SNOw Way! Fun Facts About the Winter Olympics

In this post, we're taking a break from our focus on events for our government to look at an event that involves many governments--the Olympics. The 2026 Winter Olympics kick off in Italy on February 6.

These games mark the first time two cities have officially hosted. Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo are the named hosts, with events spread across Northern Italy.

Milan Cortina Fast Facts

• More than 3,500 athletes from 93 countries will be competing for 195 medals in 16 Olympic disciplines and six Paralympic sports.
• The Games will feature the debut of ski mountaineering, a skiing discipline that involves climbing mountains either while on skis or carrying them and then descending on skis.
• The 2026 games will reuse the Cortina d'Ampezzo bobsled track from the 1956 Winter Olympics.
• The medals feature two halves that interlock, representing the connection between athletes and their teams, and also reflecting the cooperation between Milan and Cortina.
• Two host cities mean two Olympic cauldrons to hold the Olympic flame. They will be lit and extinguished simultaneously.

Milan and Cortina will find a special place in history at the conclusion of the games, lending new records and stories to Olympic history.

Winter Olympic Fun Facts

• The first Winter Olympics were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France with 250 athletes from 16 countries competing. There were 16 events, including cross-country skiing, ski jumping, and ice hockey. The first gold medalist was American Charles Jewtraw, who won the 500-m speed skating event.
• The only sport women were allowed to compete in at first was figure skating. After 12 years, they were allowed to compete in a single alpine skiing event. By 1948, women were allowed to compete in all the alpine skiing disciplines, and more events became open to them from there.
• Figure skating first appeared in the Summer Olympics in 1908 (as an inside sport). It was included in the first Winter Games in 1924.
• The 1964 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, faced a critical problem--not enough snow! The Austrian army headed into the nearby mountains and carted down more than 38,200 m3 of snow; 20,000 blocks of ice were used for the bobsleigh and toboggan runs. The 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, solved this same problem by using artificial snow for the first time in Olympic history. Since then, many Winter Olympics have used artificial snow in some capacity.
• The 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley were the first Winter Games broadcast live on American television. The opening ceremonies were organized by Walt Disney.
• Norway holds the record for most total Winter Olympic medals, while the U.S. is the only nation to win gold at every Winter Games in which it participated.

We're looking forward to cheering on the athletes for the next two weeks!