1.
All-time Olympic Games medal table
–
An all-time medal table for all Olympic Games from 1896 to 2016, including Summer Olympic Games, Winter Olympic Games, and a combined total of both, is tabulated below. These Olympic medal counts do not include the 1906 Intercalated Games which are no longer recognized by the International Olympic Committee as official Games, the IOC itself does not publish all-time tables, and publishes unofficial tables only per single Games. This table was compiled by adding up single entries from the IOC database. The results are attributed to the IOC country code as currently displayed by the IOC database, usually, a single code corresponds to a single National Olympic Committee. When different codes are displayed for different years, medal counts are combined in the case of a change of IOC code or simple change of country name. As the medals are attributed to each NOC, not all totals include medals won by athletes from that country for another NOC, names in italic are national entities that no longer exist. The totals of NOCs are not combined with those of their predecessors and successors. The table is pre-sorted by the name of each Olympic Committee, to sort by gold, silver, and then bronze, sort first by the bronze column, then the silver, and then the gold. The table does not include the medals revoked, after the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio,72 of the current 206 National Olympic Committees,6 historic National Olympic Committees, and the Refugee Olympic Team have not yet won an Olympic medal. The sections above are based on information published by the International Olympic Committee, various sources deal with some of the entries in the preceding sections differently. For the 1900 Summer Olympics several countries are credited with appearances that are not considered official by the IOC, only one of these cases concerns a medal. A gold medal that is added to Frances total is given to Luxembourg. Similar cases of disputed nationality affect the 1904 Summer Olympics, france is credited with a silver medal and Norway with two gold medals. In the table above these medals are listed under the United States, furthermore, Newfoundland is occasionally listed as a separate country at the 1904 Olympics, and would be listed as a historical NOC without medals. Other differences from the table are based on disagreements about which events were Olympic. This affects several of the events in the 1900 and 1904 Olympics. In addition, some include the 1906 Intercalated Games when compiling their medal tables. Germany has competed under five different designations, including as two teams at several Games. Sources vary in how they present the medals won by these teams, the table below shows sourced combinations of these teams, when applied to the updated medal totals from the main table
2.
Olympic Games
–
The Olympic Games are considered the worlds foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating. The Olympic Games are held four years, with the Summer and Winter Games alternating by occurring every four years. Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894, leading to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The IOC is the body of the Olympic Movement, with the Olympic Charter defining its structure. The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has resulted in changes to the Olympic Games. The IOC has had to adapt to a variety of economic, political, as a result, the Olympics has shifted away from pure amateurism, as envisioned by Coubertin, to allowing participation of professional athletes. The growing importance of mass media created the issue of corporate sponsorship, World wars led to the cancellation of the 1916,1940, and 1944 Games. Large boycotts during the Cold War limited participation in the 1980 and 1984 Games, the Olympic Movement consists of international sports federations, National Olympic Committees, and organising committees for each specific Olympic Games. As the decision-making body, the IOC is responsible for choosing the host city for each Games, the IOC also determines the Olympic programme, consisting of the sports to be contested at the Games. There are several Olympic rituals and symbols, such as the Olympic flag and torch, over 13,000 athletes compete at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games in 33 different sports and nearly 400 events. The first, second, and third-place finishers in each event receive Olympic medals, gold, silver, the Games have grown so much that nearly every nation is now represented. This growth has created numerous challenges and controversies, including boycotts, doping, bribery, every two years the Olympics and its media exposure provide unknown athletes with the chance to attain national and sometimes international fame. The Games also constitute an opportunity for the host city and country to themselves to the world. The Ancient Olympic Games were religious and athletic festivals held every four years at the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia, competition was among representatives of several city-states and kingdoms of Ancient Greece. These Games featured mainly athletic but also combat such as wrestling. It has been written that during the Games, all conflicts among the participating city-states were postponed until the Games were finished. This cessation of hostilities was known as the Olympic peace or truce and this idea is a modern myth because the Greeks never suspended their wars. The truce did allow those religious pilgrims who were travelling to Olympia to pass through warring territories unmolested because they were protected by Zeus
3.
Bids for Olympic Games
–
National Olympic Committees select from within their national territory cities to put forward bids to host an Olympic Games. The staging of the Paralympic Games is automatically included in the bid, what follows is a list of the cities that have bid to host any of the Summer and Winter Olympics. No African, Central American, Central Asian, Middle Eastern, the agreement came into effect at the 2008 Paralympic Summer Games in Beijing, and the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver. The agreement was adjusted in 2003, an extension was signed in June 2006. London is the city to have bid more than once. Detroit has had the most bids whilst failing to win the rights to host the games once, hungary has had the most bids in the Summer Games that have failed to win the rights to host the games at least once. Sweden has had the most bids in the Winter Games that have failed to win the rights to host the games at least once, Beijing is the only city to host both the Summer and Winter Games. International Olympic Committee — Olympic Games IOC Vote History Olympic Games Museum Olympic Bid Election History GamesBids. com TheBidLibrary. com
4.
Olympic Games ceremony
–
Olympic Games ceremonies of the Ancient Olympic Games were an integral part of these Games, the modern Olympic games have opening, closing and medal ceremonies. Some of the elements of the modern ceremonies harken back to the Ancient Games from which the Modern Olympics draw their ancestry, an example of this is the prominence of Greece in both the opening and closing ceremonies. During the 2004 Games, the winners received a crown of olive branches. The various elements of the ceremonies are mandated by the Olympic Charter, even the artistic portion of the opening and closing ceremonies must meet the approval of the International Olympic Committee. The ceremonies have evolved over the centuries, Ancient Games incorporated ceremonies to mark the beginning and ending of each successive game. There are both similarities and differences between the ancient Olympic ceremonies and their modern counterparts, the presentation of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies continue to increase in scope, scale and expense with each successive celebration of the Games, but they are still steeped in tradition. The Ancient Games, held in Greece from ca.776 BC to ca.393 AD, the victory celebration, elements of which are in evidence in the modern-day medal and closing ceremonies, often involved elaborate feasts, drinking, singing, and the recitation of poetry. The wealthier the victor the more extravagant the celebration, the victors were presented with an olive wreath or crown harvested from a special tree in Olympia by a boy, specially selected for this purpose, using a golden sickle. The festival would conclude with the victors making solemn vows and performing sacrifices to the various gods to which they were beholden. There is evidence of changes in the format of the Ancient Games over the nearly 12 centuries that they were celebrated. Eventually, by roughly the 77th Olympiad, a standard 18-event program was established, in order to open a Games in ancient Greece the organizers would hold an Inauguration Festival. This was followed by a ceremony in which took an oath of sportsmanship. The first competition, a competition of trumpeters and heralds. The Olympic opening ceremonies represent the official commencement of an Olympic Games, in recent Olympics, athletic competition began prior to the opening ceremonies. For example, the competitions for both men and women at the 2008 Summer Olympics began two days prior to the opening ceremonies. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, various elements frame the Opening Ceremonies of a celebration of the Olympic Games, most of these rituals were canonized at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. The artistic program is what creates the idiosyncratic element of each ceremony, Coubertins initial vision of the Modern Olympics featured both athletic competitions and artistic achievements. As the modern Olympics have evolved into a celebration of sport, the opening ceremonies are an important ritual of the Olympic games
5.
