Abstract
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) faced many obstacles in deciding to initiate the first Olympic Winter Games and subsequently organize in Chamonix in 1924 the ‘Winter Sports Week’, now considered the first winter Olympics. Pierre de Coubertin’s own thoughts about winter sports evolved only slowly, which together with his friendship with Viktor Balck, constituted the main obstacle for the winter Olympics. The success of the Nordic Games, the powerful Swedish nationalistic winter sports festival run by Balck, at the beginning of the twentieth century influenced Coubertin’s view that an additional winter Olympic competition was unnecessary. Prior limited inclusion of winter sports, such as figure skating, in the summer Olympic programme made the status of some events unclear. Influential members of the IOC disagreed about their possible place in the programme with Balck leading the opposition to include winter sports. Ultimately the French IOC members’ advocacy for winter games in 1921, combined with Balck’s retirement from the IOC as a result of his age, was instrumental in the decision to allow Chamonix to host the first winter festival.
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