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The Olympic Games
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Interesting Olympic Facts
More Interesting Olympic Facts
Olympic Games Trivia
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.
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.
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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.
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