Olympic Charter
–
The Olympic Charter is a set of rules and guidelines for the organisation of the Olympic Games, and for governing the Olympic movement. Its last revision was on the 9 September 2013, adopted by International Olympic Committee, it is the codification of the fundamental principles, rules and by-laws. French and English are the languages of the Olympic Charter. Throughout the history of the Olympics, the Olympic Charter has often decided the outcome of Olympic controversy, with its 5 chapters and 61 articles, the Olympic Charter outlines in detail several guidelines and rules. Article 2, The mission of the IOC is to promote Olympism throughout the world, article 6, The Olympic Games are competitions between athletes in individual or team events and not between countries. Article 8, The Olympic symbol consists of five interlocking rings which, from left to right are blue, yellow, black, green and this chapter outlines the membership, meetings, and guiding doctrines of the International Olympic Committee. Chapter 3 discusses the role of International Federations in the Olympic movement, IFs are international non-governmental organisations that administer to sports at the world level and encompass organisations administering such sports at the national level. For each sport that is part of the Olympic Games, an International Federation exists and these IFs work to ensure their sports are developed in a way that agrees with the Olympic Charter and the Olympic spirit. With technical expertise in its sport, an IF has control over eligibility for competition as well as details of the venue in which the athletic competition takes place. Article 28, The mission of the National Olympic Committees is to develop, promote, the role of NOCs within each country is to promote the spirit of Olympicism, ensure the observance of the Olympic Charter, and to encourage ethics in and development of sports. They are in charge of their countrys representation at the Games, deciding on a host city for the Games, in addition, Section 3 of this chapter discusses applicable protocol for Olympic functions and events. This includes an outline of use of the Olympic flag, flame, the five rings of the Olympic games signify the five continents. Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a whole the qualities of body, will. The goal of Olympism is to sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind. It reaches its peak with the bringing together of the athletes at the great sports festival. Its symbol is five interlaced rings, the practice of sport is a human right. Belonging to the Olympic Movement requires compliance with the Olympic Charter, the Olympic Charter is not simply a matter of unenforced policy for the Olympic Games. Throughout history, it has served as guidance for the proceedings of the Games, below are a few of the most recent examples, May 2004, Bernard Lagat became a US citizen three months before he ran track in Athens and won the silver medal in 2004
6.
International Olympic Committee
–
The International Olympic Committee is the supreme authority of the worldwide Olympic movement. It is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Lausanne and its mission is enshrined in the Olympic Charter, to support the development of competitive sport by ethical and environmentally sustainable means. The IOC was created by Pierre de Coubertin, on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president, today its membership consists of 100 active members,32 honorary members, and 1 honour member. The IOC is the authority of the worldwide modern Olympic movement. The IOC organises the modern Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games, held in summer and winter, the first Summer Olympics organised by the IOC was held in Athens, Greece, in 1896, the first Winter Olympics was in Chamonix, France, in 1924. Until 1992, both Summer and Winter Olympics were held in the same year, the first Summer Youth Olympics were in Singapore in 2010 and the first Winter Youth Olympics were held in Innsbruck in 2012. In 2009, the UN General Assembly granted the IOC Permanent Observer status and this decision enables the IOC to be directly involved in the UN Agenda and to attend UN General Assembly meetings where it can take the floor. This has provided the possibility to promote sport at a new level, during each proclamation at the Olympics, announcers speak in different languages, French is always spoken first followed by an English translation and the dominant language of the host nation. The stated mission of the International Olympic Committee is to promote Olympic throughout the world and it is the IOC’s supreme organ and its decisions are final. Extraordinary Sessions may be convened by the President or upon the written request of at least one third of the members, among others, the powers of the Session are, To adopt or amend the Olympic Charter. To elect the members of the IOC, the Honorary President, to elect the President, the Vice-Presidents and all other members of the IOC Executive Board. To elect the host city of the Olympic Games, the Olympic Laurel is awarded to individuals for promoting education, culture, development, and peace through sport. For most of its existence, the IOC was controlled by members who were selected by other members, countries that had hosted the Games were allowed two members. When named, they did not become the representatives of their countries to the IOC. The membership of IOC members ceases in the circumstances, Resignation. Non re-election, any IOC member ceases to be a member without further formality if they are not re-elected, age limit, any IOC member ceases to be a member at the end of the calendar year during which they reach the age of 80. Failure to attend Sessions or take part in IOC work for two consecutive years. Transfer of domicile or of main center of interests to an other than the country which was theirs at the time of their election
7.
Lists of Olympic medalists
–
This article includes lists of all olympic medalists since 1896, organized by each Olympic sport or discipline, and also by Olympiad. Including military patrol event at 1924 Games, which IOC now refers to biathlon. ^ B, figure skating was held at the 1908 and 1920 Summer Olympic games prior to the establishment of the Winter Olympics. 21 medals were awarded in seven events. ^ C, a mens ice hockey tournament was held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, and then added as a Winter Olympics event. The IOC site for the 1900 Olympic Games gives erroneous figure of 95 events, the IOC site for the 1904 Olympic Games gives erroneous figure of 91 events, while the IOC database for the 1904 Olympic Games lists 94 ones. ^ F. The IOC site for the 1920 Olympic Games gives erroneous figure of 154 events, due to Australian quarantine laws,6 equestrian events were held in Stockholm several months before the rest of the 1956 Games in Melbourne. ^ H. The IOC site for the 1956 Olympic Games gives figure of 145 events, factsheet, Records and medals at the Olympic Winter Games. Specific Olympic Review and Revue Olympique
8.
National Olympic Committee
–
A National Olympic Committee is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their peoples participation in the Olympic Games and they may nominate cities within their respective areas as candidates for future Olympic Games. NOCs also promote the development of athletes and training of coaches, there are also nine dependent territories with NOCs, Four territories of the United States, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. Three British Overseas Territories, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, one territory from the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean, Aruba. The Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee was dissolved at the 123rd IOC session in July 2011 as the Netherlands Antilles ceased to exist on 10 October 2010, hong Kong, a special administrative region of China. Following an amendment to the Olympic Charter in 1996, NOC recognition can only be granted recognition as an independent state by the international community. The states which thus qualify to participate in the future are the Vatican City, a UN observer state, and Niue, other disputed states face obstacles to being recognized by the IOC. Dependent territories such as Curaçao, the Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Macau, athletes from those territories can only participate in the Olympics as part of their parent nations national team. This section lists the current,206 National Olympic Committees who are recognised by the International Olympic Committee,8 National Olympic Committees who are recognised by their continental Olympic Associations, but are not recognised by the International Olympic Committee. These committees, however, are not allowed to participate in the Olympic Games, all 22 national governing bodies that form UANOC are also members of both AOC and are eligible to send athletes to either the African or Asian Games. National Olympic Committees from UANOC member countries are noted in the list below, many of these committees were founded many years before their official recognition, while others were immediately accepted after being founded. Former states, are not listed, only the current states derived from them, for example and it was later transformed into the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee, and, after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, was re-recognized in 1993. It has, however, participated in the Paralympic Games, the Faroe Islands have a recognised National Paralympic Committee. South Ossetia intends to establish a National Olympic Committee, and representatives from the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic take part in Armenia’s National Olympic Committee, National Paralympic Committee List of IOC country codes District of Columbia Olympic Committee National Olympic Committees. Association of National Olympic Committees website Official website
9.
