Once upon a time there were athletes who, with their own capacity, made their dreams came true. At that time in the winter, lots of people had to walk or ski if they were going somewhere. That gave them a great condition and they became as strong as bulls. Today we are much more lazy. People go by car or by bus. And the professional athletes nowadays are having lots of sponsors. They are taking drugs to reach their goals. This is the winter Olympics from the beginning, without money and scandals. The first official Winter Olympics, which actually was called ”The International Winter Sports Week”, contained 258 active athletes from sixteen countries. The games took place in the French Alps at 1924. Logically enough the ski sport marked its signification by warrant a third of the participants.
	The Norwegians, with seventeen medals, were totally dominating. The only medal Sweden won was Gillis Grafström’s gold medal in figure skating. The Swedish hockey team had not been to successful. Canada on the other hand had, quite expected won the hockey tournament with an impressive statistic. They had scored 110 goals, and had only three in the back - in five games. A young Norwegian girl makes her first appearance The next Winter Olympic Games took place in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in 1928. This year spring came unexpectedly early, and was nearby spoiling the tournaments. Also this time Norway was the leading country. A Norwegian girl called Sonja Henie who had competed in the last Games figure skating, at an age of eleven, was the front figure. She
Elis Wiklund and Erik Larssonafter their skiing victories in Garmisch-Partenkirchen	finished last at the Olympics in Chamonix. At that time she did not know she would become a legend. But four years later she reached the gold medal. The Swedes improved their presentation of medals since
Chamonix. The triple on men’s 50 km skiing was a great success. Also the hockey team of Sweden was more successful now than the last time, and brought the silver medal back home after losing the final against the unbeatable Canadian team.
The first American Winter Olympics The first time Norway was not dominating was at the first non-European Winter Olympics in Lake Placid at 1932. Of geographic reasons the United States were the ones that beat them. Also this time the weather was about to spoil the tournaments. Also this year Sweden was victorious in skiing. But this time they had to be satisfied with a double at 18 km. In the hockey tournament there were only four teams announced. Canada won before the United States, Germany and Poland. The British seized the gold from Canada In 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany set a new record when 28 nations with in all 755 active were fighting about the medals. This time Norway was back on the throne again. Alpine skiing was new at the program this year. And of course the alpine skiers from the Alps were dominating. But Sweden was also very successful this time, at least in skiing, where they won a triple at 50 km, one gold at 18 km. The relay-team won the bronze at four times ten km. The spectacular thing was that Canada, after four straight Olympic triumphs, for the first time lost the hockey gold -to Britain. They won the final by 2-1. Yet, one should add that the British team did almost exclusively consist of Canadians. In Switzerland for the second time Finally, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, the fifth Winter Olympics, the first in twelve years, could be carried through. 1948 was the year when Sweden was the most successful nation. They seized six medals in skiing, and the total sum of medals reached as many as ten. For the first time Chile, Denmark, Iceland and Korea attended. Germany and Japan were disqualified. To the hockey tournament the United States sent two teams, but the IOC had decided that neither would be eligible for a medal.
The domination back to Norway For the first time the Games were settled in Scandinavia. In 1952 Oslo was the host. Classical arenas like Holmenkollen and Bislett end up for the worlds focus for a couple of weeks. In the end the home country had the best result as expected. The gold medal in hockey was the Canadians seventh in eight Olympics and, as it turned out, their last. In the game for bronze Sweden was down to Czechoslovakia by 3-0. But commanded by the young player Sven ”Tumba” Johansson, Sweden turned the game and won by 5-3. A bronze that also meant that they became Europe champions. The star of the Games, however, was the 28- year-old Norwegian Hjalmar Andersen who, urged on by his cheering countrymen, won three speed skating gold medals in three days and set Olympic records in two of the races. Four medals to Jernberg Sven ”Tumba” Johansson and Italian Cortina d’Ampezzo whose Games were cancelled under the war Sweden reached the bronze year 1944, were now permitted to arrange the Games. And Sweden got a brilliant revenge for the failure in Oslo. Just like in St. Moritz eight years earlier, they brought ten medals. A new Swedish ski generation had made up interest under Sigge Bergman’s command. One of those was Sixten Jernberg who didn’t catch less than four medals: Victory at 50 km, second place at 15 as well as 30 km and a bronze with the relay-team. The Games alpine king was Austrian Toni Sailer who won all the three disciplines. In this games came also the first alpine skiing medal for Sweden. The Sovjet Union won the gold medal in hockey. But that was not the only medal they won. They had beaten the Norwegians with measure with 17 medals. And seven of those were made of gold. And this they produced in their first Olympics. David Parkman spsa2a(sp03-16@park.se)

© 2001 Freeway
Writers: David Parkman (sp03-16@park.se)
HTML by: Erik Olsson (te03-15@park.se).