From the selection of a host city in a neutral country to the exclusion of Japan and Germany, the political atmosphere of the post-war world was inescapable during the 1948 Games.

The organizing committee faced several challenges due to the lack of financial and human resources consumed by the war.

Notable performances were turned in by figure skaters Dick Button and Barbara Ann Scott and skier Henri Oreiller.

The IOC selected St. Moritz to host the 1948 Games by acclamation at the 40 general session in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 6 September 1946.

St. Moritz was chosen because all of the venues of the 1928 Winter Olympics were available, and the Swiss resort could organize the Games much quicker than any other city except for 1936 host Garmisch-Partenkirchen which was not considered.

[4] The Comité Olympique (CO) was composed of local dignitaries and members of the Swiss National Olympic Committee (COS).

[6] The local committees worked very closely with the Swiss federal government and the IOC to ensure that the organization of the Games proceeded without hindrance.

[9] The organizing committee had to provide technology, such as long-distance telephone lines and telegraph services, to assist the press in communicating with their constituents.

[10] To aid the organizing committee, the IOC demanded that all participating nations provide lists of their athletes several months before the Games.

"[11] Japan and Germany were not invited to these Games because the international community still ostracized them for their role in World War II.

As the war continued, this proved impractical, and the second consecutive olympiad passed without celebrating the Games.

The IOC was presented with two possible host cities for the first post-war Games: Lake Placid, United States and St. Moritz, Switzerland.

The IOC decided to award the Games to Switzerland, a neutral country immediately following World War II, to avoid political posturing by former combatants.

[19] After news broke of the apparent improprieties a truck driver stepped forward and admitted to having accidentally backed into the shed housing the bobsleds.

An Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team was supported by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), and an Amateur Hockey Association (AHA) team was supported by the Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace (LIHG).

[24] Barbara Ann Scott became the first and only Canadian woman to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating when she won the competition at St. Moritz.

Despite the distraction caused by a low-flying airplane during her compulsory routine, she could muster the focus to place first entering the free skate.

He led the field after the compulsory skate and won the gold medal by becoming the first person to complete a double Axel in competition.

[26] Swiss world champion Hans Gerschwiler fell during the free skate,[27] but rebounded to win the silver medal.

At 1,856 m (6,089 ft) above sea level, the speed skating competition was held at the second-highest altitude in Olympic history; only Squaw Valley in 1960 was higher.

There was a three-way tie for second place between Norwegian Thomas Byberg and Americans Robert Fitzgerald and Kenneth Bartholomew.

[11] Frenchman Henri Oreiller won a medal in all three Alpine events: gold in the downhill and combined, and bronze in the slalom.

Trude Beiser was a double-medal winner, earning gold in the combined event and silver in the downhill.

One of the curves at Cesana Pariol, where the bobsled, luge, and skeleton events took place at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, was named after Bibbia.

[35] Traditional Nordic combined power Norway was stunned at the 1948 Games when Finland's Heikki Hasu became the first non-Norwegian to win the event.

Hasu's teammate Martti Huhtala took the silver, and Sven Israelsson from Sweden won the bronze.

Birger Ruud had won the gold medal in the ski jumping event at both the 1932 and 1936 Winter Games.

Eventually the competition would be renamed Biathlon and was made an official Olympic medal sport at the 1960 Games in Squaw Valley, United States.

[20] The opening ceremonies were held at 10:00 am on 30 January, along with the initial hockey games and the first two runs of the two-man bobsled.

[47] Chile, Denmark, Iceland, Korea, and Lebanon all made their Winter Olympic debut at these Games.