Pierre de Coubertin medal
–
The medal was inaugurated in 1964 and named in honour of Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the International Olympic Committee. According to the Olympic Museum, it is one of the noblest honours that can be bestowed upon an Olympic athlete, “Nash didnt win because I gave him the bolt. He won because he had the fastest run. ”—Eugenio Monti when interviewed after giving a bolt from his own bobsled to his competitors, Monti was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal for his sportsmanship. “It took a lot of courage for him to me in front of Hitler. You can melt all the medals and cups I have. —Jesse Owens after being advised by his competitor, Lutz Long, Long was posthumously awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal for his sportsmanship. Victory due to the inadequate equipment is not a merit. Co-operation among sports people is a part of Olympism. - Australian Justin Harley McDonald, Bobsleigh, who won the Pierre de Coubertin Fair Play Trophy 1994 for Act of Fair Play, McDonald was the first Australian to be awarded the Pierre de Coubertin Fair Play Trophy
10.
Olympic sports
–
Olympic sports are sports contested in the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. The 2016 Summer Olympics included 28 sports, with five additional sports due to be added to the 2020 Summer Olympics, the 2014 Winter Olympics included seven sports. The number and kinds of events may change slightly from one Olympiad to another, each Olympic sport is represented by an international governing body, namely an International Federation. The International Olympic Committee establishes a hierarchy of sports, disciplines, according to this hierarchy, the Olympic sports can be subdivided into multiple disciplines, which are often assumed to be distinct sports. Examples include swimming and water polo, or figure skating and speed skating, in their turn, disciplines can be subdivided into events, for which medals are actually awarded. The IOCs requirements reflect participation in the Olympic Games as well—more stringent toward men, previous Olympic Games included sports which are no longer present on the current program, like polo and tug of war. These sports, known as discontinued sports, were removed either because of lack of interest or absence of an appropriate governing body. Archery and tennis are examples of sports that were competed at the early Games and were dropped by the IOC. Demonstration sports have often included in the Olympic Games, usually to promote a local sport from the host country or to gauge interest. Some such sports, like baseball and curling, were added to the official Olympic program, baseball, however, was discontinued after the 2008 Summer Olympics. The term sport in Olympic terminology refers to all the events that are sanctioned by one international sport federation, one sport, by Olympic definition, may be divided into several disciplines, which are often regarded as separate sports in common language. Skating is a winter Olympic sport represented by the International Skating Union, and includes four disciplines, figure skating, speed skating, short track speed skating, and synchronized skating. The sport with the largest number of Olympic disciplines is skiing, with six, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, nordic combined, snowboarding, other notable multi-discipline sports are gymnastics, cycling, volleyball, wrestling, canoeing, and bobsleigh. The disciplines listed here are only those contested in the Olympics—gymnastics has two disciplines, while cycling and wrestling have three each. It should also be noted that the IOC definition of a discipline may differ from that used by an international federation, for example, the IOC considers artistic gymnastics a single discipline, but the International Federation of Gymnastics classifies mens and womens artistic gymnastics as separate disciplines. An event, by IOC definition, is a competition that leads to the award of medals. The number of events per sport ranges from a minimum of two to a maximum of 47 in athletics, which despite its number of events and its diversity is not divided into disciplines. The only summer sports that have never been absent from the Olympic program are athletics, aquatics, cycling, fencing, the only winter sports that were included in all Winter Olympic Games are skiing, skating, and ice hockey
11.
Olympic symbols
–
The Olympic symbols are icons, flags and symbols used by the International Olympic Committee to elevate the Olympic Games. Some—such as the flame, fanfare, and theme—are more commonly used during Olympic competition, the Olympic motto is the hendiatris Citius, Altius, Fortius, which is Latin for Faster, Higher, Stronger. It was proposed by Pierre de Coubertin upon the creation of the International Olympic Committee in 1894, Coubertin borrowed it from his friend Henri Didon, a Dominican priest who was an athletics enthusiast. Coubertin said These three words represent a programme of moral beauty, the aesthetics of sport are intangible. The motto was introduced in 1924 at the Olympic Games in Paris, a more informal but well-known motto, also introduced by Coubertin, is The most important thing is not to win but to take part. Coubertin got this motto from a sermon by the Bishop of Pennsylvania during the 1908 London Games, the rings are five interlocking rings, colored blue, yellow, black, green and red on a white field, known as the Olympic rings. The symbol was designed in 1912 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin. He appears to have intended the rings to represent the five participating continents, Africa, Asia, America, Australia, according to Coubertin, the colors of the rings together with the white of the background included the colors composing every competing nations flag at the time. Upon its initial introduction, Coubertin stated the following in the August 1912 edition of Olympique, the six colors combined in this way reproduce the colours of every country without exception. This, truly, is an international emblem, the 1914 Congress was suspended due to the outbreak of World War I, but the symbol and flag were later adopted. They would first officially debut at the Games of the VII Olympiad in Antwerp, the symbols popularity and widespread use began during the lead-up to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. The ceremony was celebrated but the stone was never removed and this has become known as Carl Diems Stone. This created a myth that the symbol had an ancient Greek origin, the rings would subsequently be featured prominently in Nazi images in 1936 as part of an effort to glorify the Third Reich. The current view of the International Olympic Committee is that the symbol reinforces the idea that the Olympic Movement is international and welcomes all countries of the world to join. As can be read in the Olympic Charter, the Olympic symbol represents the union of the five continents of the world, however, no continent is represented by any specific ring. Nevertheless, the logo of the Association of National Olympic Committees places the logo of each of its five continental associations inside the ring of the corresponding color, the Olympic flag was created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914. There are specific Olympic flags that are displayed by cities that will be hosting the next Olympic games and these flags should not be confused with the larger Olympic flags designed and created specifically for each games, which are flown over the host stadium and then retired. The first Olympic flag was presented to the IOC at the 1920 Summer Olympics by the city of Antwerp, at the end of the Games, the flag could not be found and a new Olympic flag had to be made for the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris
12.
Summer Olympic Games
–
The Summer Olympic Games or the Games of the Olympiad, first held in 1896, is an international multi-sport event that is hosted by a different city every four years. The most recent Olympics were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the International Olympic Committee organizes the games and oversees the host citys preparations. In each Olympic event, gold medals are awarded for first place, silver medals are awarded for second place, and bronze medals are awarded for third, the Winter Olympic Games were created due to the success of the Summer Olympics. The Olympics have increased in scope from a 42-event competition with fewer than 250 male competitors from 14 nations in 1896 to 302 events with 10,768 competitors from 204 nations in 2012, eighteen countries have hosted the Summer Olympics. The United States has hosted four Summer Olympics, more than any other nation, four cities have hosted two Summer Olympics, Athens, Paris, Los Angeles, and Tokyo. Tokyo is the first city outside of the Western world to host the Summer Olympics multiple times, asia has hosted the Summer Olympics four times in Japan, South Korea, and China. The only Summer Olympics held in the Southern Hemisphere have been in Australia, the 2016 Games are the first Summer Olympics to be held in South America and the first to be held during the local winter season. Africa has yet to host a Summer Olympics, only five countries—Greece, Australia, France, Great Britain, and Switzerland—have been represented at every Summer Olympic Games. The only country to have won at least one medal at every Summer Olympic Games is Great Britain. The United States leads the medal table. Qualification rules for each of the Olympic sports are set by the International Sports Federations that governs that sports international competition, for individual sports, competitors typically qualify through attaining a certain place in a major international event or on the IFs ranking list. There is a rule that maximum three individual athletes may represent each nation per competition. Nations most often qualify teams for team sports through continental qualifying tournaments, each nation may be represented by no more than one team per competition a team is two people in some sports. The United States has hosted four Summer Olympic Games, more than any other nation, the United Kingdom hosted the 2012 Olympic Games, its third Summer Olympic Games, in its capital London, making London the first city to host the Summer Olympic Games three times. Australia, France, Germany, Greece, and Japan have all hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice. Other countries that have hosted the Summer Olympics are Belgium, Brazil, China, Canada, Finland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, the Soviet Union, asia has hosted the Summer Olympics three times and will host again in 2020. In 2016, Rio de Janeiro hosted the first Summer Olympics in South America, three cities have hosted two Summer Olympic Games, Los Angeles, Paris, and Athens. Stockholm has hosted events at two Summer Olympic Games, having hosted the games in 1912 and the events at the 1956 Summer Olympics—which they are usually listed as jointly hosting
13.
