The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2002, Qupperneq 9

Vol. 57 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
93
The Winnipeg Falcons
First official Olympic hockey winners
by Barbara Schrodt, PhD
In 1920, the Winnipeg Falcons, Allan
Cup winners of that year, were chosen by
the Canadian Amateur Hockey
Association to represent Canada at the ice
hockey competition to be held during the
Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium.
The Falcons were successful, winning each
of their three matches, and impressing the
Europeans with their demonstrations of
skill and speed. This event was also the first
World Championship, which Canada
would dominate for many years to come.
But was this Canada's first official
Olympic gold medal ice hockey team, or
does that honour go to the Toronto
Granites, winners of the 1924 Winter
Olympics event? And why do we even
have to ask that question?
A quick perusal of Canadian sport his-
tory publications quickly reveals the prob-
lem. Most references identify the Falcons
as the winners of the first Olympic ice
hockey event, or as the gold medal winners
of the 1920 Games. Others present a differ-
ent view; they refer to the 1920 hockey
tournament as "demonstration," "a trial,"
or "unofficial," at the same time acknowl-
edging that the Falcons were awarded gold
medals and scrolls, like all other winners in
Antwerp.
To understand this contradiction, one
needs to examine the historical develop-
ment of winter sports in the Olympics.
The first so-called "winter sport" to be
included in the Olympic Games was figure
skating, which appeared in London in
1908. At this time, the programmes for the
Olympics were really whatever the host
city wanted; thus, those London Games
also included rugby, cricket, and polo -
sports that were not repeated in any subse-
quent celebrations. The 1912 Games in
Stockholm did not include any winter
sports, but after the First World War, pres-
sures were mounting for a separate Winter
Olympic Games. Thus, when the 1920 pro-
gramme was organized, it included ice
hockey and figure skating. However, this
was not without its opponents, for the
influential founder of the Olympic Games,
Baron de Coubertin, and many of his col-
leagues, were opposed to a separate cele-
bration.
In 1922, an "International Winter
Sports Week" was announced, under the
patronage of the International Olympic
Committee (IOC), to be held in
Chamonix, France in 1924. That program
consisted of cross-country skiing, ski
jumping, ice hockey, and both figure and
speed skating. There was no Olympic des-
ignation for this festival. That did not come
until 1926, when the IOC finally bowed to
pressure from winter sports countries and
gave official approval to the inclusion of a
separate Winter Games in the Olympic
schedule of activities. Also, the IOC
retroactively designated the 1924
Chamonix Sports Week as the first Winter
Games.
It is easy to see why they gave this des-
ignation to the 1924 winter sports, and not
to those of 1920. Chamonix was a separate
event from the Summer Games-—in both
time and place—while Antwerp simply
incorporated the two winter sports into the
official program with the summer sports as
part of the same celebration. Also, the fes-
tival of 1924 included several sports that
had not been contested before at an
Olympic Games.
However, declaring Chamonix to be
the first Winter Olympic Games did not
change the status of the 1920 events. The