Winter Olympics Through the Years: 1924

Updated February 21, 2017 | Factmonster Staff

Chamonix

The first Winter Olympic Games were actually called “The International Winter Sports Week” and went on for 11 days in the French Alps, 60 miles northeast of Grenoble.

As expected, the Scandinavians dominated the 16–nation field. Norway and Finland won 27 of the 43 medals available, including all four Nordic events and four of the five speed skating races. Speed skater Clas Thunberg of Finland and Norwegian Nordic skier and jumper Thorleif Haug each won three gold medals.

American speed skater Charles Jewtraw won the first event of the Games with an upset in the 500 meters. But the most remarkable U.S. medal was the bronze won by Anders Haugen in the ski jump. Due to a scoring error at the time he didn't receive it until 1974 – when he was 83 years old.

In its first four hockey games, Canada beat Switzerland 33–0, Czechoslovakia 30–0, Sweden 22–0 and Great Britain 19–2, before winning the tournament with a 6–1 victory over the U.S. in the final.

Top 5 Standings

National medal standings are not recognized by the IOC. The unofficial point totals are based on 3 points for a gold medal, 2 for a silver and 1 for a bronze. Total medals are in parentheses.

  GoldSilverBronzePoints
1Norway (17)47632
2Finland (10)43321
3Austria (3)2108
 USA (4)1218
5Switzerland (2)1014
 Great Britain (3)0124

Leading Medal Winners

Number of individual medals won on the left; gold, silver and bronze breakdown to the right.

No SportG-S-B
5Clas Thunberg, FINSp. Skate3-1-1
5Roald Larsen, NORSp. Skate0-2-3
3Thorleif Haug, NORX-country  
 & Nordic Combined3-0-0
3Julius Skutnabb, FINSp. Skate1-1-1
3 Johan Gröttumsbråten, NORX-country 
 & Nordic Combined0-1-2
2Thoralf Strömstad, NORX-country 
  & Nordic Combined0-2-0

Bobsled

Event  Time
4-Man SWI (Eduard Scherrer, Alfred Neveu, Alfred Schläppi, Heinrich Schläppi)5:45.54

Figure Skating

Event  Points
MenGillis Grafström, SWE367.89
WomenHerma Planck-Szabó, AUT299.17
PairsHelene Engelmann & Albert Berger, AUT10.64

Ice Hockey

Championship Round

Records include games played in two 4–team preliminary pools. Canada and Sweden qualified from one pool, the U.S. and Britain from the other.

  GmW-L-TGFGA
1Canada55-0-01103
2USA54-1-0736
3Great Britain53-2-04038
4Sweden52-3-02149
Semifinals: Canada over Britain, 19–2; USA over Sweden, 20–0. Third place: Britain over Sweden, 4–3 (also decided European title). Final: Canada over USA, 6–1.

Nordic Skiing

Cross Country

Event  Time
18kmThorleif Haug, NOR1:14:31
50kmThorleif Haug, NOR3:44:32

Ski Jumping

Event  Points
90mJacob Thams, NOR18.906

Nordic Combined

Event Points
18km/JumpThorleif Haug, NOR18.906

Speed Skating

Event  Time
500mCharles Jewtraw, USA44.0
1500mClas Thunberg, FIN2:20.8
5000mClas Thunberg, FIN8:39.0
10,000mJulius Skutnabb, FIN18:04.8
CombinedClas Thunberg, FIN5.5 pts
Sources +