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THE WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES
The Winter Olympic Games are a winter multi-sport event held
every four years. They feature winter sports held on snow or
ice, such as Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, ice skating,
bobsledding, and ice hockey.
Each National Olympic Committee (NOC), as with the Summer Olympics,
enters athletes to compete against other NOC's athletes for gold,
silver, and bronze medals. Fewer countries participate in the
Winter Olympics than the Summer Olympics, due largely to the
reduced availability of winter sports in many countries nearer
to the Equator, and where access to winter sport training facilities
are quite limited or non-existent. Also areas in which the Winter
Olympics are usually held must be near a mountain range where
it snows - for the Alpine skiing events. Outdoor natural snow
is also a necessity for cross-country skiing.
The United States of America has hosted the Winter Games the
most times, four, most recently in 2002. France has hosted the
winter games three times, most recently in 1992. Switzerland,
Austria, Norway, Japan, and Italy have all hosted the games twice.
Canada will host for the second time in 2010 in Vancouver, British
Columbia. Germany and Yugoslavia have hosted the games once,
and Russia is tentatively-planned to host the Winter Olympics
for the first time in 2014. Three cities have hosted the Winter
Games twice: St. Moritz, Switzerland; Innsbruck, Austria; and
Lake Placid, New York, USA.
www.olympic.org
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