 This is the SF Productions Podcast Network. Altius, Fortius, Snowius. From the Bobculture Bunker, I'm Mindy. And I'm Mark. You can check out our audio podcast, How I Got My Wife to Read Comics on iTunes, or on our website SFPodcastNetwork.com. As we take this, the Winter Olympics will be commencing very soon, and I realize we've never really gone into them in detail on this show. We've talked about the summer games a lot, but not the winter games. Two points before we begin. As I have since 2012, I will be doing a daily blog of the games at SFPodcastNetwork.com. And there will be spoilers? No, I don't know. Yeah, who knows? And from here on in, we will refer to the games as the Quadrennial International Sporting Event, or QUICE. We don't want the IOC's lawyers all over us. QUICE. QUICE. The Winter QUICE has a predecessor. The Nordic Games, starting back in 1901, organized by a Swedish general and a charter member of the IOC. He tried to get winter sports into the QUICE, and was partially successful at the London QUICE of 1908. There were four figure skating events held then. Of course, it's an indoor sport, so it can really happen summer or winter. And Italian Count tried to get a week of winter sports added to the Stockholm QUICE of 1912, but was rebuffed due to a lack of facilities. He was able to get it included in the Britain QUICE of 1916, which was cancelled due to World War I. The 1920 QUICE in Antwerp included figure skating and the hockey tournament. That was the Berlin QUICE of 1916. Ah. By 1924, the IOC decided that a separate winter event would be held in France, where the QUICE was also held and run by the French QUICE Committee. It was a big success, with over 250 athletes from 16 countries in 16 events, and the big winners were Finland and Norway Big surprise! with 28 medals between them. A few notable people in events. 11-year-old Sonja Heine, or Heine, I believe, competed and finished last in ladies figure skating, but we will hear from her again. 11 years old. 11 years old. Because it really wasn't a sanctioned major event. Right. And so the rules were kind of higgly-piggly. The Canadian hockey team defended their QUICE win. They had competed in the 1920 summer games in hockey, and would win six of the first seven golds awarded in that sport. Pierre de Coubertin, the man who led the effort for the modern QUICE, gave a prize to the team who unsuccessfully tried to climb Mount Everest two years earlier. One of the awards was slightly delayed. Anders Hogan, who was recorded in fourth place in the ski jump, was given the bronze in 1974 after an error in scoring was uncovered. Why were they even looking at the scoring in 1974? Events included Bob Slay, Ice Hockey, Figure Skating, Speed Skating, Cross Country Skying, Nordic Combine, which is Cross Country Skying and Ski Jumping together. Ski Jumping, Curling, and Military Patrol. All of those are vaguely familiar except Military Patrol. Yeah, Curling was retroactively added to the official 1924 list in 2006 when that sport returned to QUICE. Military Patrol involved Cross Country Skying, Ski Mountaineering, which was Climb a Mountain with skis and then ski back down, and Rifle Shooting. It would eventually become the biathlon. Germany, who was banned from QUICE until 1925 due to their involvement in World War I, decided to hold their own winter event in 1922, the Deutsche Kampspiel. The IOC, who has a problem with competing events, decided to retroactively rename their 1924 event the first winter QUICE. The Nordic Games closed out after 1926 in response. In 1928, the second winter QUICE was held in St. Marie's, Switzerland. It was best remembered for a recurring problem in QUICE, the weather. The opening ceremonies were held in a blizzard, and then the temperature went up to 77 degrees, forcing the 10,000 meter speed skating event to be canceled. It's also remembered for the win by Sonya Hennie in figure skating at age 15, the youngest in QUICE history for another 74 years. 25 nations involved up from 16, Norway won the most medals followed by the US, Switzerland won only a single bronze, the lowest total ever for a host nation. Events included Skeleton, which is a smaller single person sled with a running start, and with demonstration sports, which are tryouts for possible later inclusion as official QUICE sports, military patrol, and SkiJoring. SkiJoring. SkiJoring is an event where one is pulled on skis over a frozen lake by horses. It's popular today in Scandinavian countries except snowmobiles are used. It was also mentioned in an MST short, Snow Thrills, and was called a safe and fun way to blow a Saturday or a knee. It never reappeared at QUICE. The 1932 winter QUICE was first held outside of Europe in Lake Placid, New York, USA. The games were officially opened by FDR, who was governor of New York at the time. Sonya Hennie was back and won her second figure skating gold. Eddie Egan, who previously won gold in QUICE boxing in 1920, won here in Bobsleigh, the only QUICE athlete to win in summer and winter sports. Speaking of Bobsleigh, the event was held two days after the closing ceremony due to warm weather. Virtually no snow fell for two months prior to the games. The onset of the Great Depression, along with the cost to send athletes to the US, reduced the country count from 25 to 17. The US won the most medals. Events included demonstration sports curling, returning from 1924, sled dog