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Responsive interactive graphic shows a timelime of the history of the Winter Olympic Games from their inception in Chamonix in 1924 to the present day.
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PYEONGCHANG 2018

History of the Winter Olympic Games

By Ben Mullins

February 9, 2018 - February 25, 2018 - The XXIII Winter Olympic Games take place in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The first was held in 1924 when the French National Olympic Committee organized a Winter Sports Week in Chamonix, a 12 day celebration of winter sports. In 1926, this was retroactively designated as the first Olympic Winter Games.

American Charles Jewtraw won the first Winter Olympic gold medal when he flashed across the finish line in the 500m speed skating event at Chamonix in 1924.

The most recent Games, in Sochi in 2014, were the most expensive in Olympic history, costing in excess of $50 billion. As always, the Games produced some spectacular performances but the event itself was subsequently overshadowed by Russia’s doping scandal.

The Pyeongchang Games received a boost with an apparent easing of tensions between North and South Korea in January 2018, when the two nations agreed to march together under a united flag and a number of North Korean competitors were given permission to take part.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 09/02/2018; STORY: Julie Mullins; PICTURES: Newscom / Getty / Associated Press
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