The 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics were the first Winter Games to be broadcast on television.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by multiple independent, high-quality sources including the IOC's official history page and Encyclopaedia Britannica, with consistent details across all accounts.
Sources
- Watch the Evolution of the Winter Olympics' Opening Ceremony (rollingstone.com)
- https://www.history.com/articles/cortina-olympics-1956-cold-war-tv-tensions (history.com)
- https://www.olympics.com/ioc/legacy/cortina-dampezzo-1956 (olympics.com)
- https://www.topendsports.com/events/winter/hosts/cortina-dampezzo.htm (topendsports.com)
- https://www.summitdaily.com/news/a-look-back-1956-the-first-televised-winter-olympics/ (summitdaily.com)
- https://utaholympiclegacy.org/2026/01/20/a-brief-history-of-the-winter-olympic-games/ (utaholympiclegacy.org)