The 1928 Winter Olympics, officially known as the II Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as St. Moritz 1928, were an international winter multi-sport event that was celebrated from 11 to 19 February 1928 in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The 1928 Games were the first true Winter Olympics to be held as a stand-alone event, not in conjunction with a Summer Olympics. The preceding 1924 Winter Games were retroactively renamed the inaugural Winter Olympics, although they had in fact been organised alongside the 1924 Summer Olympics in France. Before 1924, the winter events were included in the schedule of the Summer Games and there were no separate Winter Games. The 1928 Winter Games also replaced the now redundant Nordic Games, which had been held at varying intervals since early in the 20th century. The hosts were challenged by fluctuating weather conditions; the opening ceremony was held in a blizzard, while warm weather conditions plagued sporting events throughout the rest of the Games. The 10,000 metre speed-skating event was controversially abandoned and officially cancelled. Filmed footage of the games exists in a silent, feature-length documentary, The White Stadium.

Highlights

Events

Medals were awarded in 14 events contested in 4 sports (8 disciplines).

Demonstration sports

Venues

Participating nations

Athletes from 25 nations competed at these Games, up from 16 in 1924. Nations making their first appearance at the Winter Olympic Games were Argentina (first participation of a delegation coming from a country belonging to the Southern Hemisphere), Estonia, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Romania.

Number of athletes by National Olympic Committees

Medal count

Podium sweeps