General Reading Passage 1

The 17th Winter Games, held in Norway in 1994, are part of an Olympic tradition which goes back almost 3,000 years. For more than 1,000 years the ancient Games were held, every four years, on hallowed ground near Mount Olympus, where the Greek gods were said to live.

The 'Olympics' brought together men from war-torn tribes and states in Greece and its colonies. A sacred truce was declared to allow men to travel to the games in safety. Women could not take part and were forbidden, on pain of death, even to attend the Games.

The ancient Olympics were abolished by the Roman Emperor Theodosius in 393 AD, after Greece had lost its independence. But the idea never died and the Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin, and educator and scholar, founded the modern Olympics. His aim was to bring together, once every four years, athletes from all countries on the friendly fields of amateur sport. No account was to be taken of national rivalries, nor politics, race, religion, wealth or social status.

The first modern Games were held in Athens in 1896, and four years later, in Paris, women began to take part. Although the winter Olympics did not begin until 1924, figure skating was part of the 1908 London summer Olympics, both skating and ice hockey were included in the Antwerp Games in 1920. But generally winter sports were felt to be too specialized. Only cold-weather countries had much experience of activities such as skiing-a means of transport overland across ice and snow during long winters.

The Scandinavians, for whom skiing is a part of everyday life, had objected to a winter games. They feared it would threaten their own Nordic games, which had been held every four years since 1901. But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed to stage an International Sports Week in Chamonix, France, in 1924. It was a success and the Scandinavians won 28 of the 43 medals, including nine golds. They dropped their objections and the event was retrospectively named the First Olympic Winter Games.

Apart from the Second World War period the Winter Olympics were held every four years, a few months before the summer Olympics. But in 1986 the IOC changed the schedule so that the summer and winter games would be held in different years. Thus, for the only time in history, the Lillehammer (Norway) Games took place just two years after the previous Winter Olympics which were held in Albertville, France.

Since the Winter Games began, 55 out of 56 gold medals in the men's nordic skiing events have been won by competitors from Scandinavia or the former Soviet Union. For teams from warm weather countries, cross-country skiing can pose problems, At the Calgary Games in 1988, one competitor in the 50-kilometre even was so slow that race officials feared he was lost and sent out a search party. Roberto Alvarez of Mexico had never skied more than 20 kilometres before and finished 61st and last 52 minutes behind the 60th place.