by The 2026 winter Olympics starts today, an event that has seen many changes through its history: here are 7 forgotten winter Olympic sports.
MILITARY PATROL
The first Winter Olympics was held in 1924, at the French ski town of Chamonix. Like the Summer Olympics, it took a while to determine how these events should best operate, with sports coming and going during its first few stagings.
One of these was ‘Military Patrol’.
In many European countries, the military have specialist troops, trained to operate in cold weather. For a period these had their own Olympic event, combining cross-country skiing, mountaineering, and rifle shooting at balloon targets.
Teams of four soldiers competed, led by an officer, all members lugging a 20 kilogram backpack.
Six countries fielded teams in 1924, with Switzerland winning the gold medal (their winning team is pictured above). Military Patrol would return in 1928, 1936 and 1948, before being discontinued.
ALPINISM
The first Winter Olympics also saw medals awarded for Alpinism.
Since mountain climbing expeditions are lengthy and dangerous undertakings, this was not a live event. Instead, an Olympic committee would assess confirmed climbs during the previous four years, and award medals to the most impressive feat.
Only gold medals were awarded.
In 1924, this went to members of a British led expedition that had attempted to climb Mount Everest, two years earlier (pictured above). While the summit had not been reached, the expedition had set an altitude record, and pioneered the use of bottled oxygen.
Seven Sherpas died during the attempt. They were awarded posthumous gold medals alongside fourteen surviving climbers, the presentation held during the closing ceremony.
Alpinism medals were also awarded in 1932 and 1936 (one of these again to a deceased climber), before the practice was ended.
SKIJORING
Earlier Winter Olympics included some events with non-human competitors. One of these was Skijoring, which featured at the 1928 Olympics in St Mortiz, Switzerland.
Skijoring was a Scandinavian racing sport that saw a human competitor paired with a horse: the horse would run along a track on a frozen lake, pulling the human behind on a wooden sled.
Included as a demonstration sport, it was well known in the host country: Skijoring was often used as a means of transport in rural areas. At its sole Olympic appearance, seven racers from Italy and Switzerland competed, Switzerland taking the gold.
DOG SLED RACING
Another animal to get an Olympic moment was the Husky, which featured in the 1932 games in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Dog sledding had been used in Arctic areas for thousands of years, and had come to North America during the 19th century goldrush. Husky’s, a hardy breed originally from Siberia, had been introduced to America by Russian prospectors.
At the Olympics, dog sled racing appeared as a demonstration sport: teams of seven dogs, and one handler, traversed a 25 mile course on two consecutive days (one of the racers is pictured above). Among the competitors was Eva Seeley, from Canada, the only female athlete at the games outside of the figure skating.
The top two competitors were Emile St Godard from Canada, and Leonhard Seppala from the USA. The two men had a fierce rivalry from dog sled races in their home countries, and placed first and second, Godard taking the gold.
BANDY
Bandy is a niche sport, with something of a mysterious past. Usually reported as having an English origin, Russia, Sweden, the Netherlands and Iceland have all claimed it, at times.
Its history can be traced back to the early 19th century.
The sport itself is a combination of football, and hockey. Played on a soccer sized ice field, with netted goals, players use hockey-style crooked sticks to manoeuvre a large, round ball.
Bandy’s only appearance at the Winter Olympics was at Helsinki, in 1952 (some action shots from the games are above). Only three teams competed – Finland, Norway and Sweden – each winning one game, and losing one; Sweden took the gold on countback.
Bandy is considered to be a precursor to the more popular ice hockey, which was first played in Canada in 1875.
SKI BALLET
Not all abandoned Winter Olympics sports date from the earliest days of the event. A more recent example is Ski Ballet, which featured at the 1988 and 1992 games (a competitor from 1988 is above).
Ski Ballet evolved in the 1970s, as a companion of figure skating. The event was held on a gentle downward slope, competitors would traverse this while performing jumps, spins, leg crosses and other manoeuvres.
Scoring was done by a panel of judges.
The sport grew in popularity for a time, adding a pairs event, and allowing routines to be set to music. Its best known competitor was Suzy Chaffee, who was also a successful model, and spokesperson for ‘Chapstick’.
Ski Ballet was discontinued in the 1990s due to the growing popularity of snowboarding, and other more extreme sports, which crowded the Olympic schedule.
SPEED SKIING
A sport with a more tragic finale was Speed Skiing, which appeared only at the 1992 Olympics, in Albertville France.
The sport was relatively simple: competitors launched from the top of a steep incline, the fastest to the bottom was the winner. With competitors wearing aerodynamically designed outfits and carbon fibre skis, speeds of over 200km/hour were reached.
This unfortunately led to tragedy.
During practice towards the end of the event, Swiss speed skier Nicolas Bochatay collided with a snowcat at high speed. The vehicle had been grooming the practice slope, and had been hidden behind a small rise; Bochatay had become briefly airborne going over the same bump of snow, and could not prevent the collision.
He died of internal injuries shortly afterwards.
The sport was afterwards removed from the Olympics as it was deemed too dangerous. The International Ski and Snowboard Federation, skiing’s top administrative body, still holds pro events outside of the games.
