The Olympic Winter Games: Stages of Development and Leading Countries in the Overall Medal Standings

Abstract

The Olympic Winter Games have gone through a difficult path of development and did not immediately gain popularity and the features and scales inherent in them now. These major international sports forums are characterized by the same problems and contradictions as the Olympic Games. Many of these problems are expressed to a much lesser extent, which is due to the lower popularity of winter sports. The team medal standings have recently become an indicator of significant interest in the analysis of the main aspects of performance of national teams at major sports tournaments, which reveals the effectiveness of the development of high-performance sports in a particular country. The purpose of the study was to determine the features of the historical development of the Olympic Winter Games as well as the position of countries in the team medal standings. For this purpose, the following research methods were used: analysis of the results of competitions, generalization, and interpretation of special and scientific and methodological literature on the history and development of modern Olympic sports, Olympic movement, and the Olympic Winter Games.