Portal:Olympic Games
The Olympic Games Portal
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (French: Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost sports competition with more than 200 teams, representing sovereign states and territories, participating. By default, the Games generally substitute for any world championships during the year in which they take place (however, each class usually maintains its own records). The Olympic Games are held every four years. Since 1994, they have alternated between the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years during the four-year Olympiad.
Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, held in Olympia, Greece from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, leading to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement, which encompasses all entities and individuals involved in the Olympic Games. The Olympic Charter defines their structure and authority.
The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has resulted in numerous changes to the Olympic Games. Some of these adjustments include the creation of the Winter Olympic Games for snow and ice sports, the Paralympic Games for athletes with disabilities, the Youth Olympic Games for athletes aged 14 to 18, the five Continental Games (Pan American, African, Asian, European, and Pacific), and the World Games for sports that are not contested in the Olympic Games. The IOC also endorses the Deaflympics and the Special Olympics. The IOC has needed to adapt to a variety of economic, political, and technological advancements. The abuse of amateur rules by the Eastern Bloc nations prompted the IOC to shift away from pure amateurism, as envisioned by Coubertin, to the acceptance of professional athletes participating at the Games. The growing importance of mass media has created the issue of corporate sponsorship and general commercialisation of the Games. World Wars I and II led to the cancellation of the 1916, 1940, and 1944 Olympics; large-scale boycotts during the Cold War limited participation in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics; and the 2020 Olympics were postponed until 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The ancient Olympic Games (Ancient Greek: τὰ Ὀλύμπια, ta Olympia) were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and were one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. They were held at the Panhellenic religious sanctuary of Olympia, in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin. The originating Olympic Games are traditionally dated to 776 BC. The games were held every four years, or Olympiad, which became a unit of time in historical chronologies. They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule in the 2nd century BC. Their last recorded celebration was in AD 393, under the emperor Theodosius I, but archaeological evidence indicates that some games were still held after this date. The games likely came to an end under Theodosius II, possibly in connection with a fire that burned down the temple of the Olympian Zeus during his reign.
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The 1932 Winter Olympics, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1932 in Lake Placid, New York, United States.
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“ | I touched the wall and all my dreams, hopes and ambitions basically coalesced into one moment. | ” |
— Duncan Armstrong, Australian swimmer, on winning Olympic gold and setting a world record in Seoul 1988 |
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Robert George Windle (born 7 November 1944) is an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1960s, who won four Olympic medals, including an individual gold medal. Windle won the 1500 m freestyle and took bronze in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and silver and bronze in the 4 × 200 m and 4 × 100 m freestyle relays respectively at the 1968 Summer Olympics. Known for his versatility, he is the only male swimmer to represent Australia at the Olympics in all freestyle distances from 100 m to 1500 m. During his career, Windle set six world records and won six Commonwealth Games gold medals. He won 19 Australian championships in all distances from 220 yd to 1650 yd.
Current Events
- 31 May 2024 –
- French security services arrest a Chechen teenager suspected of plotting a islamist-inspired ambush on a football game during the Summer Olympics. (The Guardian)
- 8 May 2024 – 2024 Summer Olympics torch relay
- The ship Belem arrives in Marseille, France, with the Olympic flame. (AP)
- 4 May 2024 –
- The International Olympics Committee (IOC) bans Kuwait's Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah from all positions within the committee for 15 years over ethics breaches. Sheik Ahmad was previously banned by the IOC for three years in 2023 over his alleged interference in the Olympic Council of Asia elections, as well as for forgery and a fake arbitration procedure. (Reuters)
Did You Know...-
- ... that, at the 2012 Olympics, Alaaeldin Abouelkassem of Egypt became the first representative of an African nation to win an Olympic fencing medal?
- ... that 2012 Olympian Kelsey Titmarsh is a member of the first Canadian women's rhythmic gymnastics all-around group to qualify for the Olympics?
