St Moritz skiing poster- Winter Olympics 1928 – Carl Moos

St Moritz – 1928 Winter Olympics poster

There were three St Moritz posters produced to promote the 1928 Winter Olympics. The first was created by the Swiss artist Hugo Laubi to advertise the nine-day event. The poster depicts the rich, vibrant colors of the Swiss and Olympic flags that are seen billowing in the wind. The white snow-covered Engadine Mountains provide a stark contrast to the deep blue sky.  The text reads: II Olympische Winterspiele, St. Moritz and provides the date of the competition as 11-19 February 1928. Laubi’s poster is a magnificent representation of both the Swiss landscape and the Olympic spirit.

The other two St Moritz posters were both created by the Munich-born artist Carl Moos. Unusually, for a skiing-related poster one has been produced in black and white. It portrays a superb image of an Alpine downhill skier racing down the mountainside. Despite the lack of (or maybe because of the lack of colour) the poster is dramatic and eye-catching. It is one of my personal favorite skiing posters.

The third poster (and the one this listing) is probably most people’s the pick of the bunch. This time we’re back in colour to advertise the Cross Country or Nordic skiing event. The fabulous illustration presents two contestants battling the ski race out with each other across the undulating layers of snow.

Is the St Moritz 1928 Winter Olympics poster really the first Winter Olympics poster?

Technically, it is St Moritz 1928 that should be named the first Winter Olympic Games! Instead, the 1928 St Moritz international competition is officially known as the II Olympic Winter Games.

The previous winter games had been held four years earlier at Chamonix in 1924. However, they were organised by the French Olympic Committee and staged as the  ‘International Winter Sports Week’. The meeting was sponsored by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) but not sanctioned as an official Olympic Games.

When Paris was awarded the 1924 Games the Olympic Committee considered adding winter sports to the event. The 1920 Games in Antwerp had already featured Ice Hockey and Figure Skating events in the programme.

The Nordic countries strongly objected to the idea of the Winter Sports forming part of the Olympic Games. They had been holding their own ‘Nordic Games’ since 1901 and feared that if winter sports were added to the Olympic Games it would mean the end of their own established games.

The event went ahead and was held in association with the 1924 Summer Olympics. The sports competitions took place in Chamonix and Haute-Savoie at the foot of Mont Blanc, between 25 January and 5 February 1924.

The event was attended by 260 athletes from sixteen countries who competed in 16 events, including Bobsleigh, Cross Country Skiing, Curling, Figure Skating, Ice Hockey, Military Patrol, Ski Jumping, Speed Skating.

The International Winter Sports Week meet was a huge success, attracting a total of 32,683 spectators attended the 1924 Winter Olympics, with over 10,000 paying spectators, most of whom were wealthy socialites holidaying in Chamonix

The 1928 Winter Games also replaced the now redundant Nordic Games, which had been held at varying intervals since early in the 20th century.

Chamonix 1924 was such a success that in 1926, the IOC retrospectively renamed the event as the ‘first’ Olympic Games. Because of this many people say the 1928 Games is the first real Winter Olympics, which would make this St Moritz 1928 poster the first Winter Olympic Games poster. However, it can’t be denied that Chamonix 1924 was a significant and important milestone in Winter Olympics’ history. Besides the poster for the Chamonix 1924 event is also extremely impressive.

The Nordik Games

The Nordic Games went above and beyond the many popular winter sports activities that the countries excelled at. They also included fencing, swimming and equestrian sports. Rarer sports, perhaps more specific to the Nordic countries were also featured. Sports such as horse-driven sledding, glima, hunting, skiing behind reindeers (a.k.a. skijoring), military sports, car racing, motorcycle racing, ballooning, kick-sled, and pulka racing. The Game also showcased cultural activities including theatre, opera, folklore, traditions, and tourist attractions.

The competitors at The Nordic Games were mostly from the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, and Norway who ended up opposing the inclusion of more winter sports in the Olympics. The countries were concerned that the new Olympic Games would see a lot of the traditional Nordik Sports and heritage lost.

It turns out they were right. Instead of including the winter sports into the Summer Olympics, the IOC set up a separate Games, known as the Winter Olympics. Effectively, the outcome was the same for the Nordic Games. The last edition of the Games took place in 1926.

Now viewed as a precursor to the modern Olympic Games, many aspects of the Nordic Games were adopted by the IOC. The Winter Olympics turned out to be highly successful right from the beginning and their international appeal overshadowed the Nordic Games.

Women at the Chamonix and St Moritz Winter Olympics.

The 1924 Winter Olympics, held in Chamonix, France, were the first Games at which women were allowed to compete. But there were only 11 women out of 250 athletes, and they were only allowed to compete in one event… figure skating.

The 1928 Winter Olympics at St. Moritz was aas bad for women athletes: out of the 464 participants, only 26 were female! And they could still only enter the figure skating competition.

When it came to winter sports and the Olympics, women weren’t even given the chance to enter.

In the words of the founder of the Olympic movement, French aristocrat Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the Games were created for “the solemn and periodic exaltation of male athleticism” with “female applause as reward.”

Coubertin who at the time was the President of the IOC was adamant that women should not be allowed to enter. According to a 2016 article called The Rise of the Modern Sportswoman on the Smithsonian website by writers Maya Wei-Haas and Jackie Mansky, Coubertin is quoted saying “women’s participation must be absolutely prohibited. It is indecent that spectators should be exposed to the risk of seeing the body of a woman being smashed before their eyes”.  Before adding “women have but one task [at the Olympics], the role of crowning the winner”. Different times eh!

In fact, figure skating was the only event available to women for twelve more years when Alpine Skiing was introduced at the 1936 Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

The long journey to reach equality has taken decades. Women were not eligible to enter luge races until 1964, Ice Hockey games until 1998, Bobsleigh until 2002 and, unbelievably, ski jumping until 2014.

In an article on the SCMP website in Jan 2022, Mia Castagnone wrote  ‘The IOC did not have any female members until 1981, when it elected Venezuela’s Flor Isava-Fonseca and Finland’s Pirjo Häggman, even though the organisation itself had been running since 1894’.

Thank God, or whoever is responsible, the times are finally changing. The article adds “The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will be the most gender-balanced Games yet, with 45 percent of athletes being women – a record high, according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC)”.

About time too, I say!

Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.

The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £12. So you can bag a bargain of print and frame for a great price.