, an Italian skier, made his Olympic debut by winning both the giant slalom and slalom. East German Christa Rothenburger won the women's 1,000 metre speed skating event. Seven months later she would earn a silver in track cycling at the Summer Games in Seoul, to become the only athlete to win medals in both a Summer and Winter Olympics in the same year. The 1988 games are well remembered in popular culture from two films based on its events: Cool Runnings about the Jamaican bobsled team; and Eddie the Eagle about British ski jumper Michael Edwards, who finished last but set a British record of 73.5 metres.

The 1992 Winter Games were the last to be held in the same year as the Summer Games. They were hosted in the French Savoie region. Political changes of the time were reflected in the composition of the Olympic teams competing in France. At 16 years old, Finnish ski jumper Toni Nieminen made history by becoming the youngest male Winter Olympic champion. New Zealand skier Annelise Coberger became the first Winter Olympic medallist from the southern hemisphere when she won a silver medal in the women's slalom.

The 1994 Winter Olympics, held in Lillehammer, Norway, were the first Winter Games to be held in a different year from the Summer Games. This change resulted from the decision reached in the 91st IOC Session to separate the Summer and Winter Games and place them in alternating even-numbered years. Lillehammer is the northernmost city to ever host the Winter Games. It was the second time the Games were held in Norway, after the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, and the first time the Olympic Truce was observed. As a result, after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia made their Olympic debuts.

The women's figure skating competition drew media attention when American skater Nancy Kerrigan was injured on 6 January 1994, in an assault planned by the ex-husband of opponent Tonya Harding. Both skaters competed in the Games, but the gold medal was narrowly won by Oksana Baiul who became Ukraine's first Olympic champion, while Kerrigan won the silver medal. Johann Olav Koss of Norway won three gold medals, coming first in all of the distance speed skating events.

13-year-old Kim Yoon-Mi became the youngest-ever Olympic gold medallist when South Korea won the women's 3,000-metre speed skating relay. Bjørn Dæhli of Norway won a medal in four out of five cross-country events, becoming the most decorated Winter Olympian until then. Russia won the most events, with eleven gold medals, while Norway achieved 26 podium finishes, collecting the most medals overall on home ground. Juan Antonio Samaranch described Lillehammer as "the best Olympic Winter Games ever" in his closing ceremony speech.

The 1998 Winter Olympics were held in the Japanese city of Nagano and were the first Games to host more than 2,000 athletes. The National Hockey League allowed its players to participate in the men's ice hockey tournament for the first time, and the Czech Republic won the tournament. Women's ice hockey made its debut, and the United States won the gold medal. Bjørn Dæhlie of Norway won three gold medals in Nordic skiing, becoming the most decorated Winter Olympic athlete, with eight gold medals and twelve medals overall. Austrian Hermann Maier survived a crash during the downhill competition and returned to win gold in the super-G and the giant slalom. Tara Lipinski of the United States, aged just 15, became the youngest ever female gold medallist in an individual event when she won the Ladies' Singles, a record that had stood since Sonja Henie of Norway won the same event, also aged 15, in St. Moritz in 1928. New world records were set in speed skating largely due to the introduction of the clap skate.

2002 to 2026

After a tumultuous host city process, the 2002 Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City, United States. 2,399 athletes from 77 National Olympic Committees participated in 78 events in 7 sports. These Games were the first to take place since the September 11 attacks of 2001, which meant a higher degree of security to avoid a terrorist attack. The opening ceremony saw signs of the aftermath of the events of that day, including the flag that flew at Ground Zero, and honour guards of NYPD and FDNY members.

German Georg Hackl won a silver in the singles luge, becoming the first athlete in Olympic history to win medals in the same individual event in five consecutive Olympics. Canada achieved an unprecedented double by winning both the men's and women's ice hockey gold medals.

The Italian city of Turin hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics. It was the second time that Italy had hosted the Winter Olympic Games. South Korean athletes won 10 medals, including 6 gold in the short-track speed skating events. Sun-Yu Jin won three gold medals while her teammate Hyun-Soo Ahn won three gold medals and a bronze. On winning the Super-G, Kjetil-Andre Aamodt of Norway became the most decorated ski racer of all time with 4 gold and 8 overall medals.

