As the official Olympic and Paralympic blogger for CPF, I wanted to know have a better knowledge of the history of the Olympic Games. For this reason, I went online and did some research on the Winter Olympics. Here are some facts that I learned today that I want to share with you all.

• The first ever Winter Olympic Games were hosted by Chamounix, France in 1924
• The First even Winter Olympic Medal was won by the speed skater Charles Jewtraw of the United States.
• The United States hosted the games four times which is more than any other countries.
• Winter Sports like figure skating and ice hockey were featured in the 1920 Summer Olympic Games
• The Winter and Summer Olympics were celebrated on the same year from 1948 to 1992
• Sonja Henie of Norway who won the figure skating in 1928 at the age of 15 became the first youngest Olympic Champion in history.
• The first televised Winter Olympic Games was the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
• The Opening and Closing Ceremony of the 1960 Winter Olympics were produced by Walt Disney.
• The 1968 Olympic Games was broadcasted in color for the first time.
• During the 1980 Winter Games, the USA ice hockey team composed of a group of collegial students and amateur players defeated the Russian team which has won four straight gold medals in the previous games. It was the “Miracle On Ice”
• The Speed Skating event were held indoor for the first time during the 1988 games in Calgary.
• East German Christa Rothenburger won the women’s 1000 speed skating event in Calgary and she won a silver medal in track cycling during summer Olympic in the same year. She is the only athlete to win medal in both a Summer and Winter Olympics in the same year.
• The 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer was the first Winter games without to be held without a Summer game on the same year.
• Vancouver will be the largest metropolitan area to host a winter Olympic Game.
• Sochi, Russia will host the 2014 winter game.