Winter Olympic Games

The Winter Olympic Games have evolved since their inception. Sports and disciplines have been added and some of them, such as alpine skiing, luge, short track speed skating, freestyle skiing, skeleton, and snowboarding, have earned a permanent spot on the Olympic program. Some others, including curling and bobsleigh, have been discontinued and later reintroduced; others have been permanently discontinued, such as military patrol, though the modern Winter Olympic sport of biathlon is descended from it.^{[note 2]} Still others, such as speed skiing, bandy and skijoring, were demonstration sports but never incorporated as Olympic sports. The rise of television as a global medium for communication enhanced the profile of the Games. It generated income via the sale of broadcast rights and advertising, which has become lucrative for the IOC. This allowed outside interests, such as television companies and corporate sponsors, to exert influence. The IOC has had to address numerous criticisms over the decades like internal scandals, the use of performance-enhancing drugs by Winter Olympians, as well as a political boycott of the Winter Olympic Games. Countries have used the Winter Olympic Games as well as the Summer Olympic Games to proclaim the superiority of their political systems.


The Winter Olympic Games have been hosted on three continents by thirteen countries. They have been held four times in the United States (1932, 1960, 1980, and 2002), three times in France (1924, 1968, and 1992) and twice each in Switzerland (1928 and 1948), Austria (1964 and 1976), Norway (1952 and 1994), Japan (1972 and 1998), Italy (1956 and 2006) and Canada (1988 and 2010). Also, the Winter Olympic Games have been held just once each in Germany (1936), Yugoslavia (1984), Russia (2014), South Korea (2018), and China (2022). The IOC has selected Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo to host the 2026 Winter Olympics.^[8][9] As of 2022, no city in the Southern Hemisphere has applied to host the cold-weather-dependent Winter Olympic Games, which are held in February, when this hemisphere is geographically in the middle of its summer.


As of 2022, twelve countries have participated in every Winter Olympic Games – Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. Also, Czechoslovakia participated in all Winter Olympic Games before its dissolution and its successors, Czech Republic and Slovakia have participated in all Winter Games thereafter. Six of these countries have won medals at every Winter Olympic Games – Austria, Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. The only country to have won a gold medal at every Winter Olympic Games is the United States. Norway leads the all-time medal record for the Winter Olympic Games. When including defunct states, Germany (comprising the former countries of West Germany and East Germany) leads, followed by Norway, Russia (including the former Soviet Union), and the United States.