In which year were the first Winter Olympics held? The first Winter Olympics were held in 1924.
The inaugural Winter Games took place in Chamonix, France, from 25 January to 5 February 1924. They began as an International Winter Sports Week, organized alongside the Paris Summer Olympics, rather than being formally called the Winter Olympics at the time.
Athletes from 16 nations competed in winter sports including ice hockey, figure skating, speed skating, bobsleigh, curling and ski jumping. American speed skater Charles Jewtraw won the first gold medal, in the 500-metre event. Norway and Finland were among the dominant nations, particularly in skiing and speed skating.
The International Olympic Committee retrospectively recognized the Chamonix festival as the first Winter Olympics in 1926. This explains a common source of confusion: winter sports had appeared at earlier Summer Games, including figure skating in 1908 and 1920, but those appearances did not constitute a separate Winter Olympics. The Games later moved to a different host city every four years, beginning with St. Moritz in 1928.