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The Olympic Games
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"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking
part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well." - Pierre
de Coubertin. (1863-1937), French pedagogue and historian, founder of the International Olympic Committe, and considered
father of the modern Olympic Games.
In 490
B.C., the Greeks defeated the Persians at Marathon. A Greek soldier ran 26 miles to tell Athenians of the victory and died
after his announcement. His feat provided the model for the modern marathon race.
Conventionally, the ancient Olympic games began in 776 B.C. However, the origins of the ancient Olympics
go back to a time that is not well-documented, and so the actual date of the first Olympics is disputed.
PAGE CONTENTS:
About
the Olympics
Interesting Olympic
Facts More Interesting Olympic Facts Olympic Games Trivia The Winter Olympics
Winter "Stuff"
About the Olympics
The first olympics were not just sporting events – they
also included mental sports. When the olympics were revived in modern times, these “brain games” eventually made
it back (in 1912). Alongside the sporting events we all know, the 1912 olympics included architecture, painting, sculpture,
music, and literature. They survived until 1948 when they were removed because most entrants were professionals in their field.
The Olympic motto is Citius—Altius—Fortius, which is Latin for "faster, higher, stronger."
The intended meaning is that one's focus should be on bettering one's achievements, rather than on coming in
first. The motto was proposed by the father of the modern Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin, who got it from a speech
given by a friend of his, Henri Didon, a Dominican priest and principal of an academy that
used sports as part of its educational program.
Each of the five Olympic rings is a different color.
Together, they represent the five inhabited continents, although no particular ring is meant to represent any specific
continent. (The Americas are treated as one continent.) The rings are interlaced to represent the idea that the Olympics
are universal, bringing athletes from the entire world together.
The Olympic rings and flag were designed by de
Coubertin after the 1912 Games in Stockholm. Those Games were the first to include athletes from all five continents. The
rings were going to be used in the 1916 Games, but those games were cancelled because of World War I, so the rings made their
debut in the 1920 Games in Antwerp, Belgium.
The Olympic Anthem was written for the first modern Games in
1896, composed by Spros Samaras to lyrics written by Kostis Palamas. Each subsequent
Olympics through 1956 had its own musical composition, played as the Olympic flag was raised during the Opening
Ceremony. From the 1960 Games onward, the Samaras/Palamas work has been the official anthem played at every Olympics.
The Olympic flame is lit in front of the ruins of the Temple of Hera in Olympia, emphasizing the connection between
the ancient Games and the modern Games. An actress playing a high priestess uses a parabolic mirror to focus the rays of the
sun, igniting a flame. (In case of cloudy weather, a backup flame is lit in advance.) A long relay of runners carrying
torches brings it to the site of the Games. There, the final torch is used to light a cauldron that remains lit until it is
extinguished in the Closing Ceremony.
After the cauldron is lit, doves are released, as a symbol of peace. This
was first done in the 1896 Olympics, and then in the 1920 Olympics. Since 1920, this has been an official part of the Opening
Ceremony of the Summer Games. They are generally not released during the Winter Games, because it's too cold
for the birds, but symbolic substitutions are sometimes used. In the 1994 Winter Games, for example, white balloons were released.
Source: (factmonster.com)
Copyright 2010 by NextEra Media. All rights reserved. Please feel free to forward this, in
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Interesting Olympic Facts
The
modern Olympics have a torch relay ceremony that's central to the event. The ancient Olympics did not have a torch relay.
The Olympic torch lighting event began in 1936 for the Berlin Olympics. There may have been torch events at other ancient
panhellenic events and there was an Olympic flame, but not an Olympic torch relay. ©2008 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.
All rights reserved.
Imprinted on Olympic medals is a sprig of laurel because, since antiquity, laurel
has been associated with victory. It began, though, not with the Olympics, but with another Panhellenic festival, the
Pythian Games. Sacred to Apollo, the Pythian Games were almost as important to the Greeks as the Olympics
and, as is appropriate for a religious festival in honor of Apollo, the laurel symbolizes an event in the mythology around
the god Apollo. ©2008
About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.
An Olympic
victor was crowned with an olive wreath (laurel wreath was the award for another of the Panhellenic games -- the games at
Delphi) and had his name inscribed in the official Olympic records. Some Olympic victors were fed for the rest of their lives
by their poleis, although they were never paid. They were considered heroes who conferred honor upon their city-states.