Winter Olympic Games
–
The Winter Olympic Games is a major international sporting event that occurs once every four years. Unlike the Summer Olympics, the Winter Olympics feature sports practised on snow, the first Winter Olympics, the 1924 Winter Olympics, was held in Chamonix, France. The original five sports were bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, Nordic skiing, the Games were held every four years from 1924 until 1936, after which they were interrupted by World War II. The Olympics resumed in 1948 and was held every four years. The Winter Games have evolved since its inception, others have been discontinued and later reintroduced, or have been permanently discontinued. Still others, such as speed skiing, bandy and skijoring, were demonstration sports, the rise of television as a global medium for communication enhanced the profile of the Games. It created a stream, via the sale of broadcast rights and advertising. This allowed outside interests, such as companies and corporate sponsors. The IOC has had to address several criticisms, internal scandals, nations have used the Winter Games to showcase the claimed superiority of their political systems. The Winter Olympics has been hosted on three continents by eleven different countries, the Games have been held in the United States four times, in France three times, and in Austria, Canada, Japan, Italy, Norway, and Switzerland twice. Also, the Games have been held in Germany, Yugoslavia, the IOC has selected Pyeongchang, South Korea, to host the 2018 Winter Olympics and Beijing, China, to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. Twelve countries – Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States – have sent athletes to every Winter Olympic Games. Six of those – Austria, Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the United States – have earned medals at every Winter Olympic Games, Norway leads in terms of number of gold medals and overall number of medals. Germany and Japan have been banned at times from competing in the Games, the Olympic Charter limits winter sports to those. Which are practised on snow or ice, since 1992 a number of new sports have been added to the Olympic programme, which include short track speed skating, snowboarding, freestyle and moguls skiing. The addition of events has broadened the appeal of the Winter Olympics beyond Europe. While European powers such as Norway and Germany still dominate the traditional Winter Olympic sports, countries such as South Korea, Australia, the results are more parity in the national medal tables, more interest in the Winter Olympics and higher global television ratings. Figure skating events were held at the 1908 and 1920 Summer Olympics. ^ Note 2, a mens ice hockey tournament was held at the 1920 Summer Olympics. ^ Note 3
14.
Summer Paralympic Games
–
The Summer Paralympic Games or the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event, where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, the Paralympic Games are held every four years, organized by the International Paralympic Committee. Medals are awarded in each event, with medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third. The United States and the United Kingdom have each hosted two Summer Paralympic Games, more than any other nation. Other countries that have hosted the summer Paralympics are Australia, Canada, China, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, in the 2016 Summer Paralympics, Brazil will host the first Summer Games in South America in Rio de Janeiro. Tokyo will be the first city to host the Summer Paralympics more than once,1964 and 2020. Seven of those countries have won at least one medal at every Summer Paralympic Games, Australia, Austria, France, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands. The United States have been the nation for eight of the Paralympic Summer Games,1964,1968,1976,1980,1984,1988,1992 and 1996. China have been the nation for the four most recent Games,2004,2008,2012 and 2016. Italy, West Germany and Australia have been the nation one time each. Qualification rules for each of the Paralympic sports are set by the International Federation that governs that sports international competition, the first official Paralympic Games, was held in Rome in 1960. 400 athletes from 23 countries competed at the 1960 Games though only athletes in wheelchairs competed, at the 1976 Summer Games athletes with different disabilities were included for the first time at a summer Paralympics. With the inclusion of more disability classifications, the 1976 Summer Games expanded to 1,600 athletes from 40 countries, the 1988 Summer Paralympics were the first to be hosted in the same venues as the Olympics of that year. Since then, all Paralympic Games are now held in the city that hosted the Olympics. Each Paralympic sport then has its own classifications, dependent upon the physical demands of competition. Events are given a code, made of numbers and letters, describing the type of event, within the ten disability categories the athletes still need to be divided according to their level of impairment. The classification systems differ from sport to sport, and is intended to even the playing field so as to allow as many athletes to participate as possible, classifications vary in accordance with the different skills required to perform the sport. Archery, Archery is open to athletes with a physical disability, classifications are broken up into three divisions, W1, spinal cord injured and Cerebral Palsy athletes with impairment in all four limbs
15.
Winter Paralympic Games
–
The Winter Paralympic Games is an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, the Winter Paralympic Games are held every four years directly following the Winter Olympic Games. The Winter Paralympics are also hosted by the city hosted the Winter Olympics. The International Paralympic Committee oversees the Winter Paralympics, medals are awarded in each event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, following the tradition that the Olympic Games started in 1904. The Winter Paralympics began in 1976 in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden and those Games were the first Paralympics that featured athletes other than wheelchair athletes. The Games have expanded and grown to be part of the largest international sporting event after the Olympic Games, given their expansion the need for a very specific classification system has arisen. This system has given rise to controversy and opened the door for cheating. Winter Paralympians have also been convicted of use and other forms of cheating unique to Paralympic athletes. The origins of the Winter Paralympics are similar to the Summer Paralympics, injured soldiers returning from World War II sought sports as an avenue to healing. Over 400 wheelchair athletes competed at the 1960 Paralympic Games, which known as the first Paralympics. Sepp Zwicknagl, a pioneer of sports for disabled athletes, was a double-leg amputee Austrian skier who experimented skiing using prosthetics. His work helped pioneer technological advances for people with disabilities who wished to participate in winter sports, advances were slow and it was not until 1974 that the first official world ski competition for physically impaired athletes, featuring downhill and a cross-country skiing, was held. The first Winter Paralympics were held in 1976 at Örnsköldsvik, Sweden from February 21–28, Alpine and Nordic skiing for amputees and visually impaired athletes where the main events but ice sledge racing was included as a demonstration event. There were 198 participating athletes from 16 countries, and it was the first time athletes with other than wheelchair athletes were permitted to compete. Starting in 1988 the Summer Paralympics were held in the same host city as the Summer Olympic Games and this was due to an agreement reached between the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee. The 1992 Winter Paralympics were the first Winter Games to use the facilities as the Winter Olympics. Athletes have cheated by over-representing impairment to have an advantage. German skier Thomas Oelsner became the first Winter Paralympian to test positive for steroids in 2002 and he had won two gold medals in the alpine events but was stripped of his medals
16.
