100 days to go 100 random facts about the Olympic Winter Games – Part 2

34. Cecilia Colledge of Great Britain was the youngest ever competitor in the Olympic Winter Games at just 11 years old in Lake Placid 1932, a few days younger than fellow British skater Megan Taylor.

35. The 1968 Grenoble Games were the first to be broadcast in colour.

36**. Norway** has won more medals at the Olympic Winter Games than any other country: 405 (142 golds, 141 silver and 122 bronze).

37. The ‘lightest’ torch ever for an Olympic Winter Games was the one used for Sapporo 1972. It weighed 460g.

38. Milano Cortina is set to host the 2026 Olympic Winter Games, the fourth time Italy has hosted a Games, and will mark the 70th anniversary of the 1956 edition. (Winter: Cortina D'Ampezzo 1956, Turin 2006, Summer: Roma 1960).

39. In 1985, Swedish ski jumper Jan Boklov was the first athlete to spread the tips of skis into a 'V' shape. Initially ridiculed, by 1992 everyone was using this style.

40. With four gold medals and one bronze, Natalie Geisenberger of Germany is the most decorated female Olympic luge athlete in history.

41. Picabo Street, the winner of Alpine skiing's Super G at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, has a ski run named after her at the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho; it's called Picabo's Street.

42. At the 1960 Olympic Winter Games in California, when officials were unsure whether a skier had missed a gate in the men’s slalom, they asked CBS TV if they could review a videotape of the race, prompting the invention of “instant replay".

43. The 'Water Cube', which hosted the swimming at the Beijing 2008 Games, has been transformed into the 'Ice Cube' for 2022, and will host the curling events.

44. In the history of the Olympic Winter Games, nobody has won more medals than Marit Bjørgen. The Norwegian cross-country skier has 15 medals – eight gold, four silver, three bronze.

45. Computers were first used to calculate figure skating scores at Oslo 1952, enabling instant results.

46. The first edition of the Olympic Winter Games with a torch relay was Innsbruck 1964.

47. Matti Nykanen, nicknamed ‘The Flying Finn’, is the only ski jumper to have clinched all three Olympic titles in the same Olympic Winter Games, at Calgary 1988.

48. The first Olympic mascot – which was not official – was "Schuss" and was born at the Grenoble Olympic Winter Games in 1968.

49. In Albertville 1992 New Zealand’s Annelise Coberger became the first athlete from the Southern Hemisphere to ever win a medal at the Olympic Winter Games – silver in women’s slalom.

50. Before it made its way into the Games in 1992 freestyle skiing was once referred to as ‘hot-dogging’.

51. The Olympic oath was sworn by a woman, Italian Alpine skier Giuliana Chenal-Minuzzo, for the first time at 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo.

52. Japanese ski jumper Noriaki Kasai is the athlete with the most participations under his belt, having competed at eight Olympic Winter Games (from Albertville 1992 to PyeongChang 2018).

53. The Alpine ski competition in Nagano 1998 had to be rescheduled several times... because of too much snow!

54. The word ‘biathlon’ stems from the Greek word meaning two contests and is today seen as the combining of two sports: skiing and shooting.

55. Like basketball and 3x3 basketball for summer games, ice hockey 3x3 has been tested as an event during the Winter Youth Olympic Games at Lausanne 2020.

56. Chamonix 1924 was initially called the Winter Sports Week but later the IOC proclaimed it the first Olympic Winter Games.

57. Edward Eagan (USA) is the only athlete to win gold medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics – gold in men's light-heavyweight boxing at Antwerp 1920, and four-man bobsleigh at Lake Placid 1932.

58. Women were first allowed to compete in Olympic ski jumping at Sochi 2014.

59. The official term for a curling tournament between clubs is ‘bonspiel’, likely coming from the German word "spiel", which means play or match.

60. After Oslo 1952, Beijing is only the second capital to host the Olympic Winter Games.

61. After a successful Youth Olympic Games debut at Lillehammer in 2016, monobob – a single person bobsled – will makes its debut at Beijing 2022.

62. At Beijing 2022, there will be seven new events in the Olympic programme including four mixed events.

63. Liechtenstein is the only country to win medals at the Olympic Winter Games but not at the Summer Games.

64. At the 1960 Games Frenchman Jean Vuarnet became the first skier to win a medal on metal skis, instead of traditional wooden ones.

65. Richard ‘Dick’ Button from America was the first figure skater to successfully land a triple jump of any kind in competition at the 1952 Games in Oslo.

66. The speed skating competition was held outdoors until the 1992 Olympic Winter Games in Albertville.

Look out for the Part 3 of the 100 random facts three-part series, which celebrates 100 days to go to Beijing 2022, online from 29 October.