In 2003, the IOC awarded the 2010 Winter Olympics to Vancouver, thus allowing Canada to host its second Winter Olympics. Over 2,500 athletes from 82 countries participated in 86 events. The death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili in a training run on the day of the opening ceremonies resulted in the Whistler Sliding Centre changing the track layout on safety grounds.

Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen won five medals in the six cross-country events on the women's programme. She finished the Olympics with three golds, a silver and a bronze. For the first time, Canada won a gold medal at an Olympic Games it hosted. In contrast to the lack of gold medals at these previous Olympics, the Canadian team finished first overall in gold medal wins, and became the first host nation—since Norway in 1952—to lead the gold medal count, with 14 medals.

The Vancouver Games were notable for the poor performance of the Russian athletes. From their first Winter Olympics in 1956 to the 2006 Games, a Soviet or Russian delegation had never been outside the top five medal-winning nations, but in 2010 they finished sixth in total medals and eleventh in gold medals.

Sochi, Russia, was selected as the host city for the 2014 Winter Olympics over Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeongchang, South Korea. This was the first time that Russia had hosted a Winter Olympics. The Games took place from 7 to 23 February 2014. A record 2,800 athletes from 88 countries competed in 98 events.

On the snow, Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen took two golds to bring his total tally of Olympic medals to 13, overtaking his compatriot Bjørn Dæhlie to become the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time. Another Norwegian, cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen took three golds; her total of ten Olympic medals tied her as the female Winter Olympian with most medals, alongside Raisa Smetanina and Stefania Belmondo. Snowboarder Ayumu Hirano became the youngest medallist on snow at the Winter Games when he took a silver in the halfpipe competition at the age of fifteen.

On the ice, the Netherlands team dominated the speed skating events, taking 23 medals, four clean sweeps of the podium places and at least one medal in each of the twelve medal events. Ireen Wüst was their most successful competitor, taking two golds and three silvers. In figure skating, Yuzuru Hanyu became the first skater to break the 100-point barrier in the short programme on the way to winning the gold medal. Among the sledding disciplines, luger Armin Zöggeler took a bronze, becoming the first Winter Olympian to secure a medal in six consecutive Games.

Pyeongchang, South Korea, was selected to host the 2018 Winter Olympics over Munich, Germany, and Annecy, France. This was the first time that South Korea had been selected to host a Winter Olympics and it was the second time the Olympics were held in the country overall, after the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. The Games took place from 9 to 25 February 2018. More than 2,900 athletes from 92 countries participated in 102 events.

Beijing, the capital of the People's Republic of China, was elected as the host city for the 2022 Winter Olympics on 31 July 2015 at the 128th IOC Session. Beijing became the first city ever to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics. Like the Summer Olympics held six months earlier in Tokyo, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the implementation of strict health and safety protocols, including restrictions on public attendance at the Games. The Games included a record 109 events over 15 disciplines in seven sports with seven new medal events, including mixed team competitions in freestyle skiing aerials, ski jumping, and snowboard cross. The Games were held between 4 and 20 February 2022 at venues in Beijing and Zhangjiakou which for the first time were run entirely on renewable energy.

The 2026 Winter Olympics was held in Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, and took place from 6 to 22 February 2026. At the 142nd IOC Session in July 2024, it was confirmed that the 2030 Winter Olympics will be hosted by France in the French Alps. The 2034 Winter Olympics was also awarded to be hosted by the United States in Utah; the state previously hosted the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Controversy

The process for awarding host city honours came under intense scrutiny after Salt Lake City had been awarded the right to host the 2002 Games. Soon after the host city had been announced it was discovered that the organisers had engaged in an elaborate bribery scheme to curry favour with IOC officials. Gifts and other financial considerations were given to those who would evaluate and vote on Salt Lake City's bid. These gifts included medical treatment for relatives, a college scholarship for one member's son and a land deal in Utah. Even IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch received two rifles valued at $2,000. Samaranch defended the gift as inconsequential since, as president, he was a non-voting member.