Youth Olympic Games
–
The Youth Olympic Games is an international multi-sport event organized by the International Olympic Committee. The games are held four years in staggered summer and winter events consistent with the current Olympic Games format. The first summer version was held in Singapore from 14 to 26 August 2010 while the first winter version was held in Innsbruck, the age limitation of the athletes is 14 to 18. The idea of such an event was introduced by Johann Rosenzopf from Austria in 1998 and these Games will also feature cultural exchange programs and opportunities for participants to meet Olympic athletes. The Youth Games are modelled after these sporting events, the YOG are also a successor to the discontinued World Youth Games. Even though this exceeded initial estimates, the YOG are still smaller in size as well as shorter than their senior equivalents. The next Summer YOG to take place will be the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games of Buenos Aires, the next Winter YOG to take place will be the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games of Lausanne. The concept of the Youth Olympic Games came from Austrian industrial manager Johann Rosenzopf in 1998 and this was in response to growing global concerns about childhood obesity and the dropping participation of youth in sport activities, especially amongst youth in developed nations. It was further recognized that a version of the Olympic Games would help foster participations in the Olympic Games. Despite these reasons for having an Olympic event for young people, Jacques Rogge, IOC President, formally announced plans for the Youth Olympic Games at the 119th IOC session in Guatemala City on 6 July 2007. The city of Singapore was announced as the host of the inaugural Summer Youth Olympics on 21 February 2008, on 12 December 2008 the IOC announced that Innsbruck, host of the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics, would be the host of the inaugural Winter Youth Olympics in 2012. The scale of the Youth Olympic Games is smaller than that of the Olympics, potential host cities are required to keep all events within the same city and no new sports venues should be built. Exceptions to this building include a media center, amphitheater facilities for classes and workshops. This village is to be the heart of the Games for the athletes, no new or unique transportation systems are required as all athletes and coaches will be transported by shuttles. According to bid procedures, the track and field stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies must hold 10,000 people, the IOC has stipulated that costs for infrastructure and venues is to be paid by the host city. The IOC will pay travel costs to the host city and room and board for the athletes and judges, the funding will come from IOC funds and not revenues. The budgets for the two bids for the inaugural Summer Games came in at $90 million, much higher than the estimated costs. The cost of the first games in Singapore escalated to an estimated S$387 million, sponsors have been slow to sign on for the YOG, due to the fact that it is a new initiative and corporations are not sure what level of exposure they will get
17.
Special Olympics World Games
–
The Special Olympics World Games are an international sporting competition for athletes with intellectual disabilities, organized by Special Olympics. Although local Special Olympics events and competitions are held around the world every day, the goal is to showcase the skills and accomplishments of people with intellectual disabilities on a global stage. The World Games feature more than a week of competitions involving thousands of athletes, through media coverage of the Games, the stories and achievements of children and adults with intellectual disabilities are made known to millions of people worldwide. Special Olympics World Games take place two years and alternate between Summer and Winter Games, a schedule similar to the Olympics and Paralympics. Attracting as many as 350,000 volunteers and coaches, plus thousands of athletes. Special Olympics athletes can compete in 32 Olympic-style summer or winter sports, the athletes are adults and children with intellectual disabilities who can range from gifted, world-class competitors to average athletes to those with limited physical ability. Its a fundamental rule of Special Olympics competitions that athletes are matched up according to their ability and this “divisioning” process is an effort to make every competition fair, competitive and exciting for athletes as well as fans. In 1991, the name was changed from International Special Olympics Summer/Winter Games to Special Olympics World Summer/Winter Games. In 2011, Special Olympics World Summer Games were held on June 25 – July 4 in Athens, Greece, the most recent 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games were held in Los Angeles, California from July 25 – Aug.2,2015. These games were the first Special Olympics World Summer Games held in the United States in 16 years since the 1999 Summer Games held in Raleigh, the next World Winter Games will be the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Graz and Schladming in Styria, Austria. This marks a return, Salzburg and Schladming, Austria hosted the fifth Special Olympics World Winter Games in 1993 and these were the first Special Olympics World Games held outside the United States. The 2017 World Winter Games will be held March 14-March 25,2017
18.
Pan American Games
–
The Pan-American or Pan American Games is a major sporting event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held among athletes from nations of the Americas, the only Winter Pan American Games were held in 1990. The Pan American Sports Organization is the body of the Pan American Games movement, whose structure. The XVII Pan American Games were held in Toronto from July 10–26,2015, since 2007, host cities are contracted to manage both the Pan American and the Parapan American Games, in which athletes with physical disabilities compete with one another. The Parapan American Games are held following the Pan American Games. The Pan American Games Movement consists of sports federations, National Olympic Committees that are recognized by PASO. As the decision-making body, PASO is responsible for choosing the host city for each Pan American Games, the host city is responsible for organizing and funding a celebration of the Games consistent with the Olympic Charter and rules. The Pan American Games program, consisting of the sports to be contested at the Games, is determined by PASO, the celebration of the Games encompasses many rituals and symbols, such as the flag and torch, and the opening and closing ceremonies. Over 5,000 athletes compete at the Pan American Games in 36 sports, the first, second, and third-place finishers in each event receive gold, silver, and bronze medals, respectively. At the first Pan American Sports Congress, held in Buenos Aires in 1940, the plans had to be postponed because of World War II. A second Pan American Sports Congress held in London during the 1948 Summer Olympics reconfirmed Buenos Aires as the choice of host city for the inaugural games, countries that were part of the Commonwealth of Nations such as Canada did not compete at the first Pan American Games. The second games were held in Mexico City, Mexico, competitions started on March 12 and included 2,583 athletes from 22 countries, competing in 17 sports. The Pan American Games were held every four years in the cities of Chicago, United States in 1959, São Paulo, Brazil in 1963 and Winnipeg. While the inaugural 1951 Games hosted 2,513 participants representing 14 nations, during the games most athletes and officials are housed in the Pan American Games village. This village is intended to be a home for all the participants. It is furnished with cafeterias, health clinics, and locations for religious expression, PASO allows nations to compete that do not meet the strict requirements for political sovereignty that other international organizations demand. As a result, colonies and dependencies are permitted to set up their own National Olympic Committees, examples of this include territories such as Puerto Rico and Bermuda which compete as separate nations despite being legally under the jurisdiction of another power. There have been attempts to hold Winter Pan American Games throughout the history of the games, reliable winter snow in the Americas is limited to two countries, the United States and Canada
19.
Asian Games
–
The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a Pancontinental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation from the first Games in New Delhi, India, since the 1982 Games they have been organized by the Olympic Council of Asia, after the breakup of the Asian Games Federation. The Games are recognized by the International Olympic Committee and are described as the second largest multi-sport event after the Olympic Games, in its history, nine nations have hosted the Asian Games. Forty-six nations have participated in the Games, including Israel, which was excluded from the Games after their last participation in 1974. The most recent games was held in Incheon, South Korea from 19 September to 4 October 2014, while the games will be held in Jakarta and Palembang. The Far Eastern Games were first held in Manila in 1913 with 6 participating nations, ten more Far Eastern Games were held until 1934. Consequently, the Far Eastern Games scheduled for 1938 were cancelled, after World War II, a number of Asian countries became independent. During the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, a conversation between sportsmen from China and the Philippines raised the idea of restoring the Far Eastern Games. As a result, he proposed to sports leaders the idea of having a new competition – which came to be the Asian Games. This led to an agreement to form the Asian Athletic Federation, a preparatory committee was then set up to draft the charter for this new body. Starting in 1962, the Games were hit by several crises, first, the host country Indonesia, refused to permit the participation of Israel and Taiwan due to political and religious issues. As a result, the IOC removed its sponsorship of the Games, the Asian Football Confederation, International Amateur Athletics Federation and International Weightlifting Federation, also removed their recognition of the Games. Prior to the Games, Japan was asked to host the Games and this edition also marked the first time the Games have a television broadcasting throughout the world. In Tehran, in 1974, the Games formally recognized the participation of China, North Korea, the last is 1978, Pakistan dropped its plan to host the Games in 1975 due to financial crisis and political issues. Thailand offered to help and the Games were once held in Bangkok. However, once again, like in 1962, Taiwan and Israel were refused the participation by Games Federation, amid political issues and security fears. Several governing bodies protested against the ban, like IAAF, threatened to bar the players from 1980 Summer Olympics. Following this series of crises, the National Olympic Committee in Asia decided to revise the constitution of the Asian Games Federation, a new association, named the Olympic Council of Asia, was created in November 1981 with the exclusion of Israel
20.
