The first Winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France, in 1924. A lot has changed since then. Those 1924 Games weren’t even called Olympics – they were the ‘Winter Sports Week.’ And the Opening Ceremony was a low-tech affair compared to the complex theatricality that marks the modern Opening Ceremonies of today. And back then athletes were required to march in wearing their sportswear, carrying competition equipment like skis and poles. That isn’t the case anymore, but while the trappings have changed the main components remain unchanged: the Parade of Nations, the taking of the Olympic Oath and, since 1952, the lighting of the Olympic cauldron.