Olympic Winter Games, Vancouver 2010

The history of winter sports at Olympic games began long before the first winter games as figure skating was on the programme of the 1908 London Games and ice hockey on the Antwerp Games in 1920. In 1922 the French Olympic Committee decided to organize the Chamonix International Winter Sports Week, which in retrospect was designated as the First Olympic Winter Games by the International Olympic Committee at its Prague session. This year, 86 years later, the 21st Olympic Winter Games will run from 12th to 28th February in Vancouver, Canada. Estonian sportsmen first took part in Olympic Winter Games in 1928 in Sankt Moritz. Since 1964 five sportsmen have brought back eight medals (5-1-2) from the Winter Games: Ants Antson gold (1964), Allar Levandi bronze (1988), Jaak Mae bronze (2002), Andrus Veerpalu gold and silver (2002) and gold (2006) and Kristina Šmigun two gold medals (2006).