Coverage and news stories are already starting for the 2022 Winter Olympics, scheduled for Feb. 2-20 in Beijing, People’s Republic of China. It is fitting because the first-ever Winter Olympic Games started this week - Jan. 25-Feb. 5 - in 1924 in Chamonix, France.

Those first games, originally called Winter Sports Week, featured 260 athletes, 16 events, 16 teams and 10,004 paying spectators. There were events in nine sports, including bobsleigh, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, ice hockey, military patrol, Nordic combined, ski jumping and speedskating.

Conversely, there are 15 sports planned for the 2022 Olympic Games, including Alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country skiing, curling, ice hockey, figure skating, freestyle skiing, luge, Nordic combined, short-track speedskating, skeleton, ski jumping, snowboard and speedskating. There are 109 events planned and approximately 95 nations competing.

One reason for the rise in the number of events is the inclusion of more women in the games. The first Winter Olympics only had 13 women competing - and only in figure skating events. According to history.com, Austrian Helene Engelmann won the pairs competition with Alfred Berger and Austrian Herma Planck Szabo won the women’s singles.

Nearly all of the modern Olympic sports now have women’s and/or mixed events.

The first-ever Winter Olympic champion was American athlete Charles Jewtraw, who won the first event - 500-meter speed skating. This was the only gold medal for the country that first year. The United States took away four total medals, including one gold, two silver and one bronze. This elevated the United States to the third highest medal count among participating countries, tying with Great Britain.

The reported outstanding individual performer was Finland’s Clas Thunberg, who won five medals, including three gold, in speed skating events. Finland took the prize for second highest medal count at 11 total medals.

The 16 nations that participated in the first Winter Olympic Games were Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, United States and Yugoslavia. Reportedly, Germany was banned from competing in those games.

It’s been reported the most successful Winter Olympic country in history is Norway, with 132 gold medals, 125 silver medals and 111 bronze medals. This was perhaps foreshadowed in that first Winter Olympic Games when Norway reportedly won the unofficial team competition with 17 total medals.

Norway also had podium sweeps - with one country winning all three medals in an event - for two events. Thorleif Haug, Thoralf Stromstad and Johan Grottumsbraten won the gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively, in both the 50-kilometer cross-country skiing event and the Nordic combined race.

This year marks the 24th Winter Olympic Games. The games have been hosted on three continents by 12 countries.

Visit olympics.com/en/beijing-2022 for more details and news on the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Samantha Anderson

editorial assistant

Whitehall-Coplay Press

Northampton Press

Catasauqua Press