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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Again Joly and Brunet.

Source: http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/erste-winterolympiade-olympische-winterspiele-1924-in-charmonix-fotostrecke-111036-24.html

Winter Olympics 1924: On January 30, 1924, the three medal winners in figure skating present together on the ice in Chamonix. Women were only allowed at the Olympic Winter Games figure skating; a total of 13 athletes participated. From left to right pose little disorganized: The winner Herma Planck Szabo (Austria) in addition to the third place Ethel Muckelt from the UK; rightmost runner-up Beatrix Loughran (USA).

Source: http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/erste-winterolympiade-olympische-winterspiele-1924-in-charmonix-fotostrecke-111036.html

todayinhistory:

January 25th 1924: First Winter Olympics

On this day in 1924, the first Winter Olympic Games began in Chamonix, France, and lasted until February 5th. At the time, the event was called ‘International Winter Sports Week’ but it was later retroactively named the Winter Olympics. The sports included speed skating, figure skating, ice hockey, bobsleigh, and skiing. Only 16 nations took part in the first Winter Olympics, but the event steadily gained more recognition. The most recent Winter Olympics, in Sochi in 2014, had 88 participating nations. 1924 also saw the Summer Olympic Games in Paris. However in 1994, the rules were changed so the Winter Olympics take place two years after the Summer Olympics. Hence last year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi occurred two years after London hosted the Summer Games.