Olympic Games (abbreviation: OG) are magnificent competition that is held every four years. We wrongfully call them the Olympiad, because the Olympiad in ancient Greece was called the age between two Olympic Games, and so with end of one Olympic Games one Olympiad begins and with end of that Olympiad the next Olympic games begin and so on.
At first held only in ancient Greece, Olympic Games were revived at the end of the century by French humanist and enthusiast baron Pierre de Coubertaina. At his proposal in Paris 23.05.1894 international Olympic committee was held. First Olympic Games of modern age (they didn’t have the prefix “summer”, because at the time there was no mention about holding separate individual, Winter Olympic Games) were held in 1896 in Athens, and since then they are held every four years except at the time of First and Second World War. Since soon the need for equally quality competitions arose even in winter sports, soon the first Winter Olympic Games were held in France in 1924. Every fourth year these games attract the MOST SUCCESSFUL OLYMPIC ATHLETES from all over the world.
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Gold medals haven’t been pure gold since 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Today they are made of silver and covered in six grams of gold.
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The color of the Olympic rings were picked as every nation’s flag, uses at least one of them.
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Around 3.5 billion people in over 200 countries will watch the games on TV. It is the biggest broadcast event in the world.
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China didn’t win a gold medal until the L.A. Olympics. It is now the 7th most successful nation at the summer Olympics with 163 gold medals.
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The longest Olympics in history took place in London in 1908. Starting in April and ending in October, it lasted 187 days.
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The 1900 Paris games featured the only event in history to deliberately harm animals. 300 pigeons died as part of a shooting event.
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Barcelona almost hosted a rival to Berlin’s 1936 games. 6000 athletes turned up for the people’s Olympiad but civil war cancelled the event.
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Winners at the 1900 Paris Olympics didn’t receive gold medals. They were awarded paintings instead – as they were considered more valuable.
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Hans – Gunner liljenwall was the first athlete to fall an Olympic drug test. The Swede drank two beers to calm his nerves during the 1986 games.
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The 1900 Games featured long jumping for horses. The winner managed 6.10m, some way short of the current human record of 8.95m.
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