Participants included all Greek men, except slaves, certain felons, and barbarians during the Classical Period. By
the Hellenistic Period, professional athletes competed. Married women were not allowed to enter the stadium during the games
and might be killed if they tried. A priestess of Demeter was present, however. Even without competing, women could be named
victor in equestrian events if they owned the winning horse. There may have been a separate race for women at Olympia.
The races and other events (games) in the ancient Olympics were not fixed at the time of the first Olympics, but
gradually evolved.
Gymnastics were not part of the ancient Olympics. Gymnos means naked
and at the ancient Olympics, Gymnastes were athletic exercise trainers.
At the first recorded
Olympic games there was one event, a race, -- the stade (also a measure of the distance of the length of the track).
By 724 B.C. a 2-length race was added; by 700, there were long distance races (the marathon came later). By 720, men participated
naked, except for the foot race-in-armor (50-60 pounds of helmet, greaves, and shield) that helped young men prepare for war
by building speed and stamina. Achilles' epithet, swift footed, and the belief that Ares, god or war, was fastest
of the gods indicate, according to Roger Dunkle (1), that the ability to win a race was a much admired martial skill.
MORE INTERESTING
OLYMPIC FACTS Tug of War was an Olympic
sport from 1900 to 1920, when Great Britain was the last team to win the gold medal. Other sports no longer in the games:
Croquet, Golf and Cricket.
The Official Olympic Flag
Created
by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914, the Olympic flag contains five interconnected rings on a white background. The five rings
symbolize the five significant continents and are interconnected to symbolize the friendship to be gained from these international
competitions. The rings, 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.
The Olympic Motto
In 1921, Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, borrowed a Latin phrase from his friend, Father Henri
Didon, for the Olympic motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius ("Swifter, Higher, Stronger").
The Olympic Oath
Pierre de Coubertin wrote an oath for the athletes to recite at each Olympic Games. During
the opening ceremonies, one athlete recites the oath on behalf of all the athletes. The Olympic oath was first taken during
the 1920 Olympic Games by Belgian fencer Victor Boin. The Olympic Oath states,
"In the name of all competitors,
I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules that govern them, in the true
spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our teams."
The Olympic Creed
Pierre de Coubertin got the idea for this phrase from a speech given by Bishop Ethelbert
Talbot at a service for Olympic champions during the 1908 Olympic Games. The Olympic Creed reads:
"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not
to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing
is not to have conquered but to have fought well."
The Olympic Flame
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. The flame itself represents a number of things, including purity and the endeavor for perfection.
In 1936, the chairman of the organizing committee for the 1936 Olympic Games, Carl Diem, suggested what is now the modern
Olympic Torch relay. The Olympic flame is lit at the ancient site of Olympia by women wearing ancient-style robes and using
a curved mirror and the sun. The Olympic Torch is then passed from runner to runner from the ancient site of Olympia to the
Olympic stadium in the hosting city. The flame is then kept alight until the Games have concluded. The Olympic Torch relay
represents a continuation from the ancient Olympic Games to the modern Olympics.
The Olympic Hymn
The Olympic Hymn, played when the Olympic Flag is raised, was composed by Spyros Samaras
and the words added by Kostis Palamas. The Olympic Hymn was first played at the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens but wasn't
declared the official hymn by the IOC until 1957.
Real Gold Medals
The last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912.
The Medals
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 First Opening Ceremonies
The first opening ceremonies were held during the 1908 Olympic
Games in London.
Opening Ceremony Procession Order
During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the procession
of athletes is always led by the Greek team, followed by all the other teams in alphabetical order (in the language of the
hosting country), except for the last team which is always the team of the hosting country.
A City, Not a Country
When choosing locations for the Olympic Games, the IOC specifically gives the honor
of holding the Games to a city rather than a country.
IOC Diplomats:
In order to make the IOC an independent organization, the members
of the IOC are not considered diplomats from their countries to the IOC, but rather are diplomats from the IOC to their respective
countries.
First Modern Champion
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.
Women
Women were first allowed
to participate in 1900 at the second modern Olympic Games.
The First Marathon
In 490 BCE, Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, ran from Marathon to Athens (about 25 miles) to inform the Athenians the outcome
of the battle with invading Persians. The distance was filled with hills and other obstacles; thus Pheidippides arrived in
Athens exhausted and with bleeding feet. After telling the townspeople of the Greeks' success in the battle, Pheidippides
fell to the ground dead. In 1896, at the first modern Olympic Games, held a race of approximately the same length in commemoration
of Pheidippides.
