The Winter Olympic Games is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held in Chamonix, France. The modern Olympic Games were inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, from 776 BCE to 394 CE. The Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) 1,500 years later in 1894, leading to the first modern Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 1896. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement, with the Olympic Charter defining its structure and authority. The original five Winter Olympic Sports were bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, Nordic skiing, and skating. The Games were held every four years from 1924 to 1936, interrupted in 1940 and 1944 by World War II, and resumed in 1948. Until 1992, the Summer Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games were held in the same year. A decision to change this was made in 1986, when during the 91st International Olympic Committee session, IOC members decided to alternate the Summer Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games on separate four-year cycles in even-numbered years. Also, at that same congress it was decided that 1992 Winter Olympics would be the last to be held in the same year as the Summer Games and that to change the rotation, the games that would be held in 1996 would be brought forward by two years, being scheduled to 1994. After those games, the next were to be held in 1998 when the four-year Olympic Cycle resumed.
The United States was the host nation for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Irene Karlijn (Ireen) Wüst is a Dutch former long track speed skater of German ancestry. Wüst became the most successful speed skating Olympian ever by achieving at least one gold medal in each of five consecutive Winter Olympic appearances. Wüst is the second athlete to win a gold medal at five consecutive Olympics, Summer or Winter, and the first to do so in individual events.
Anouk Leblanc-Boucher is a Canadian short track speed skating athlete at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Vonetta Flowers is an American bobsledder. At the 2002 Winter Olympics, Flowers became the first African American and the first Black athlete from any country to win a gold medal at a Winter Olympics.
Lindsey Jacobellis is an American snowboarder from Roxbury, Connecticut. The most decorated female snowboard cross athlete of all time, she dominated the sport for almost two decades as a five-time World Champion and ten-time X Games champion. In her Olympic debut at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Jacobellis won the silver medal in snowboard cross but was unable to medal at the next three Olympics until winning gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Jacobellis also won gold in mixed team snowboard cross at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Jin Sun-Yu is a South Korean short-track speed skater. She is a triple Olympic Champion from 2006 and a three-time Overall World Champion.
Anja Huber is a German skeleton racer who has competed since 2003. She earned two gold medals at the 2008 FIBT World Championships in Altenberg, Germany, winning them in women's skeleton and the mixed bobsleigh-skeleton team event.
Cathrine Lindahl is a Swedish curler from Östersund.
Yekaterina Alexandrovna Lobysheva is a retired Russian speed skater. She won bronze medals in the team pursuit at the 2006 and 2014 Winter Olympics.
Ylva Erika Holst is a Swedish former ice hockey player. She was a member of the Sweden women's national ice hockey team. She won a silver medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Patricia A. Dunn-Luoma is an American ice hockey player. She won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics, silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics. She graduated from Pinkerton Academy in Derry, and the University of New Hampshire in 1996.
Felix Endrich was a Swiss bobsledder who competed in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he won the gold medal along with brakeman Fritz Waller in the two-man event at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz.
Friedrich "Fritz" Waller was a Swiss bobsledder who competed in the late 1940s. He won the gold medal in the two-man event at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz.
Canada has sent athletes to every Winter Olympic Games and every Summer Olympic Games since its debut at the 1900 games with the exception of the 1980 Summer Olympics, which it boycotted along with the USA and other countries. Canada has won at least one medal at every Olympics in which it has competed. The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) is the National Olympic Committee for Canada.
Kirsten Wall is a Canadian curler from Milton, Ontario. She was the alternate player on the Jennifer Jones rink which represented Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics, receiving a gold medal.
Karen Addison is a Scottish curler.
Elena Vladimirovna Khrustaleva is a former Russian, Belarusian, and Kazakhstani biathlete. She won a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. This was Kazakhstan's 6th medal at the Winter Olympic Games and 45th overall Olympic medal.
Krystyna Guzik is a Polish biathlete. She was born in Zakopane. She represented Poland at the 2006 Winter Olympics, 2010 Winter Olympics and 2014 Winter Olympics. Her best result at the Olympics was a tenth place in the 15 km individual event at the 2014 Games in Sochi. At the 2013 World Championships she won the silver medal in pursuit.
Lyndsay Belisle is a retired amateur Canadian freestyle wrestler, who competed in the women's flyweight category. Considering one of the world's top female freestyle wrestlers in her decade, Belisle has claimed two silver medals each in the 48 and 51-kg division at the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and at the 2006 World Wrestling Championships in Guangzhou, China, and seized an opportunity to compete for Canada at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Throughout her sporting career, Belisle trained full-time for the Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club in Burnaby, British Columbia under her personal coach Mike Jones.
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