The Winter Olympic Games: from Chamonix to Milan–Cortina

History, Performance, and the Olympic Spirit Over the Past Century

In 2026, the Winter Olympic Games in Milan–Cortina will capture the attention of the entire world, bringing together elite athletes, cutting-edge technologies, and the spectacular aesthetics of winter sports. Beyond competition, the Olympic Games remain a symbolic space of excellence, where performance, determination, courage, innovation, and perseverance intertwine with history, tradition, and rigor, the pillars of the most important sporting event in humanity.

It all began in 1924 in Chamonix, when the first edition of the Winter Olympic Games brought together 16 nations and disciplines that would shape the imagination of winter sports for decades to come. One century later, Milan–Cortina marks the symbolic anniversary of 100 years since the birth of this competition, in a completely transformed context: from wooden skis and rudimentary outfits to ultra-technological equipment, artificial tracks, biomechanical analysis, and performance measured in hundredths of a second.

We invite you on Wednesday, February 18, starting at 6:30 PM, to Plan Patru, for an event dedicated to a century of the Winter Olympic Games, conceived as a cultural and historical journey. A journey that begins in the French Alps of the 1920s and reaches contemporary Italy, passing through key moments in Olympic history, legendary competitions, athletes who redefined the limits of the human body, and sports that have evolved spectacularly, both technically and aesthetically.

We will explore Olympic heroes and lesser-known stories from behind the scenes of the competitions, dramatic moments and victories that have entered collective memory, as well as Romania’s connection to the Winter Olympic movement, from its first participations to performances that have left a mark on the history of Romanian sport.

A special chapter will be dedicated to winter sports equipment: from functionality and safety to innovation, design, and visual identity. We will examine how winter sports have influenced fashion, collaborated with the high-tech industry, and become a true laboratory of technological and aesthetic avant-garde, where the boundary between sport, design, and visual culture is increasingly blurred.

The event will be hosted by Anita Sterea, PhD in History, specialized in the history of the Olympic movement, a researcher of the Olympic phenomenon, and President of the “Nouă ne pasă!” Cultural Association, with extensive experience in analyzing the relationship between sport, history, and society.