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. The Olympic Games are normally held every four years, and since 1994, have alternated between the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years during the four-year period.
Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games (Ancient Greek: Ὀλυμπιακοί Ἀγῶνες), 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) with the Olympic Charter defining its structure and authority.
The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has resulted in several 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 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 Quietly Confident Quartet was the self-given name of the Australian men's 4 × 100 metres medley relay swimming team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and, through the 2016 Olympics, the Australian victory remains the only occasion the United States has not won the event at Olympic level since its inception in 1960. The quartet consisted of backstroker Mark Kerry, breaststroker Peter Evans, butterflyer Mark Tonelli, and freestyler Neil Brooks. The team was nominally led by its oldest member Tonelli, who was 23 and was also a spokesperson for the Australian athletes' campaign for their right to compete at the Olympics against the wishes of the Fraser Government. The team was seen as an unlikely prospect to win; all four of the swimmers had clashed with swimming authorities over disciplinary issues and three experienced suspension or expulsion from the Australian team during their careers.
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Opening ceremonies climax with the lighting of the Olympic Flame. For lighting the torch, modern games feature elaborate mechanisms such as this spiral cauldron arrangement lit by the 1980 U.S. Olympic ice hockey team at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
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| “ | The six colors, including the white background, represent the colors of all the world's flags ... this is a true international emblem. | ” |
| — Pierre de Coubertin, reviver of the Olympic Games | ||
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Current Events
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Did You Know...-
- ... that runners training to represent Laos at the 2012 Summer Olympics used barbell weights made from concrete, tires, and paint cans?
- ... that Ben Connor, who competed in his first marathon in October 2020, has qualified for the marathon race at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics?
- ... that, while representing Andorra at the 2010 Winter Olympics, Lluís Marin Tarroch served as the flag bearer and became the first Andorran to compete in snowboarding at the Games?
- ... that Julie Erichsen is the first female Norwegian gymnast to qualify for an Olympic Games since 1992?
- ... that Conn Findlay is one of only two individuals to win sailing's America's Cup and an Olympic gold medal in rowing?
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 also known as Paris 2024, is an upcoming international multi-sport event that is scheduled to take place from 26 July to 11 August 2024 with Paris as its main host city and 16 cities spread across Metropolitan France and one in Tahiti—an island within the French overseas country and overseas collectivity of French Polynesia—as a subsite.
Paris was awarded the Games at the 131st IOC Session in Lima, Peru, on 13 September 2017. Due to 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 cities. Having previously hosted in 1900 and 1924, Paris will become the second city to host the Summer Olympics three times after London (1908, 1948 and 2012). The Paris Games of 2024 will mark the centenary of the Paris Games of 1924, the sixth Olympic games hosted by France (three in summer - 1900, 1924, 2024 and three in winter - 1924, 1968, 1992), and the first Olympic Games in France since the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville. The event will return to its traditional 4-year Olympiad cycle, after the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan was delayed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Games will feature the debut of breaking (breakdancing) as an Olympic event, and it will also be the final Olympic Games held during the presidency of IOC President Thomas Bach.
All-time Combined Olympic Games Medal Table
Separate current and precursor NOCs (records not combined):
| No. | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States (USA) |
1173 | 953 | 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) |
284 | 231 | 196 | 711 |
| 6 |  France (FRA) |
264 | 293 | 332 | 889 |
| 7 |  Italy (ITA) |
259 | 231 | 269 | 759 |
| 8 |  Sweden (SWE) |
213 | 227 | 239 | 679 |
| 9 |  Norway (NOR) |
210 | 184 | 174 | 568 |
| 10 |  Russia (RUS) |
196 | 165 | 186 | 547 |
2026 Winter Olympics
The 2026 Winter Olympics, officially the XXV Olympic Winter Games (Italian: XXV Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Milano Cortina 2026 (Ladin: Milano-Anpezo 2026 or Milano-Ampëz 2026), is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 6 to 22 February 2026. The event will have the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo as main host cities. The joint bid from the two cities beat another joint bid from Swedish cities Stockholm–Åre by 47–34 votes to be elected host cities 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, the second for Cortina d'Ampezzo (previously hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics), and the first hosted in Milan. It will be the first Olympic Games featuring multiple host cities in an official form and will be the first Winter Olympics since Sarajevo 1984 at which the opening and closing ceremonies will be held in different venues. In addition to the two main host cities, another nine around the Italian center-north region will host the events. It will mark the 20th anniversary of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, the most recent Olympics in Italy, and the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the first Olympics held in Italy. It will be also the last of the two consecutive Olympics to be held in Europe with France hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
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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Topics
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