1- The first Olympic Games were held in 1896,
in Athens, in which a total of 245 athletes participated,
all men. Since then, London and Los Angeles along with Athens
have hosted these games two times each. The first opening
ceremonies were held during the 1908 Olympic Games in London.
In 2008, Beijing will host the Summer Olympic
Games.
2- In 2012, London will be the only city to
host Olympic Games three times (1908, 1948 and 2012).
3- The first Asian city to host the Olympic
Games was Tokyo in 1964. After that, Seoul hosted these games
in 1988. In 2008, Beijing will be the third Asian city to
host these games.
4- To date, 16 European cities, six cities
from the Americas, two Australian cities, and three Asian
cities have hosted the Olympic Games.
5- The first Olympic Games were held in 776
BC, and the last of that era in 393 AD, when the Christian
Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I abolished them.
The Ancient Greek Olympics were held every
4 years at Olympia, a district of Elis, in Southern Greece,
where all free Greek men were entitled to compete.
6- Main sports in Ancient Olympics were Boxing,
Discus (part of Pentathlon), Equestrian events, Javelin (part
of Pentathlon), Jumping, Pankration, Pentathlon, Running,
and Wrestling.
7- The official Olympic Flag was created by Frenchman, Pierre
de Coubertin, in 1914. The Olympic flag contains five interconnected
rings on a white background, each ring symbolizing the five
significant continents, interconnected to symbolize the friendship
to be gained from these international competitions.
8- The Olympic rings, found on the flag of
the Olympics, depicting global friendship, from left to right,
are blue, yellow, black, green, and red. The colors were chosen
because at least one of them appeared on the flag of every
country in the world.
The Olympic flag was first flown during the
1920 Olympic Games.
9- The Olympic flame is a practice continued from the ancient
Olympic Games. In Olympia (Greece), a flame was ignited by
the sun and then kept burning until the closing of the Olympic
Games.
The flame first appeared in the modern Olympics
at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.
10- The Olympics were not conducted in 1916
because of the First World War, and subsequently in 1940 and
1944 due to World War II.
The 1956 Melbourne Olympics were the first
Olympics to be boycotted. The Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland
refused to attend because of the repression of the Hungarian
Uprising by the Soviet Union
11- The Olympic medals are designed especially
for each individual Olympic Games by the host city's organizing
committee. Each medal must be at least three millimeters thick
and 60 millimeters in diameter.
Also, the gold and silver Olympic medals must
be made out of 92.5 percent silver, with the gold medal covered
in six grams of gold.
The last Olympic gold medals that were made
entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912. Canada is the only
host country not to win a gold medal (Montreal 1976).
12- Women were first allowed to participate
in 1900 at the second modern Olympic Games in Paris. James
B. Connolly (United States), winner of the hop, step, and
jump (the first final event in the 1896 Olympics), was the
first Olympic champion of the modern Olympic Games.
13- Tennis was played at the Olympics until
1924, and then reinstituted in 1988. In the 1988 Seoul Olympics,
Steffi Graf (GER) won the Gold medal and the Silver medal
in 1992 Barcelona Olympics in women’s singles. In 1992
Barcelona Olympics, Boris Becker and Michael Stich (GER) won
the Gold Medal in men’s doubles.
In 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Andre Agassi and
Lindsay Davenport of USA won the Gold medal in men’s
singles and women’s singles respectively.
14- A record 202 countries participated in
the 2004 Olympic Summer Games in Athens.
In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, approximately
205 countries will participate.
15- Host Greece won the most medals (47) at
the first Olympic Games in 1896.
The United States of America has won the most
cumulative medals (2,189) at the Summer Olympic Games followed
by the Former USSR (1,010) and Great Britain (668).
16- Medals Tally:
· 3 athletes have won four gold medals
in the same individual event - Al Oerter (USA), Carl Lewis
(USA), Paul Elvstrom (DEN).
· Most gold medals won in a single
Game - 7 by swimmer Mark Spitz (USA) in 1972.
· Most gold medals won by a female
in a single Game - 6 by swimmer Kristin Otto (GDR)
· Most medals won in a single Game
- 8 (3-4-1) by gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin (URS) in 1980 and
swimmer (6-0-2) Michael Phelps (USA) in 2004
· Most all-time gold medals won - 9
by Paavo Nurmi (FIN), Larisa Latynina (URS), Mark Spitz (USA),
and Carl Lewis (USA).
17- Most all-time medals won by a female -
18 (9-5-4) by gymnast Larisa Latynina (URS) over a span of
three Olympics (1956-1964). Most all-time medals won by a
male - 15 by gymnast Nikolai Andrianov (URS) (1972-1980).
18- Most Successful Athletes:
