France, Feb. 22 -- Slow beginnings in Chamonix

France became the first country to host the Winter Olympics - then billed as an "international week of winter sport" - in January and February 1924.

A few months before Paris put on its groundbreaking Summer Games, the Alpine resort of Chamonix saw some 300 athletes from 16 countries compete in skiing, skating, bobsleigh, ice hockey and curling.

The hosts won three bronze medals and not a single silver or gold.

Among the athletes in third were figure skatersAndree Joly and Pierre Brunet, whose ambitious pairs programme left the judges cold.

They went on to win France's first and only winter golds at the 1928 and 1932 Games (and, in 1929, to marry). Today, the pair are credited with pione...