- ... that Käthe Krauß won bronze in the 100 metres in the 1936 Summer Olympics and was on the German women's sprint relay team that set a world record in the heats, but dropped the baton in the final race?
- ... that Andrea St. Bernard is the first Grenadian taekwondo practitioner to be selected for an Olympic Games?
- ... that the Japanese Olympic Committee did not like the suggestion that the 1940 Summer Olympics torch relay could go through China?
Upcoming Olympic Games
2024 Summer Olympics
The 2024 Summer Olympics (French: Jeux olympiques d'été de 2024), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad (French: Jeux de la XXXIIIe Olympiade) and commonly known as Paris 2024, is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 26 July to 11 August 2024 in France, with Paris as the main host city and 16 other cities spread across Metropolitan France, plus one subsite in Tahiti—an island within the French overseas country and overseas collectivity of French Polynesia.
Paris was awarded the Games at the 131st IOC Session in Lima, Peru, on 13 September 2017. After multiple withdrawals that left only Paris and Los Angeles in contention, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved a process to concurrently award the 2024 and 2028 Summer Olympics to the two remaining candidate cities. Having previously hosted in 1900 and 1924, Paris will become the second city to host the Summer Olympics three times (after London which hosted the 1908, 1948 and 2012 Games). Paris 2024 will mark the centenary of Paris 1924 and Chamonix 1924, and these will be the sixth Olympic Games hosted by France (three Summer Olympics and three Winter Olympics) and the first French Olympics since the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville. The Summer Games will return to the traditional four-year Olympiad cycle, after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Paris 2024 will feature the debut of breakdancing as an Olympic event, and it will be the final Olympic Games held during the IOC presidency of Thomas Bach. The 2024 Games are expected to cost €8.3 billion.
All-time Combined Olympic Games Medal Table
Separate current and precursor NOCs (records not combined):
No. | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
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1 | United States (USA) | 1175 | 951 | 833 | 2959 |
2 | Soviet Union (URS) | 473 | 376 | 355 | 1204 |
3 | Germany (GER) | 305 | 305 | 312 | 922 |
4 | Great Britain (GBR) | 296 | 323 | 331 | 950 |
5 | China (CHN) | 285 | 231 | 197 | 713 |
6 | France (FRA) | 264 | 293 | 332 | 889 |
7 | Italy (ITA) | 259 | 231 | 269 | 759 |
8 | Sweden (SWE) | 212 | 228 | 239 | 679 |
9 | Norway (NOR) | 209 | 186 | 173 | 568 |
10 | Russia (RUS) | 194 | 165 | 185 | 544 |
2026 Winter Olympics
The 2026 Winter Olympics (Italian: Olimpiadi invernali del 2026), officially the XXV Olympic Winter Games (Italian: XXV Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Milano Cortina 2026, is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 6 to 22 February 2026 in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. The joint bid from the two cities beat another joint bid from Swedish cities Stockholm–Åre by 47–34 votes at the 134th Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 June 2019.
This will be the fourth Olympic Games hosted in Italy, which previously hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo and the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. It will be the first Olympic Games officially featuring multiple host cities and will be the first Winter Olympics since Sarajevo 1984 where the opening and closing ceremonies will be held in different venues. Events will also take place in seven other north-northeastern Italian cities. The games will mark the 20th anniversary of the Winter Olympics in Turin, the 70th anniversary of the Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo and the first time that Milan will host an Olympic Games.
Olympic Sports
- Archery
- Athletics
- Badminton
- Basketball
- Beach volleyball
- Boxing
- Canoeing
- Cycling
- Diving
- Equestrian
- Fencing
- Football
- Golf
- Gymnastics
- Handball
- Field hockey
- Judo
- Karate
- Modern pentathlon
- Rowing
- Rugby
- Sailing
- Shooting
- Skateboarding
- Sport climbing
- Surfing
- Swimming
- Artistic swimming
- Table tennis
- Taekwondo
- Tennis
- Triathlon
- Volleyball
- Water polo
- Weightlifting
- Wrestling
Olympic Games Countdown
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