Confusingly, and unlike the Summer Olympics, the numbering of the Winter Olympics does not include the games that were cancelled due to World War II. The 1936 games (in Garmisch–Partenkirchen) were the IV Olympic Winter Games; the 1948 games (held in St. Moritz for the second time) were the V Olympic Winter Games. In contrast, while the 1936 Summer Olympics (in Berlin) were officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, the 1948 games in London were the Games of the XIV Olympiad – Tokyo (1940) having been the XII, and London (1944) the XIII.
The 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang were officially known as the XXIII Olympic Winter Games, and they were the 23rd to be held.
The 2016 Summer Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro, were officially known as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad.
Like so many questions, this one might be fair enough in a standard pub quiz (where anything up to eight people might have anything up to ten minutes to come up with the answer). In the League, where one person has to work it out by themselves in 15 seconds, it's unreasonable (IMHO). If you hadn't registered the "XXIII" in the official title (which not many people had, if the reaction of all the people who've heard this question in my presence is anything to go by), not only do you have to know when the first Winter Olympics took place (it was 1924); you also have to know that the wartime games don't count, and you have to count all the 23 occurrences, either on your fingers or by writing them down – in 15 seconds. I don't believe it can be done.
The vetters did make this point, but the setters chose to ignore it. And we weren't the only ones who thought the question was unfair; the general reaction when I read it out in the Church House Bollington was not favourable (to put it mildly).
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