The first Winter Olympic Games were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France.
The event ran from 25 January to 5 February 1924 and was originally organized as the International Winter Sports Week. Athletes competed in sports including skiing, skating, ice hockey, bobsleigh and curling. Competitors from 16 nations took part in 16 events across five sports.
At the time, the competition was not formally called the Winter Olympics. The International Olympic Committee later recognized the Chamonix event as the first Olympic Winter Games at its 1926 session, which is why 1924 is accepted as the inaugural year.
The year can be confused with 1920 because the Antwerp Summer Olympics included ice hockey and figure skating. Those events were part of the Summer Games, however, and did not constitute a separate Winter Olympics. The next Winter Games were held in St. Moritz in 1928.