Elegant and rich in tradition: figure skating was one of the few winter sport disciplines that have long been very well organized before the Olympics in national associations. First World and European championships already existed in the 19th century.Since the introduction of a Winter Olympics was controversial within the IOC, the popular discipline had become olympic before Chamonix, through competitions during the regular Olympics in the summer – as happened in London in 1908 and 1920 in Antwerp. Comments on pics:
- Dancing on Ice: On January 24, 1924 the day of the opening ceremony of the first Winter Olympic Games, this figure skater trained to music from the gramophone – sporty, but with cigarette in her mouth.
- Audience Favorite: The Norwegian Sonja Henie, here at their free skating, though being the darling of the public at the age of eleven years as the youngest participant of the Winter Games and her unconcern, she finished only on the eighth (and last) place. In the following three Winter Games, she always won a gold medal.
- Triumph in the home: the French Andrée Joly and Pierre Brunet won the bronze medal in Chamonix pair skating behind the couples from Finland and Austria. An unusually cold weather had created good ice conditions at the last moment.
- Again Joly and Brunet.
Source: http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/erste-winterolympiade-olympische-winterspiele-1924-in-charmonix-fotostrecke-111036-24.html
