Until about 100 years ago, sports in the winter were competitive, but not on an international level. The Winter Olympics started in 1924 in Chamonix, France. It wasn’t as popular as the games are today and new sports have been added over the years.

In the United States, snowboarding is the most popular winter sport, with famous snowboarders like Shaun White, Hannah Teter, and Gretchen Bleiler leading the way. The competition for popularity is tough, though, with a wide range of sports like ice hockey, alpine skiing, curling, bobsleighing, speed skating, and many more.

The most viewed sport in the world is ice hockey, where each team is worth about $594 million, according to https://www.statista.com/. In 1994, Olympic Ice Skating competitions had 48.5 million viewers, although its popularity has dwindled in the past 25 years.

Several people dream of becoming Olympic athletes and those dreams can start early. The age to participate in the Olympics is 15 and up, depending on the sport. The top three winners in any sport in the Olympics are awarded medals of gold, silver, and bronze.

Some Olympic teams have earned their fame long after the games through movies made of their challenges. Cool Runnings tells the story of the Jamaican Bobsled Team, for instance, and Miracle recounts the accomplishments of an outstanding American hockey team.

In 2018 the Winter Olympics where held in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. While Tokyo will host the Summer Olympics in 2020, the next Winter Olympics won’t be held until February 2022, and they are scheduled to take place in Beijing, China.