1952 Oslo Winter Olympics

Also called: VI Olympic Winter Games, 1952 Winter Olympics

Oslo, capital of the skiing nation of Norway, hosted the first Winter Olympics in Scandinavia, with the first torch relay of the Winter Games.

Thirty nations took part from 14 to 25 February (the opening ceremony was on the 15th), and Germany and Japan returned. The flame was lit not at Olympia but in the hearth of the house at Morgedal where Sondre Norheim, called the father of modern skiing, was born, and was carried to Oslo by skiers. Women’s cross-country skiing was held for the first time, and Norwegian speed skater Hjalmar Andersen won three golds. South Korea, then at war, did not take part.