The Nordic Games and the Origins of the Olympic Winter Games

The Nordic Games were a grouping of winter sporting events that happened in every 4

years beginning at 1901 and going all the way through 1926. Viktor Balck did the heading of all

the events. The weeklong games were large combinations of nationalism and the strength and

efforts of capitalism through and through. The games always took place in February in order to

allow for the greatest possible weather for the games to take hold of. There has always been

much debate on the true reasons the games were formed, it was never truly flushed out in full

but it did provide a great center for the Swedish people to create pride on something that was

built from their very own. (Edgeworth, 1994)

Viktor Balck was strong willed military man who had plenty of experience in the sports

world himself and plenty of experience leading, his experience though could not free the Nordic

games from many bumps in the road. After the first set of games there began to be struggles

between Norway and Sweden, for during the first games they were both considered one country

but by the time it was time for the second games Norway was working to gain its full

independence from its Swedish counterpart. These struggles would continue to shake the

foundations of the games for the entirety of its existence. Being that there were always actions

taken by one side or the other in order to one up the group. (Egdeworth, 1994)

Olympic confusion is a major understatement when it came to the development of the

Winter Olympics. Early suggestions often being shot down was to combine the Nordic Games

with the yet to be formed winter Olympics however over the process of 20 years it would

continuously be shot down during the IOC meetings. Either due to the fact that Balck was

avoiding giving up the event helped create for the benefit of him and his country or because

terms could just never be settled upon. Eventually the IOC would start to move on with its own

direction. Finally by 1924, everything had been all set up correctly in order for the games to

move forward on their own. (Edgeworth, 1994)

Finally by 1930 it had been pretty well known that the Nordic Games would never exist

again, main factors that contributed to its fall were the death of its major leader Viktor Balck in

1928, the solid foundations that the Olympics had built by that time and because the games

priority fell to the side when there was a shift in power that ran a majority of sport and its

organizations.(Edgeworth, 1994)

I think it is quite interesting to see how the building of what I know today as the Olympics

has come to be. Learning the history of sport is one of my favorite things to do and pick an

article it is definitely a shaping experience to learn about something that just does not seem to

take place in the world today. It is crazy to look deeply into how many events and world

organizations were popping up and closing down during the early 20th centaury. In my opinion, I

feel like things in our world today are no where near as shaping or as crucial though in during

that time the world was changing so very much that these events just kept appearing out of now

where almost.

References

Edgeworth, R. (1994). The Nordic Games and the Origins of the Olympic Winter Games. Citius,

Altius, Fortius. (Vol. 2, pp. 29-37)