XXI Olympic Winter Games 2010, Vancouver, Canada

The next Winter Olympics was the first to be hosted outside of Europe. Seventeen nations and 252 athletes participated. This was less than in 1928 as the journey to Lake Placid, United States, was a long and expensive one for most competitors who had little money in the midst of the Great Depression. The athletes competed in fourteen events in four sports. Virtually no snow fell for two months before the Games, it was not until mid-January that there was enough snow to hold all the events. Sonja Henie defended her Olympic title and Eddie Eagan, who had been an Olympic champion in boxing in 1920, won the gold in the men's bobsleigh event to become the first, and so far only, Olympian to have won gold medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
The German towns of Garmisch and Partenkirchen joined to organise the 1936 edition of the Winter Games, held on February 6–16. This would be the last time the Summer and Winter Olympics were held in the same country in the same year. Alpine skiing made its Olympic debut, but skiing teachers were barred from entering because they were considered to be professionals. Because of this decision the Swiss and Austrian skiers refused to compete at the Games.
• World War II
World War II interrupted the celebrations of the Winter Olympics. The 1940 Games had been awarded to Sapporo, Japan, but the decision was rescinded in 1938 because of the Japanese invasion of China. The Games were moved to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, but the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which precipitated the commencement of World War II in Europe, forced the cancellation of the 1940 Games. Due to the ongoing war the 1944 Games, originally scheduled for Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, were cancelled.