DAVID ADAMS looks at some facts and figures about the Winter Olympics…
The Winter Olympics are kicking off in the Russian resort of Sochi and so we thought it was a good time to take a quick look at some facts and figures about the ‘other’ Games…
PICTURE: © airbear/www.istockphoto.com
• The first official Winter Olympics was held in the French ski resort of Chamonix in 1924.
• Held every four years, the Winter Olympics were originally held in the same year as the Olympic Games but this changed in 1992 when the Winter Olympics were moved to alternate with the summer games (they were next held in 1994).
• The only time the Games have been cancelled was during World War II – in 1940 and 1944 (the Games had been scheduled to be held in Sapporo, Japan, in 1940).
• The Sochi Winter Olympics will feature 2,871 athletes from 87 countries competing for 98 gold medals. Athletes from East Timor, Dominica, Malta, Paraguay, Togo and Tonga and Zimbabwe will be competing for the first time.
• US speed skater Eric Heiden holds the record for most gold medals in a Winter Olympics, having won five at the Lake Placid Games in 1980. The record for the most medals goes to Norwegian cross-country skier Bjorn Daehlie – 12, including eight gold and four silver. Meanwhile US athlete Eddie Egan is the only person to have won gold at both summer and winter Olympic Games – in boxing and bobsled.
• Australia first competed in the Winter Olympics in 1936 at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany and has since competed at almost every games since (with the exception of 1948, held in St Moritz, Switzerland). This year, 60 Australian athletes will be competing – the country’s largest ever contingent. Nine Australian athletes have won medals at a Winter Olympics – five gold, one silver and three bronze.
• Athletes are competing in 15 different sports in 98 events this Winter Olympics, from alpine skiing to curling, luge and snowboarding. Over the years, demonstration sports at the Winter Olympics have included ‘bandy’ (a Russian form of hockey), ski-ballet, , skijoring (in which dogs, a horse of motorised vehicle pulls a person on skis), sled dog racing and speed skiing. None have been permanently adopted.
• The Sochi Games – the 22nd Winter Olympics – represents the first time Russia has hosted the event.The US has hosted the Winter Olympics the most times – four – while France and Italy have hosted them three times each. The Winter Games have never been hosted by a nation in the southern hemisphere.
• Sochi’s 123 day, more than 65,000 kilometre torch relay is the longest in Winter Games history with as many as 14,000 people expected to carry it.
• The 2018 games will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Sources: International Olympic Committee, Australian Olympic Team, BBC, The Guardian, Live Science, Yahoo Sports.