The Exact Length of a Marathon
During the first several modern Olympics, the marathon was always an approximate distance. In 1908, the British royal family
requested that the marathon start at the Windsor Castle so that the royal children could witness its start. The distance from
the Windsor Castle to the Olympic Stadium was 42,195 meters (or 26 miles and 385 yards). In 1924, this distance became the
standardized length of a marathon.
Cancelled Games
Because of
World War I and World War II, there were no Olympic Games in 1916, 1940, or 1944.
Winter Games Begun
The winter Olympic Games were first held in 1924, beginning a tradition of holding them
a few months earlier and in a different city than the summer Olympic Games. Beginning in 1994, the winter Olympic Games were
held in completely different years (two years apart) than the summer Games.
Tennis Banned
Tennis was played at the Olympics until 1924, then reinstituted in 1988.
Russia Not Present
Though Russia had sent a few athletes to compete in the 1908 and 1912 Olympic Games, they did not compete again until the
1952 Games.
Motor Boating
Motor boating was an official sport at the 1908 Olympics.
Polo, an Olympic
Sport
Polo was played at the Olympics in 1900, 1908, 1920, 1924, and 1936.
Gymnasium
The word "gymnasium" comes from the Greek root "gymnos" meaning nude; the literal
meaning of "gymnasium" is "school for naked exercise." Athletes in the ancient Olympic Games would participate
in the nude.
Stadium
The first recorded ancient Olympic Games
were held in 776 BCE with only one event - the stade. The stade was a unit of measurement (about 600 feet) that also became
the name of the footrace because it was the distance run. Since the track for the stade (race) was a stade (length), the location
of the race became the stadium.
Counting Olympiads
An Olympiad
is a period of four successive years. The Olympic Games celebrate each Olympiad. For the modern Olympic Games, the first Olympiad
celebration was in 1896. Every four years celebrates another Olympiad; thus, even the Games that were cancelled (1916, 1940,
and 1944) count as Olympiads. The 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney will be the Games of the XXVII Olympiad.
OLYMPIC
GAMES TRIVIA
Since 1896, the beginning
of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Games. In the opening procession of the Olympics, the team representing the host nation always marches last. The first Olympic Marathon was held in 1896. 40 kilometers
(24.8 miles) was the official distance. The winner was Spiridon Louis of Greece, with winning time 2:58:50. In 1924, the first Winter Olympic Games opened in Chamonix, France.
At the 1952 Olympic Games, Russian gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya won an overall record
seven medals. At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Tom Malchow
was the youngest member of the U.S. men’s swim team at age 19. Malchow was humorously nicknamed ”Puppy Chow”
by his older teammates. Four years later, at the Olympics in Sydney, he was the 200-meter butterfly gold medallist. Malchow's
time of 1:55.35 was the third- fastest performance ever. His nickname changed to “Top Dog” and "Big Dog."
Australian swimmer Murray Rose won six Olympic medals and was
the first man to swim the 1,500-metre freestyle in less than 18 minutes. He won national titles in three countries: the United
States, Canada, and Australia. At age 17 in 1956, Rose became the youngest Olympian to win three gold medals during one Olympics.
Because of the outbreak of major world wars, the modern Olympics
did not hold competitions in 1916, 1940, and 1944. Boston-native
figure skater Tenley Albright was the first American woman to win an Olympic figure-skating gold medal. In 1952, Albright
placed second in women's figure skating at the Olympic Games. She was the U.S. national championship from 1952 to 1956.
In 1953, Albright became the first American woman to win the world championship title. She won the title again in 1955. At
the 1956 Olympics, Albright won the gold medal in women's figure skating. She was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall
of Fame in 1988. After retiring, Albright became a surgeon. Canada’s
first Olympic gold medal was won by a man competing for the United States. George Orton of Strathroy, Ontario, took first
place in the steeplechase at the 1900 Olympics in Paris, but because Canada didn’t have an official team, he entered
as part of the American team instead. Childhood ice figure-skating
partners JoJo Starbuck and Ken Shelley made skating history when, in 1968, they were the youngest pairs team America had ever
sent to the Olympic Games. For its Olympic athletes who bring
home a gold, silver, or bronze medal, the Philippines pays handsome sums of money. However, none have won in decades. In 648 B.C., horses were first introduced into sports with the entrance of riders
in the Olympic Games. By the sixth century B.C., horse-racing had become a popular sport.
