On Jan. 25, 1924, the shadow of Mont Blanc blanketed the snowy valley of Chamonix, France. The French Alpine town was home to one of France’s oldest skiing resorts and, in 1924, the event that would challenge the world’s best in winter sports. There was the rudimentary bobsledding course with curves made from tightly packed swaths of snow, the wide ice-hockey rink in full view of the official stand, and the modest ski jumping hills that athletes skillfully threw themselves from. All of this was happening while 5 evenly-spaced rings stood over the stadium.
Since there was only 16 different events, the layout for the 1924 Winter Olympic Games was truly simple. Source: 1924 Olympic Games Official Report
This was the first year of the Olympic Winter Games.
Originally titled Semaine Internationale des Sports d’Hiver (International Winter Sports Week), the first Winter Games had only 258 athletes competing for 16 countries in 16 events, a far cry from the Games that just passed. Pyeongchang 2018 had almost 3,000 athletes, competing for 92 countries in just over 100 events.
Only around 5000 copies of the poster for the first official Olympic Winter Games were printed. Source: Wikimedia Commons
2018 marked Canada’s best showing at the Winter Games, with the country coming in third place overall behind Norway and Germany. Canada won a total of 29 medals, 11 of them gold. It was by far the most impressive Olympics to date for the country, but Canada’s history at the Winter Games, while long, was not always been so successful.
Canada in Chamonix
In 1924, the Canadian team was made up of 12 members – 11 men and one woman. Cecil Smith, was the country’s first female Olympian and competed in partnered figure skating with Melville Rogers. Alongside the duo was the nine-man ice hockey team, that won gold after a devastating victory of 6-1 over the United States. The medal would be the only hardware Canada would take home that year.
Completing the team was Canada’s only speed skater, Charles Gorman. Gorman hailed from Saint John, New Brunswick, where he got his start in the sport. He, like other young men in the town, practiced on the wind-swept Kennebecasis and Saint John Rivers in the winter. Unlike the other young men, Gorman was outstanding.
Charles Gorman is seen here crouched on the ice in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1921. Source: Wikimedia Commons
He went onto win countless international competitions, and even after wounding his leg in World War I, he continued to dazzle audiences with his unmatched speed and power.
He was the ‘Human Dynamo’, the ‘Man with the Million Dollar Legs’.
Fall from Grace
It was on Jan. 26 of that year when the first speed skating race of the Games, the 500m, was held. The temperatures dipped just below freezing and the sky was overcast. The ice beneath the feet of the competitors was decently firm, but had a bit of yield.
As the starting gun was lifted, Gorman and his fellow athletes crouched down and primed themselves for what would amount to less than a minute of racing. The gun was fired. The skaters began propel themselves forward with forceful strokes of their legs, cutting over the ice. And not long after that it was over.
Charles Jewtraw of Lake Placid, New York, took first place with a time of 44 seconds. At 45.4 seconds, Gorman placed seventh.
Gorman’s stumbles continued when he placed 11th in the 1500m. And in the 5000m he was not able to finish.
Olympic Future
Canada placed ninth overall in 1924. A poor showing, but Canada’s time at the the first Winter Games set the tone for the nation and its athletes for future Games. Gorman and the other competitors laid the foundation for the success that was enjoyed in Pyeongchang.
And while Gorman fared poorly at the Games, the New Brunswick native went onto set seven world records by the time he retired in 1928, proving himself to be ‘The World’s Fastest Man’.
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