Pacific Games
–
The Pacific Games is a multi-sport event, much like the Olympic Games, with participation exclusively from countries around the South Pacific Ocean. It is held four years and began in 1963, hosted by Suva. The idea of holding the South Pacific Games originated with Dr A. H. Sahu Khan who was one of Fijis representatives at a meeting of the South Pacific Commission held at Rabaul during 1959. The idea was adopted and led to a meeting of nine Territories, held in Nouméa during March 1961, during 1962, the South Pacific Commission founded the South Pacific Games Council, with the first ever Games being held at Suva, Fiji. In the 40 years since, Games have been held in 12 countries and territories within the region, initially the Games were held at three-year intervals although this was subsequently expanded to four following the Tumon Games in Guam. As time went on, fledgling nations gradually achieving sovereignty of their own sought to extricate themselves from their colonial past and new national anthems, nevertheless, English and French remain the official languages of the Games. Like other sporting events, the South Pacific Games has experienced slight controversies, a minor dispute that still continues today is the scheduling of events landing on a Sunday. Throughout the Pacific, the Christian Sabbath remains very important and scheduling at such a time would be frowned upon, however other larger nations within the region or those loosely associated with more secular states are more moderate in this regard. Other global and regional events have also influenced and shaped the Games history, in 1995, the year Papeete, Tahiti hosted the Games, many countries took the decision to boycott as a direct protest at French nuclear testing in the Pacific. The Games, however, returned to near full regional participation in the event in 1999. The Games were initiated to promote and develop sport amongst the nations, after fifty years in existence, The South Pacific Commission changed its name to the Secretariat of the Pacific Community in 1998. The XII South Pacific Games held in Suva, Fiji saw for the first time the introduction of a program of 32 sports. That program included sports that are synonymous with the Pacific region as well as sports that have a participation and are generally not well established. A strong corporate sponsorship package a first for the games enabled the organizers to work with a hand towards their aims of making the games a success. A colorful and effective media and publicity campaign generated much interest, schools and youth groups were involved in interactive programs such as the adopt-a-country program also a first for the games. The XIII Pacific Games were hosted in Apia, Samoa and they were the 13th to have been held since 1963. Potential debt positions notwithstanding, five nations bid for the 2015 Pacific Games, the Games were ultimately awarded to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea and follow the 2011 Pacific Games held in Nouméa, New Caledonia. However the rising cost and the burden of putting on the games continue to threaten countries abilities to host the event
21.
African Games
–
All of the competing nations are from the African continent. The first Games were held in 1965 in Brazzaville, Congo, the International Olympic Committee granted official recognition as a continental multi-sport event, along with the Asian Games and Pan American Games. Since 1999, the Games have also included athletes with a disability, the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa was the organisation body for the game. The organization of the African Games is now managed by three parts, the AU, the ANOCA and the AASC, after running previous 11 editions as the All-Africa Games, the games has been renamed the African Games. The decision for the change was arrived at, during the Executive Council meeting of the African Union held in Addis Ababa. Modern Olympics founder Pierre de Coubertin conceived the Pan African Games as early as 1920, the colonial powers who ruled Africa at the time were wary of the idea, suspecting the unifying aspect of sport among African people would cause them to assert their independence. Attempts were made to host the games in Algiers, Algeria in 1925 and Alexandria, Egypt in 1928, but despite considerable preparations taken by coordinators, the efforts failed. The International Olympic Committees first African member, Greek-born Egyptian sprinter Angelo Bolanaki, donated funds to erect a stadium, in the early 1960s, French-speaking countries of Africa organized the Friendship Games. The Games were organized by Madagascar and then Côte dIvoire, the third games were set for Senegal in 1963. The Games were granted recognition by the IOC as being on par with other continental Games such as the Asian Games. In July 1965, the first games were held in Brazzaville, Congo, from 30 countries, around 2,500 athletes competed. Egypt topped the medal count for the first Games, in 1966, the SCSA was organized in Bamako, it manages the All-Africa Games. The second edition were awarded to Mali in 1969, but a military coup forced the cancellation of the Games, lagos, Nigeria stepped in as host for the Games in 1971. Those Games were finally held in 1973 due to the Biafra War, in 1977, the 3rd Games were scheduled to take place in Algeria but due to technical reasons had to be postponed for a year and were held in 1978. Continuing the pattern, the next Games were scheduled to take place in Kenya in 1983, the four-year Olympic rhythm has not missed a beat since, and the Games have been organized in Cairo, Harare, Johannesburg, and Abuja. In 2007, Algiers once again hosted, becoming the first repeat host, the 2011 edition of the All-Africa Games was held in Maputo, Mozambique in September 2011. Brazzaville hosted the 2015 edition in honor of the Games 50th anniversary, all 53 members affiliated to the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa are eligible to take part in the Games. In history, the 53 National Olympic Committees have sent competitors to the Games, morocco was banned from the games from the 1987 All-Africa Games onwards because of a political dispute over Western Sahara
22.
European Games
–
The European Games is an international multi-sport event in the Olympic tradition contested by athletes from European nations. The Games were envisioned and are to be governed by the European Olympic Committees, the 2015 European Games, the first edition of the event, took place in Baku, Azerbaijan in June 2015, and further editions are planned every four years thereafter. The 2019 edition is scheduled for Minsk, Belarus, having previously awarded to the Netherlands. The European Games are the final continental Games to be initiated, after the Asian Games, Pan-American Games, Pacific Games, as of 2015, every continent will have a continental games in the Olympic tradition. The Games have been criticised for being an addition to the sporting calendar and for the lack of high quality in totem events such as athletics. The first edition of the Games has received criticism from such as Sport for Rights calling for athletes to speak out against human rights violations in Azerbaijan. Many regime opponents were jailed in the run-up to the Games, the following sports were contested at the first event in Baku in 2015. Olympic Games European Youth Olympic Festival Pan American Games Asian Games African Games World Games Pacific Games European Sports Championships Commonwealth Games Official website
23.