race, and women's speed skating. Two German towns, Garmisch and Partenkirchen, teamed up to run the 1936 QUICE. Berlin would hold the summer QUICE later that year, the only time the same country held both events the same year up to that point. Alpine skiing was an event for the first time, which is downhill and slalom skiing combined. Sonya Hennie made it a hat trick with a third-figure skating goal. She would go on to make skating-centric films in Hollywood and become one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood. Her touring and merchandising made her up to $2 million a year, and that's in 1930's money. Back to QUICE. Great Britain upset Canada in ice hockey in the last 90 seconds of the game. Miracle on ice! 646 athletes from 28 countries competed in 17 events. Norway won the most medals. Events included demonstration sports, military patrol back from 1928, and ice stock sport, which is similar to curling, except it involves sliding a block of ice with a large handle on it. The 1940 QUICE was originally awarded to Sapporo, Japan, except they gave back the award in 1938 due to the Second Sino-Japanese War. Then the IOC turned to St. Moritz, who had hosted in 1928, but controversies between the IOC and the Swiss organizing teams settled that. Then the IOC turned to Garmisch, part-incursion Germany, who had just hosted. Then Germany invaded Poland, at which point the QUICE was cancelled for the duration of the war. The 1944 games were originally awarded to Cortina di Amprosa, Italy, but was cancelled as well. So then we move all the way to 1948 and return to St. Moritz. Switzerland was neutral during the war, and hence was a good place to renew QUICE. All the events were outdoors, which made some events problematic. Germany and Japan were not invited due to World War II. The European economy still reeling from the war resulted in a lack of spectators and equipment. The Norwegian skiers had to borrow skis from the US team. There were a few controversies. US bobsleds were sabotaged supposedly accidentally. Two US hockey teams arrived, one from the Amateur Athletic Union, AAU, and the US QUICE Committee, and another from the Amateur Hockey Association. Neither was allowed to compete for medals. Oh, didn't that happen? This is what happens, you don't have email. Norway and Sweden dominated speed skating for the first time since the rest of Europe had been preoccupied with the war. Dick Button won the Golden Figure Skating after completing the first double axle in competition. Today, a triple axle is common. Button would go on to a long career doing color commentary on ABC Sports. Berger Rood of Germany, who had won gold for ski... Norway. ...of Norway, who had won gold for ski jumping in 1932 and 1936, was a coach by this point who decided to compete himself at the last minute and got a silver after a 12-year hiatus. They couldn't do that now. No, no, no. 669 athletes from 28 countries competed in 22 events. Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland tied for the most medals. Events included skeleton back from 1928 with demonstration sports, military patrol, and winter pentathlon, which involved cross-country skiing, shooting, downhill skiing, fencing, and horse riding, which was never held again. They really liked that military patrol. They do. 1952 found Oslo, Norway, with the winter queues. Japan and Germany returned to the Games with a ladder using only West German athletes. East Germany refused to go as a unified team. The queues torch was lit in the fireplace of skiing pioneer Sondre Nordheim, and the torch relay was done totally on skis. King George VI of Great Britain died only eight days before the opening ceremony, so British Empire Nations wore black armbands there, and the Prince of Norway opened the Games instead of King Hecon VII in the UK for the funeral. Ice hockey was held in an indoor arena for the first time. Germany returned to dominate Bobsleigh, partly by having massive players average weight of 258 pounds, forcing the sports federation to impose a total weight limit. Norwegian truck driver Jalmar Andersen swept many of the speed skating events with the largest margin of victory in queues history. Greek slalom skier Antoine Miljordos fell 18 times on his run, crossing the finish line backwards. Now that's the agony of defeat. Yes. Women competed in cross-country skiing for the first time. Dick Button returned to win gold in figure skating, landing a triple jump in competition for the first time. Ice hockey was problematic. Canada's win over the U.S. was called fixed by local media as Czechoslovakia ended up in fourth out of the medals, a plot of the capitalist countries. Duh. The U.S. used body-checking, which was legal but not done by European teams. The Games ended with the flag, with the queues rings presented to the next host city, a tradition that remains today. 694 athletes from 30 countries competed in 22 events. Norway walked away with the most medals. Events included demonstration sport Bandy, similar to hockey, but with a ball instead of a puck. Mark, there's just too much on the Winter Olympics. I know, so I guess we're going to have to break this up into multiple episodes. In the meantime, you can check out our audio podcast, I got my wife's read comics on iTunes or on our website, sfpodcastnetwork.com. From the pop culture bunker, I'm Mindy. And I'm Mark, thanks for watching. Do you believe in miracles? Yes!