How Winter Olympics Came to Be

Before multiple cameras filmed skiers flying through the sky at enormous heights and snowboarders flipping in the air, Nordic skier Thorleif Haugh sped down the slopes and earned three gold medals.

That was in 1924, at the first official Winter Olympic games in Chamonix, France, where 16 countries gathered to compete in sports like figure skating, speed skating, hockey, curling and more. While that was nearly a century ago, the games in Chamonix reflected what still stands true today: a dominate Canadian hockey team, fewer nations competing than they do in the Summer Olympics and athletes who were catapulted into fame beyond their sports.