Discontinued Olympic Sports
Events > Olympics > Discontinued > Winter Sports
Winter Sports at the Summer Olympics
There have been some sports which are now part of the Winter Olympics, that started off as part of the Summer Olympic Games before there was such a thing as the Winter Olympic Games. As these sports or events are still part of the Olympics, albeit changing from the Summer to Winter versions, they are not discontinued. There are many sports that were once part of the Winter Olympics that are discontinued, such as Military patrol (a precursor to the biathlon).
In 1908 at the Summer Games in London figure skating made its first appearance. Organizers of the 1916 Summer Games in Berlin planned to introduce a “Skiing Olympia,” featuring nordic events in the Black Forest, but the Games were cancelled after the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Figure skating was also held in 1920 at Antwerp, Belgium. In Antwerp, another Winter Olympics staple event ice hockey was on the program.
The beginning of the Winter Olympics as a separate event from the Summer Games began with the organizing of the “International Winter Sports Week” at Chamonix, France, in 1924, which is now known as the first Winter Olympic Games. See more about Winter Olympics History.
Related Pages
- More about the Winter Olympic Games
- See the full list of Discontinued Games Events
