First Winter Olympic Games--More Than Two-Year-Long Wait for Olympic Medals

The first Winter Olympic Games were scheduled to be held in Germany in 1916. However, because of World War I, the Games were not held until 1924 when International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed to put on international winter games in Chamonix, France, without officially declaring them "Olympic" and without awarding Olympic medals.

The Scandinavian countries strongly opposed Winter Olympic Games believing they would take away popularity from their Nordic Games that started in 1901. The International Olympic Committee succumbed to the Scandinavians who at the time led the international ski competition.

The first Winter Olympics were originally called "Winter Sports Week" and only in 1926 the IOC during its 25^th Session in Lisbon retroactively named the Chamonix Games the Winter Olympic Games. There was no official Olympic mascot in Chamonix, nobody lit the Olympic torch and the official medal ceremony was held on the last day of the Games just before the official closing speech. There was, however, a parade of athletes from 16 nations with each bearer of the flag taking an oath on behalf of their team and their country.

It would take more than two years after the Winter Sports Week that the Chamonix medallists became officially Olympians. The first ever official Winter Olympic Games gold medallist, American Charles Jewtraw who won the gold for the first event, the men's 500-m speed skating, and all other Chamonix medal winners had to wait until 1926 when IOC certified the 1924 Games to be truly Olympic thus entitling all the Chamonix winners to receive first Winter Olympic medals.

However, no athlete in Olympic history ever waited for his medal as long as Norwegian-born American ski jumper Anders Haugen did. It was in Chamonix in 1924 when then 36-year-old Anders competed and according to then official results finished fourth, just behind the Norwegian ski jumper Thorleif Haug. Even though Anders Haugen's jump was the farthest from all, the judges disapproved of his style awarding him fewer points at the end.

Fifty years later, in 1974, at the fiftieth anniversary of Norwegian First Winter Olympic team, the sports historian Jacob Vaage and 1924 silver medallist in Nordic combined Thoralf Strömstad detected the mathematical error in 1924 Chamonix ski jumping scores. The miscalculation in points in the official Chamonix bronze winner Haug's scores resulted in the medal having been awarded to the wrong man. It was Anders Haugen, the captain of the United States 1924 Olympic team, who should have gotten the bronze medal.

The Norwegians swiftly took action and in the same year Thorleif Haug's daughter presented the rightful winner, then already 86-year-old Haugen with the Haug's bronze medal. The ceremony was held in Oslo, Norway, on September 12, 1974. The International Olympic Committee and FIS were asked to rectify the record. FIS did so, and according to www.olympic.org, official website of the Olympic Movement, Anders Haugen is the bronze medal winner in "Individual Normal Hill Men."

Anders Haugen's bronze is the only medal United States ever won in ski jumping.

Anders Haugen's brother Lars was also a ski jumper. Between the two of them, they won eleven national ski jumping championships, Anders four and Lars seven. In 1911 and 1920, Anders also set three American records, with the last one at 214 feet at Dillon, Colorado holding for 12 years.

During the Chamonix Games, the nations formed Federation Internationale de Ski (FIS) to represent skiing interests of all nations and FIS the following year voted to declare the 1924 International Winter Sports Week as First Winter Olympics. The International Olympic Committee followed in 1926 and officially bestowed in Lisbon the same title to Chamonix Games.

Source: Olympic.org, Skiing Heritage Journal,
Ski History Quarterly