Top 5

Best Hosts of Olympic Winter Games Past

By Everett Potter

It takes a rare resort to host the Olympic Winter Games. Whistler certainly deserves the honour, but previous Games have been held in some of the most unique mountain resorts and cities in the world. Here are five where you can still catch the Olympic spirit as you click into your bindings.

Chamonix, France (1924)
When the first Olympic Winter Games were held in this rugged mountain town in the French Alps in 1924, they were called International Sports Week 1924. Only in hindsight were they dubbed the first Winter Games. Today there’s virtually no physical remnant of those distant Games, just a sporting legacy that has made Chamonix Europe’s epicentre for hard-core skiing and mountaineering. The best skiers love to tackle the Vallée Blanche, daredevils attempt the summits of the nearby peaks and mere mortals rejoice in the shadow of Le Mont-Blanc. Spend an hour in the Musée Alpin, housed in the former Chamonix-Palace, to immerse yourself in the local Alpine culture; then go have a long slopeside lunch. The mountains may be formidable, but you’re in France, after all.

St. Moritz, Switzerland (1928 and 1948)
As you make figure eights at the St. Moritz Olympic Ice Rink, you’re skating on the hallowed ice where the ice hockey, speed skating and figure skating events were held during the 1948 Winter Games. These were significant Games indeed, the first to be celebrated after World War II, but these days St. Moritz is back to its pre-war status as a glamorous winter gathering place for a snow-loving global elite. This time of year, a parade of furs descends on the five-star Badrutt’s Palace, while a serious winter polo league plays on the frozen lake. For the rest of us, 400 kilometres of ski trails provide the amusement.

Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy (1956)
This picture-perfect Alpine town, with cobbled streets set amid the jagged Dolomites, is Italy’s answer to St. Moritz. Cortina d’Ampezzo is famous for its nightly passeggiata that turns the main street, Corso Italia, into a Milan-like catwalk while Ferraris jockey for parking spaces. The chic winter inhabitants sleep late, ski fast and socialize a lot. To join in, just book a plush, unmistakably Italian room at the dazzling Cristallo. The Stadio del Ghiaccio (Ice Stadium) is one of the few reminders of those 1956 Winter Games, so put on your blades if you want a taste of historic Olympic glory.

Sapporo, Japan (1972)
The 1972 Winter Games put Sapporo on the winter sports map, so it’s no wonder that evidence of the Games – like the Okurayama ski jump – is still found everywhere you look. But nowadays, this chilly city on the northern island of Hokkaido is best known for its impressive (and sometimes outrageous) ice sculptures. Staged each year in early February, the Snow Festival welcomes sculptors from more than two dozen countries to create hundreds of snow statues and ice sculptures. In the past, those sculptures have ranged from the Great Pyramid of Giza to the Statue of Liberty. The week-long event attracts upward of 2 million people, who also fuel Sapporo’s reputation as one of the best winter party towns in the world.

Lake Placid, New York (1932 and 1980)
Host to two previous Olympic Winter Games and home to numerous national training facilities, Lake Placid is still coursing with the energy of American Olympians preparing for the next Games. You can watch the country’s best hockey players, speed skaters and figure skaters train at the Olympic Center’s rinks and then don skates yourself. Brave the legendary cold of Whiteface mountain to ski the steepest runs in the east, and enjoy a stunning panorama of the Adirondacks. Watch the country’s best skiers fly off the two terrifyingly tall Olympic Ski Jumps; then explore the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympic Museum. For the truly fearless, there’s the luge and bobsleigh at the Olympic Sports Complex.

(Everett Potter has been a contributing editor to SKI Magazine for 15 years and writes Everett Potter’s Travel Report at everettpotter.com.)

TOP IMAGE: OT CHAMONIX / MONICA DALMASSO
SAPPORO: JNTO