Ancient Olympic Games
–
The Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. They were held in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin, the first Olympics is traditionally dated to 776 BC. The games were held four years, or olympiad, which became a unit of time in historical chronologies. During the celebration of the games, an Olympic Truce was enacted so that athletes could travel from their cities to the games in safety, the prizes for the victors were olive leaf wreaths or crowns. The games became a tool used by city-states to assert dominance over their rivals. Politicians would announce political alliances at the games, and in times of war, the games were also used to help spread Hellenistic culture throughout the Mediterranean. The Olympics also featured religious celebrations, the statue of Zeus at Olympia was counted as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Sculptors and poets would congregate each olympiad to display their works of art to would-be patrons, the ancient Olympics had fewer events than the modern games, and only freeborn Greek men were allowed to participate, although there were victorious women chariot owners. The games were held at Olympia rather than moving between different locations as is the practice with the modern Olympic Games. Victors at the Olympics were honored, and their feats chronicled for future generations, to the Greeks, it was important to root the Olympic Games in mythology. During the time of the ancient games their origins were attributed to the gods and these origin traditions have become nearly impossible to untangle, yet a chronology and patterns have arisen that help people understand the story behind the games. The earliest myths regarding the origin of the games are recounted by the Greek historian, according to the story, the dactyl Heracles and four of his brothers, Paeonaeus, Epimedes, Iasius and Idas, raced at Olympia to entertain the newborn Zeus. He crowned the victor with an olive wreath, which also explains the four year interval. The other Olympian gods would also engage in wrestling, jumping and running contests, another myth of the origin of the games is the story of Pelops, a local Olympian hero. The story of Pelops begins with Oenomaus, the king of Pisa, Greece, according to an oracle, the king would be killed by her husband. Now, the kings chariot horses were a present from the god Poseidon and were therefore supernaturally fast, Pelops was a very handsome young man and the kings daughter fell in love with him. Before the race, she persuaded her fathers charioteer Myrtilus to replace the bronze axle pins of the chariot with wax ones. Naturally, during the race the wax melted and the fell from his chariot and was killed
24.
Intercalated Games
–
The Intercalated Olympic Games were to be a series of International Olympic Games halfway between what is now known as the Games of the Olympiad. This proposed series of games, intercalated in the Olympic Games cycle, was to always be held in Athens, however, the only such games were held in 1906. This was a compromise, After the successful games of Athens 1896 the Greeks suggested they could organize the games four years. Since they had the venues, and had proven to be able to hold well-organised games, they received quite a bit of support. However, Pierre de Coubertin did not like this at all, he had intended the first games to be in Paris in 1900 and had no intention of losing not only the première for Paris, thus the second games became the Paris 1900 games. This was a departure of the ancient schedule, but it was expected if the ancient Greek could keep a four-year schedule. As 1902 was now too close, and Greece was experiencing internal difficulties and it desperately needed to recapture the spirit of Athens 1896. It also needed to do so quickly, as to all those who did not participate in St. Louis, by that time there would not be much goodwill left for the Games. And on top of that, Rome was planning an Exhibition, the Athens games being just around the corner must have seemed like a lifeline. De Coubertin still disliked the idea, and did not do anything more than his function required him to, but the IOC as a whole gave the Greek NOC full support for the organisation. The 1906 games were quite successful, unlike the 1900,1904 or 1908 games, they were neither stretched out over months nor overshadowed by an international exhibition. Their crisp format was most likely instrumental in the existence of the games. These Games also were the first games to have all athlete registration go through the NOCs and they introduced the closing ceremony, and the raising of national flags for the victors, and several more less visible changes now accepted as traditional. The Greeks were unable to keep the schedule for 1910, on the one hand problems in the Balkans made things difficult, but on the other, the modern Greeks found out the ancient Greeks were right, A two-year interval was too short. Where there had been a gap of six years before Athens 1906, with Athens 1910 a failure, the faith in Athens diminished, and as a result Athens 1914 got even less support. And then World War I started, and any further Intercalated Games had to wait until after the war, but after the war was over it had been more than a decade since Athens 1906, and the idea of Intercalated Games was given up entirely. As more stress was placed on the sequence of four-year Olympiads. Hence, today the IOC does not recognize Athens 1906 as Olympic Games, the success of Athens 1906, however, may have been what kept the Olympics alive
25.
1896 Summer Olympics
–
The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, was the first international Olympic Games held in modern history. Organised by the International Olympic Committee, which had created by Pierre de Coubertin, it was held in Athens, Greece. Winners were given a medal, while runners-up received a copper medal. Retroactively, the IOC has converted these to gold and silver, ten of the 14 participating nations earned medals. The United States won the most gold medals,11, host nation Greece won the most medals overall,46, the highlight for the Greeks was the marathon victory by their compatriot Spyridon Louis. The most successful competitor was German wrestler and gymnast Carl Schuhmann, the main venue was the Panathenaic Stadium, where athletics and wrestling took place, other venues included the Neo Phaliron Velodrome for cycling, and the Zappeion for fencing. The opening ceremony was held in the Panathenaic Stadium on 6 April, during which most of the athletes were aligned on the infield. After a speech by the president of the committee, Crown Prince Constantine. Afterwards, nine bands and 150 choir singers performed an Olympic Hymn, composed by Spyridon Samaras, the 1896 Olympics were regarded as a great success. The Games had the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date, the Panathenaic Stadium, the only Olympic stadium used in the 1800s, overflowed with the largest crowd ever to watch a sporting event. However, the 1900 Summer Olympics were already planned for Paris and, except for the Intercalated Games of 1906, during the 19th century, several small-scale sports festivals across Europe were named after the Ancient Olympic Games. The 1870 Olympics at the Panathenaic stadium, which had been refurbished for the occasion, had an audience of 30,000 people. In 1890, Coubertin wrote an article in La Revue Athletique, Coubertin also took inspiration from the earlier Greek games organised under the name of Olympics by businessman and philanthropist Evangelis Zappas in 1859,1870 and 1875. This the Greek government did despite the fact that the cost of refurbishing the stadium in marble had already been funded in full by Evangelis Zappas forty years earlier. With deep feeling towards Baron de Coubertins courteous petition, I send him, on 18 June 1894, Coubertin organised a congress at the Sorbonne, Paris, to present his plans to representatives of sports societies from 11 countries. Following his proposals acceptance by the congress, a date for the first modern Olympic Games needed to be chosen, Coubertin suggested that the Games be held concurrently with the 1900 Universal Exposition of Paris. Concerned that a waiting period might lessen public interest, congress members opted instead to hold the inaugural Games in 1896. With a date established, members of the congress turned their attention to the selection of a host city and it remains a mystery how Athens was finally chosen to host the inaugural Games
26.
Medal
–
A medal may be awarded to a person or organization as a form of recognition for sporting, military, scientific, academic, or various other achievements. Military awards and decorations are more precise terms for types of state decoration. Medals may also be created for sale to commemorate particular individuals or events, an artist who creates medals or medallions is called a medallist or medalist. There are also devotional medals which may be worn for religious reasons, Medals have long been popular collectible items either as a variety of exonumia or of militaria. Medallions may also be called table medals because they are too large to be worn and can only be displayed on a wall, table top, desk, the word medallion has the same ultimate derivation, but this time through the Italian medaglione, meaning large medal. The main or front surface of a medal is termed the obverse, the reverse, or back surface of the medal, is not always used and may be left blank or may contain a secondary design. It is not uncommon to only an artistic rendering on the obverse, while all details. The rim is only occasionally employed to display an inscription such as a motto, privy mark, engraver symbol, assayer’s marking. Medals that are intended to be hung from a ribbon also include a suspension piece at the crest with which to loop a suspension ring through. It is through the ring that a ribbon is run or folded so the medal may hang pendent, Medals pinned to the breast use only a small cut of ribbon that is attached to a top bar where the brooch pin is affixed. Top bars may be hidden under the ribbon so they are not visible, be a device from which the ribbon attaches. Some top bars are elaborate and contain a whole design unto themselves, Medals that are made with inexpensive material might be gilded, silver-plated, chased, or finished in a variety of other ways to improve their appearance. Medals have also made of rock, gemstone, ivory, glass, porcelain, terra cotta, coal, wood, paper, enamel, lacquerware. Honorary awards, as a button, which it is custom to give the kings kinsmen. Roman emperors used both military awards of medals, and political gifts of medallions that were very large coins, usually in gold or silver. Both these and actual golden coins were often set as pieces of jewellery, the bracteate is a type of thin gold medal, usually plain on the reverse, found in Northern Europe from the so-called Dark Ages or Migration Period. They often have suspension loops and were intended to be worn on a chain as jewellery. They imitate, at a distance, Roman imperial coins and medallions, the surviving example is mounted for wearing as jewellery
27.
