Gangwon 2024 Winter Olympics have been the talk of the sports realm for the last week. With 1800 enthusiastic youngsters and compelling competitions taking precedence since the 19th of Jan, it has been a celebration of skills and further growth. However, with the arrival of January 25th, the games had more to cherish than the persisting showdown.
The Olympic games have been much more than the representation of nations and athletic skills. The games have been about the celebration of the unity, of cultures, and, as one of the Olympics’ goals states, a promotion of world peace. Through the years, as it carried forward its notions, it brought along evolution, enthusiasm, and a joyful spirit to thousands. And today, as the Winter Olympics celebrates its milestone, it celebrates all that it carried along and one salient factor was added to its repertoire as well.
Gangwon 2024 adds Winter Olympics milestone to the burgeoning list
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The Winter Olympic Games first saw their beginning back in 1924, when 258 athletes from 16 nations gathered in Chamonix, France, for a contest across 9 disciplines. Today, 100 years later, the Winter Olympics witness about 3000 athletes and nearly 90 nations in participation. Celebrating the moment of growth and thousands of athletes through the journey, the Olympic Games shared a compilation clip on X. “Today we celebrate 100 years of Winter Olympic Games,” the handle wrote in excitement.
Today we celebrate 1⃣0⃣0⃣ years of Winter Olympic Games 🥳
Which has been your favourite so far? ❄️@milanocortina26 pic.twitter.com/JYbLGsveQM
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) January 25, 2024
On the path to Gangwon 2024, the evolved opening ceremonies, the shift in the gears, and the changed grounds all presented a near-perfect journey the games have incurred. However, another significant growth that wasn’t neon visible on the board was the gender representation. According to reports, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics had the most gender-balanced proceeding to date with 45% female and 55% male. While we discuss the prideful growth of the games today, the past 100 years have seen more moments on the milestone list.
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Growth for the games
Ever since the Winter Olympics marked its beginning in 1924, there have been numerous additions to the games along the path. A first-time podium, an Olympic oath by a woman in 1956, the first televised games, the first live coverage on mobile, and numerous more. However, apart from the games-centric progress, the committee also grew to adorn changes for society’s well-being. In 2022, an estimated 350 million Chinese people engaged in winter sports. The numbers added to the economic growth factor first witnessed in 1972.
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Moreover, the IOC has grown to acknowledge global warming and the impact the games can exude. “Winter sport will need to adapt to the impacts of climate change and mitigate their effects,” the IOC president states. As per the agenda, the committee is on a mission to reduce emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and is working towards building the Olympic Forest. With games’ organizers addressed and altered, the Olympics will look to add more to the milestone with Gangwon 2024 and further.
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