Winter Olympics History Quiz: Part I
What nation made a highly successful Winter Olympic debut at the 1956 Games in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy?
- The Soviets competed at the 1952 Summer Games but skipped Oslo in 1952. They finished first in the medal standings in Cortina, finishing with 16 medals, five more than second-place Austria.
Which of the following nations hosted the 1984 Winter Olympic Games?
- Sarajevo hosted the 1984 Winter Games where the U.S. had gold medal performances in skiing by Bill Johnson (men's downhill) and Phil Mahre (men's slalom) and Debbie Armstrong (women's giant slalom).
American Edward Eagan is the only athlete to win gold medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. He won a gold medal at the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games in boxing and gold at the 1932 Lake Placid Games in what event?
- Eagan won gold as part of the USA's four-man bobsled team.
There was no bobsled event at the 1960 Squaw Valley Winter Games for which of the following reasons?
- The Squaw Valley organizers declined to build a bobsled course citing the expense and the potential lack of competitors. The event returned to the Games in 1964.
What the was first year that female athletes could compete in events other than figure skating at a Winter Olympics?
- It wasn't until the 1948 Winter Games at St. Moritz that women were permitted to compete in another event. It was skiing.
The 1964 Innsbruck Winter Games saw which of the following Olympic firsts?
- IBM brought $2.5 million worth of computer equipment and drastically cut the wait time for scores to be released from several hours to just minutes. Also Soviet speed Skater Lidia Skoblikova won gold in the 500, 1000, 1500 and 3000-meter events. And French skiers Christine and Marielle Goitschel two 1-2 and 2-1, respectively, in the women's slalom and giant slalom.
Which of the following countries has hosted the most Winter Olympic Games?
- The United States has played host to the Winter Olympics four times. Squaw Valley, CA (1960); Lake Placid, NY (1932 and 1980) and Salt Lake City (2002.)
The first Winter Olympics took place in Chamonix, France in 1924. When were the first figure skating gold medals awarded?
- Figure skating actually made its Olympic debut at the 1908 London Summer Games. Where Sweden's Ulrich Salchow won the men's singles title and Britain's Madge Byers won the ladies singles gold.
While skiing has been a part of the Winter Games since 1924 it wasn't until when that Alpine skiing was added to the agenda for the first time.
- Until 1936, resistance by the bloc of Scandinavian countries had successfully blocked downhill skiing from the list of events.
The lighting of the Olympic flame at the Winter Games did not become a tradition until when?
- The Olympic flame was lit for the first time at the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo, Norway. However, unlike the flame for the Summer Games which is lit each time in Greece the ancient home of the Games, this flame was lit in the hearth of the Morgedal House in Norway, birthplace of Sondre Norheim, the great pioneer of modern skiing.
