Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXII Olympic Winter Games, is the international winter multiple sports event that will be celebrated from February 7 to February 23 this year. The host city, Sochi, Russia, was elected on July 4, 2007, during the 119th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
The Winter Olympics is a major international sporting event that occurs once every four years. The first celebration of the Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, France, in 1924 with the original sports being alpine and cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping and speed skating. The Games were held every four years from 1924 until 1936, after which they were momentarily interrupted by World War II. The Olympics resumed in 1948 and were celebrated every four years. The Winter and Summer Olympic Games were held in the same years until 1992, after a 1986 decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to place the Summer and Winter Games on separate four-year cycles in alternating even-numbered years. Due to this cycle alteration, the next Winter Olympics after 1992 – in Albertville – were in 1994 in Lillehammer.
Many of you will have watched the film Cool Runnings which was loosely based on the story of the Jamaican bobsled team who debuted in the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics in the Four-Man bobsleigh…. But how many of you can claim an Olympic athlete – Summer or Winter – in your family tree? Maybe you could include it in your 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks story some time soon?