The subsequent United States Department of Justice investigation uncovered inconsistencies in the bids for every Olympics (both Summer and Winter) since 1988. For example, the gifts received by IOC members from the Japanese Organising Committee for Nagano's bid for the 1998 Winter Olympics were described by the investigation committee as "astronomical". Although nothing strictly illegal had been done, the IOC feared that corporate sponsors would lose faith in the integrity of the process and that the Olympic brand would be tarnished to such an extent that advertisers would begin to pull their support.

The investigation resulted in the expulsion of 10 IOC members and the sanctioning of another 10. New terms and age limits were established for IOC membership, and 15 former Olympic athletes were added to the committee. Stricter rules for future bids were imposed, with ceilings imposed on the value of gifts IOC members could accept from bid cities.

Host city legacy

About eight years before the Winter Olympics, the IOC invites National Olympic Committees to submit bids to host the games. According to the IOC, the host city for the Winter Olympics is responsible for "...establishing functions and services for all aspects of the Games, such as sports planning, venues, finance, technology, accommodation, catering, media services, etc., as well as operations during the Games". Due to the cost of hosting the Games, most host cities never realise a profit on their investment. For example, the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, cost $3.6 billion to host. By comparison, the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, cost $12.5 billion. The organisers of the Nagano Games claimed that the cost of extending the bullet train service from Tokyo to Nagano was responsible for the large price tag.

The organising committee had hoped that the exposure gained from hosting the Winter Olympics, and the improved access to Nagano from Tokyo, would benefit the local economy for years afterwards. In fact, Nagano's economy did experience a post-Olympic boom for a year or two, but the long-term effects have not materialised as anticipated. The likelihood of heavy debt is a deterrent to prospective host cities, as well as the prospect of unused sports venues and infrastructure saddling the local community with upkeep costs with no appreciable post-Olympic value.

The Winter Olympics has the added problem of the alpine events requiring a mountain location; the men's downhill needs an 800-metre altitude difference along a suitable course. As this is a focal event that is central to the Games, the IOC has previously not agreed to it taking place a long way from the main host city, in contrast to the Summer Games, where sailing and horse sports have taken place more than 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) away. The requirement for a mountain location also means that venues such as hockey arenas often have to be built in sparsely populated areas with little future need for a large arena and for the hotels and infrastructure needed for all Olympic visitors. Due to cost issues, fewer and fewer cities are willing to host. Both the Torino 2006 and Vancouver 2010 Games, which were hosted in countries where large cities are located close to suitable mountain regions, had lower costs since more venues, hotels and transport infrastructure already existed. In contrast, the Sochi 2014 games had large costs as most installations had to be built.

The IOC has tried to mitigate these concerns. Firstly, it has agreed to fund part of the host city's budget. Secondly, the qualifying host countries are limited to those that have the resources and infrastructure to successfully host an Olympic Games without negatively impacting their region or nation; this rules out a large portion of the developing world. Finally, any prospective host city is required to add a "legacy plan" to their proposal, with a view to the long-term economic and environmental impact that hosting the Olympics will have.

Doping

In 1967 the IOC began enacting drug testing protocols. They started by randomly testing athletes at the 1968 Winter Olympics. The first Winter Games athlete to test positive for a banned substance was Alois Schloder, a West German hockey player, but his team was still allowed to compete. During the 1970s, testing outside of competition was escalated because it was found to deter athletes from using performance-enhancing drugs. The problem with testing during this time was a lack of standardisation of the test procedures, which undermined the credibility of the tests. It was not until the late 1980s that international sporting federations began to coordinate efforts to standardise the drug-testing protocols. The IOC took the lead in the fight against steroids when it established the independent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in November 1999.

The 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin became notable for a scandal involving the emerging trend of blood doping, the use of blood transfusions or synthetic hormones such as Erythropoietin (EPO) to improve oxygen flow and thus reduce fatigue. The Italian police conducted a raid on the Austrian cross-country ski team's residence during the Games where they seized blood-doping specimens and equipment. This event followed the pre-Olympics suspension of 12 cross-country skiers who tested positive for unusually high levels of haemoglobin, which is evidence of blood doping.

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi's Russian Doping Scandal has resulted in the International Olympic Committee to begin disciplinary proceedings against 28 (later increased to 46) Russian athletes who competed at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, acting on evidence that their urine samples were tampered with.

