Curling at the 1924 Winter Olympics

The sport of curling finds its origins in mediaeval Scotland. The sport spread throughout the world in the 19th century, aided by formation of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club (RCCC) in 1838, which effectively served as an international federation.

Although no such distinction was ever made in 1924, most historians used to list curling as a demonstration sport at the 1924 Olympics. It is unclear why this happened, as the sport is listed among the other events in all contemporary sources, and the IOC never officially designated it as a demonstration sport. Ture Widlund, one of the co-founders and first Vice-President of the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH), discovered this while looking at the 1924 Official Report, noting that there was no distinction in that report between curling and military ski patrol and any of the medal sports. The IOC was contacted about this seeming discrepancy, and just before the 2006 Winter Olympics, the IOC decided to officially declare the 1924 curling and military ski patrol events as Olympic, removing any doubt.