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History of The Winter Olympics

The 2007 rules define a winter sport as any sport that can be done on ice.

The event that motivated the Winter Olympics was a figure skater tried to compete in the Summer Olympics. The year was 1908.The Country that held the first Winter Olympics was Turin in 1924. In 1916 Summer Olympic organizers tried to introduce skking in an event Called Skiing Nordic. The games were all cancelled because of the first world war.

Ice hockey was added to the summer Oylmpics in 1920 as a medal sport.

The 17th edition of the Winter Olympics took place in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994. This event was important because it ended the four-year Olympic cycle of staging both Winter and Summer Games in the same year and began a new schedule that calls for the two Games to alternate every two years.

The 1940 Winter Games are originally scheduled for Sapporo, but Japan resigns as host in 1937 when the Sino-Japanese war breaks out. St. Moritz is the next choice, but the Swiss feel that ski instructors should not be considered professionals and the International Olympic Committee withdraws its offer. Finally, Poland is asked to serve again as host, but the Germans invade Poland in 1939 and the Games are eventually cancelled.

Fewer countries participate in the Winter Olympics than in the Summer Olympics.

Many countries have hosted the Winter Olympics multiple times. The United States has hosted the Games four times, more than any other country. France has been host three times. Austria, Canada, Italy, Norway and Switzerland have hosted the Games twice. The next Games will be hosted by Russia in 2014. This will be the first time that Russia hosts the Winter Olympic Games.

In 1967 the International Olympic Committee began drug testing Winter Athletes. Alois Schloder was the first Winter athlete to test positive for illegal performance enhancing durgs. He played for the West German hockey team. He was disqualified but his team could still play.

The Winter Olympics have only been boycotted one time. The Taiwan boycotted the 1980 Olympics because China was allowed to compete.

Written bye: connor henderson