New book From Chamonix to Beijing: Centennial Winter Olympics records the ledgers and legends of all Winter Games thus far, Yang Yang reports.

A photo in the book shows Hollywood actress Audrey Hepburn (second left) and French designer and fashion icon, Jacqueline de Ribes (third left), supporting French Alpine skier Jean-Claude Killy in 1968. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Top sports events are often the birthplaces of legends, and the Winter Olympics are no exception.

During the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Olympics, Italian athlete Eugenio Monti was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin Medal for sportsmanship, the first-ever in Olympic history, for his generosity to his opponents.

Monti competed in the two-man and four-man bobsleigh events. Before the start of the two-man event, he gave a spare bolt to the British duo to help fix their sleigh. A few days later, before the four-man bobsleigh competition, he and their team's machinist helped to fix the Canadian team's sleigh. The two teams he assisted both won the gold medals, and Monti and his teams took the bronze in both competitions.

Born in 1928, Monti started his sports career as a skier. Due to serious injuries caused by an accident in 1951, he had to stop skiing and shifted his focus to bobsleigh. Monti was 28 years old when he competed for the first time at the 1956 Winter Olympics, and won silver in both the two-man and four-man bobsleigh events.

By 1964, he was 36 years old. People believed that at such an age, it was unlikely he would win an Olympic championship, so he was given the Pierre de Coubertin Medal as a "goodbye souvenir", the book From Chamonix to Beijing: Centennial Winter Olympics, published in January by People's Publishing House in both Chinese and English, explains.

Another photo in the book captures athlete Veikko Kankkonen (background) finishing his final jump to win gold in 1964. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

To many people's surprise, Monti and his teammates went on to win gold medals in both events four years later at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, cementing the legend of the generous athlete.

The 341-page From Chamonix to Beijing, co-created by Gerard Schaller, a former senior journalist from the French sports newspaper L'Equipe, Vincent Laudet, former president of Editions Prolongations, L'Equipe, and two senior journalists from Titan Sports in China－Zhao Wei and Yuan Zu, contains many such Winter Olympics legends and stories, dating back to the first event, which was held in Chamonix, France, in 1924. In addition, the book features information, such as medal tables, an overall review of each edition of the Winter Games, anecdotes and a trove of photos from the Olympic archives.

"The book provides detailed data that can help readers to learn about the development and trends of winter sports around the world," said Cao Yaqi, deputy editor-in-chief of Titan Sports, at a livestreamed book event in Beijing last month.

For example, Norway has got the most medals in history, but the United States is the only country that has won gold medals in all Winter Olympics. Central European countries started a "winter sports week" in the 1910s but Nordic countries started as early as in the 1880s, said Cao.

"There are not only a lot of interesting stories and factual information in the book, but also many valuable photos that are not so easy to access, even in the internet age. That is what makes the book precious," said Zhao Yang, one of the contributing editors, at the event.

(From left) Chinese version of the book; English version of the book.  (PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

As an example, Zhao cited the entry for the 1948 Games.

"What impresses me the most about the St. Moritz Winter Olympics is that it was a rough time financially because it was the first Olympics after World War II. Europe was in a mess, so people saw a handmade wooden box used as podium for the award ceremonies," he says.

The chapter about the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Olympics in Austria contains a photo that captures a dramatic moment in the K70 ski jumping competition. The photo shows a group of photographers circling around Norwegian ski jumper Toralf Engan, who had performed so well that, even before Finnish athlete Veikko Kankkonen had completed his last jump, he was believed to have won. However, behind the photographers is Kankkonen, who had just landed an extraordinary jump and beaten Engan to the gold.

Another black-and-white photo shows Hollywood actress Audrey Hepburn and French designer and fashion icon, Jacqueline de Ribes, in attendance at the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympics, to support the popular French Alpine skier Jean-Claude Killy.

Published before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the book also introduces basic information about the facilities and implementation of Beijing's promise to host a green, sustainable Olympics.

Contact the writer at yangyangs@chinadaily.com.cn