The first Olympic games were held in Ancient Greece in 776 B.C. The Olympics were held every 4 years at Olympia,
in honor of the god Zeus.
The key word "amateur" was eliminated from the Olympic Charter in 1971.
In 1896, only first- and second-place finishers
of the Olympics were awarded medals. The winners received silver medals and crowns of olive branches, while second-place finishers
received bronze medals.
In 1912 in Stockholm, the first electric timing devices and public address system was used at the Olympics.
In 648 B.C., horses were first introduced into sports with the entrance of riders in the Olympic Games. By the sixth
century B.C., horse-racing had become a popular sport.
Iranian women competed in the Olympics for the
first time at the 1996 Atlanta Games. The women were limited in the events in which they were allowed to participate, so they
would not violate their country's restrictive laws regarding women's clothing.
Izzy, the Olympic
Games mascot in 1996, was almost universally regarded by marketing experts as a dud. The blue Olympic mascot, with its bulging
eyes and dangling feet, was a poor seller for many licensed goods makers.
James Brendan Connolly of the United States won
the first medal of the 1896 Olympic Games in the triple jump.
Korea marched under a single flag at the 27th
Olympiad at Sydney, Australia, the first time in Olympic history, to a jubilant standing ovation. Despite such a display of
unity, the two countries were technically still at war; in fact, North Korea had boycotted the Games when Seoul, South Korea,
hosted the summer games in 1988.
At the 1952 Olympic Games, Russian gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya won an overall record
seven medals.
Badminton was first recognized as an official sport in the Olympic Games during the 1992 Summer Games. More than
1.1 billion people watched badminton's Olympic debut on TV.
Olympic badminton rules say that the shuttlecock
has to have exactly 16 feathers. The best shuttles are made from the feathers from the left wing of a goose.
A Harlem-born,
African American bicycle messenger went on to win a silver medal in cycling at the 1984 Olympics. His name was Nelson "The
Cheetah" Vails. Tickets
to attend an 1896 Olympic competition cost about 16 cents. Onehundred years later, the average ticket price for a 1996 Olympicsports
competition was $39.72.
The Winter
Olympics
The move toward a winter version of the Olympics began in 1908 when figure
skating made an appearance at the Summer Games in London. Organizers
of the 1916 Summer Games in Berlin planned to introduce a “Skiing Olympia,” featuring nordic events in the Black
Forest, but the Games were cancelled after the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
The
Games resumed in 1920 at Antwerp, Belgium, where figure skating returned and ice hockey was added as a medal event. Despite the objections of Modern Olympics' founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin and
the resistance of the Scandinavian countries, which had staged their own Nordic championships every four or five years from
1901-26 in Sweden, the International Olympic Committee sanctioned an “International Winter Sports Week” at Chamonix,
France, in 1924. The 11-day event, which included nordic skiing, speed skating, figure skating, ice hockey and bobsledding,
was a huge success and was retroactively called the first Olympic Winter Games. Seventy years after those first cold weather Games, the 17th edition of the Winter Olympics took place in Lillehammer,
Norway, in 1994. The event ended the four-year Olympic cycle of staging both Winter and Summer Games in the same year and
began a new schedule that calls for the two Games to alternate every two years.
Copyright © 2000–2009 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease
Winter "Stuff"
The men's 2006 gold medal winner, Russian Yevgeny Plushenko, is the first skater in
history to successfully land a quad-triple-triple jump combination in competition. Canadian Kevin Reynolds, 17, achieved the
feat in 2008.
The oldest man to receive a Winter Olympics medal is 83-year-old Anders
Haugen. The Norwegian-American actually received his ski jump bronze medal 50 years after he competed in 1924 when a scoring
error was discovered in 1974.
The Shea Family of Lake Placid, New York, is the first to produce three generations
of Olympians. Father Jack, 91, was a double-gold medalist in speed skating, son Jim, Sr.,
was a U.S. ski team member at the 1964 Innsbruck Games, and in 2002 grandson Jim, Jr., won a gold medal in skeleton. Only two countries south of the equator have ever won medals at the Olympic
Winter Games—Australia and New Zealand. Norway has won more gold medals at the
Winter Games than any other country.
American skier Lindsey Vonn was awarded a
cow by local dairy farmers for her World Cup win in Val D'Isere, France, in 2005. She had a choice between the cow
or an additional $1,200 in prize money. She went with the cow.
Curling is one of four winter
Olympic sports contested indoors. The other three are hockey, figure skating, and speed skating.
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