Cold War

The Winter Olympics were an ideological front in the Cold War since the Soviet Union first participated at the 1956 Winter Games. It did not take long for the Cold War combatants to discover what a powerful propaganda tool the Olympic Games could be. The advent of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete" of the Eastern Bloc countries further eroded the ideology of the pure amateur, as it put the self-financed amateurs of the Western countries at a disadvantage. The Soviet Union entered teams of athletes who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession, but many of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full-time basis. Nevertheless, the IOC held to the traditional rules regarding amateurism until the '90s.

The Cold War created tensions amongst countries allied to the two superpowers. The strained relationship between East and West Germany created a difficult political situation for the IOC. Because of its role in World War II, Germany was not allowed to compete at the 1948 Winter Olympics. In 1950, the IOC recognised the West German Olympic Committee, and invited East and West Germany to compete as a unified team at the 1952 Winter Games. East Germany declined and instead sought international legitimacy separate from West Germany.

In 1955, the Soviet Union recognised East Germany as a sovereign state, thereby giving more credibility to East Germany's campaign to become an independent participant. The IOC agreed provisionally to accept the East German National Olympic Committee on condition that East and West Germans compete as one team. The situation became tense when the Berlin Wall was constructed by East Germany in 1961 to stop migration of its citizens and Western European nations began refusing visas to East German athletes. The uneasy compromise of a unified team held until the 1968 Grenoble Games when the IOC split the teams and threatened to reject host-city bids from any country that refused entry visas to East German athletes.

Boycott

The Winter Games have had only one national team boycott when Taiwan decided not to participate in the 1980 Winter Olympics held in Lake Placid. Prior to the Games, the IOC agreed to allow China to compete in the Olympics for the first time since 1952. China was given permission to compete as the "People's Republic of China" (PRC) and to use the PRC flag and anthem. Until 1980 the island of Taiwan had been competing under the name "Republic of China" (ROC) and had been using the ROC flag and anthem. The IOC attempted to have the countries compete together but when this proved to be unacceptable the IOC demanded that Taiwan cease to call itself the "Republic of China".

The IOC renamed the island "Chinese Taipei" and demanded that it adopt a different flag and national anthem, stipulations to which Taiwan would not agree. Despite numerous appeals and court hearings, the IOC's decision stood. When the Taiwanese athletes arrived at the Olympic village with their Republic of China identification cards they were not admitted. They subsequently left the Olympics in protest, just before the opening ceremonies. Taiwan returned to Olympic competition at the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo as Chinese Taipei. The country agreed to compete under a flag bearing the emblem of their National Olympic Committee and to play the anthem of their National Olympic Committee should one of their athletes win a gold medal. The agreement remains in place to this day.

Sports

The Olympic Charter says that winter sports must be played on snow or ice. Since 1992, new sports like short-track speed skating, snowboarding, and freestyle skiing have been added. These new sports have made the Winter Olympics more popular all around the world. While countries like Norway and Germany are still strong in traditional winter sports, places such as South Korea, Australia, and Canada are doing well in these newer events. This has led to more equal results, more interest in the Winter Olympics, and higher TV ratings.

Current sports

Demonstration events

Demonstration sports used to let host countries show off sports that are popular there, without giving out medals. Military patrol, which later became the biathlon, was a medal sport in 1924 and shown in other years before becoming an official sport in 1960. Bandy, a type of hockey popular in Nordic countries and Russia, was shown at the Oslo Games.

Ice stock sport, a German version of curling, was shown in 1936 and 1964. The ski ballet event was shown in 1988 and 1992. Skijöring, skiing behind dogs, was shown in 1928. A sled-dog race happened in 1932. Speed skiing was shown in 1992. Winter pentathlon, a mix of different sports, was shown in 1948.

All-time medal table

Main article: All-time Olympic Games medal table

The table below shows the medals won in the Winter Olympic Games, using official data from the IOC.

Accurate as of 2026 Winter Olympics

Medal leaders by year

Main article: List of Olympic medal leaders by year

Number of occurrences

List of Winter Olympic Games