Gold medal
–
A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture, others offer only the prestige of the award. Many organizations now award gold medals either annually or extraordinarily, including UNESCO, while some gold medals are solid gold, others are gold-plated or silver-gilt, like those of the Olympic Games, the Lorentz Medal, the United States Congressional Gold Medal and the Nobel Prize medal. Nobel Prize medals consist of 18 karat green gold plated with 24 karat gold, before 1980 they were struck in 23 karat gold. In the United States, Congress would enact a resolution asking the President to reward those responsible, the commanding officer would receive a gold medal and his officers silver medals. Other countries similarly honored their military and naval victors in a similar fashion, Medals have historically been given as prizes in various types of competitive activities, especially athletics. Traditionally, medals are made of the metals, Gold Silver Bronze Occasionally. This standard was adopted for Olympic competition at the 1904 Summer Olympics, at the 1896 event, silver was awarded to winners and bronze to runners-up, while at 1904 other prizes were given, not medals. At the modern Olympic Games, winners of a sporting discipline receive a medal in recognition of their achievement. At the Ancient Olympic Games only one winner per event was crowned with kotinos, aristophanes in Plutus makes a remark why victorious athletes are crowned with wreath made of wild olive instead of gold. When Tigranes, an Armenian general learned this, he uttered to his leader, what kind of men are these against whom you have brought us to fight. Men who do not compete for possessions, but for honour, hence medals were not awarded at the ancient Olympic Games. At the 1896 Summer Olympics, winners received a silver medal, in 1900, most winners received cups or trophies instead of medals. The next three Olympics awarded the winners solid gold medals, but the medals themselves were smaller, the use of gold rapidly declined with the onset of the First World War and also with the onset of the Second World War. The last series of Olympic medals to be made of gold were awarded at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. Olympic Gold medals are required to be made from at least 92. 5% silver, all Olympic medals must be at least 60mm in diameter and 3mm thick. Minting the medals is the responsibility of the Olympic host, from the 1972 Summer Olympics through 2000, Cassiolis design remained on the obverse with a custom design by the host city on the reverse. Noting that Cassiolis design showed a Roman amphitheater for what originally were Greek games, Winter Olympics medals have been of more varied design
28.
Silver medal
–
The outright winner receives a gold medal and the third place a bronze medal. More generally, silver is traditionally a metal used for all types of high-quality medals. In 1896, winners medals were in fact silver, the custom of gold-silver-bronze for the first three places dates from the 1904 games and has been copied for many other sporting events. Minting the medals is the responsibility of the host city, from 1972–2000, Cassiolis design remained on the obverse with a custom design by the host city on the reverse. Noting that Cassiolis design showed a Roman amphitheatre for what was originally a Greek games, winter Olympics medals have been of more varied design. In The Open Championship golf tournament, the Silver Medal is an award presented to the lowest scoring player at the tournament. Runner-up Medal Designs for all Olympic Games
29.
Bronze medal
–
The outright winner receives a gold medal and the second place a silver medal. More generally, bronze is traditionally the most common used for all types of high-quality medals. The practice of awarding bronze third place medals began at the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis, Missouri, prior to which only first, minting Olympic medals is the responsibility of the host city. From 1972–2000, Cassiolis design remained on the obverse with a design by the host city on the reverse. Noting that Cassiolis design showed a Roman amphitheatre for what was originally a Greek game, winter Olympics medals have been of more varied design. In 1995, a study was carried out by social psychologists Victoria Medvec, Scott Madey, the study showed that athletes who won the bronze medal were significantly happier with their winning than those athletes who won the silver medal. The silver medalists were more frustrated because they had missed the gold medal and this is more pronounced in knockout competitions, where the bronze medals are achieved by winning a playoff, whereas silver medals are awarded after a defeat in the final. This psychological phenomenon was parodied in the Jerry Seinfeld special Im Telling You for the Last Time, bronze and brass ornamental work Third place playoff Medal Designs for all Olympic Games
30.
Award
–
An award is something given to a person, a group of people, or an organization to recognize their excellence in a certain field, a certificate of excellence. Awards are often signified by trophies, titles, certificates, commemorative plaques, medals, badges, pins, an award may carry a monetary prize given to the recipient, for example, the Nobel Prize for contributions to society or the Pulitzer Prize for literary achievements. An award may also simply be an acknowledgment of excellence. Awards can be given by any person or institution, although the prestige of an award usually depends on the status of the awarder, usually, awards are given by an organization of some sort, or by the office of an official within an organization or government. This is the case for the World Quality Selections organized by Monde Selection and these international awards are assigned to beverages, foods, cosmetics and diet products, which stand out for their quality. Generally, recognition by a set of peers, acknowledging quality of work, some prestigious and authentic awards include, Golden Globes – The statuettes are manufactured by the New York firm Society Awards. MTV Video Music Award – The moonman is manufactured by the New York firm Society Awards, academy of Country Music Awards – The “hat” trophy is manufactured by the New York firm Society Awards. Billboard Music Award – The trophy is manufactured by the New York firm Society Awards, the Asian Awards – The worlds only pan-Sector, pan-Asian Awards ceremony. NAACP Image Award – The trophy is manufactured by the New York firm Society Awards, the Nigeria Safety Award for Excellence Hall of Fame – 9jaSAFE Award is Nigeria most recognize Health Safety and Environment Award. One common type of award in the United States is the Employee of the Month award, mock awards, which typically recognize failures or atypical achievements, are also popular. They are usually given by people and organizations of lower or average prestige, such as comical organizations, darwin Awards, given to people who seem to improve the human gene pool by accidentally killing or sterilizing themselves during a foolish or careless mistake. A common mock award is the wooden spoon, given to an individual or team which has come last in a competition. A more common last place, mock award is the Half Fast award, some awards are given only after a fee is paid by the recipient, such as the German Design Award. The Kentucky Derby Trophy is an award worth $70,000 with an estimated 1000 man hours of labor, an honorable mention is an award or recognition given to something that does not make it to a higher standing but is worth mentioning in an honorable way. Award ceremony List of prizes, medals, and awards SME One Asia Awards
31.
Rome
–
Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
32.
Colosseum
–
The Colosseum or Coliseum, also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy. Built of concrete and sand, it is the largest amphitheatre ever built, the Colosseum is situated just east of the Roman Forum. Construction began under the emperor Vespasian in AD72, and was completed in AD80 under his successor, further modifications were made during the reign of Domitian. These three emperors are known as the Flavian dynasty, and the amphitheatre was named in Latin for its association with their family name, the building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry. Although partially ruined because of damage caused by earthquakes and stone-robbers, the Colosseum is also depicted on the Italian version of the five-cent euro coin. The Colosseums original Latin name was Amphitheatrum Flavium, often anglicized as Flavian Amphitheatre, the building was constructed by emperors of the Flavian dynasty, following the reign of Nero. This name is used in modern English, but generally the structure is better known as the Colosseum. The name Colosseum has long believed to be derived from a colossal statue of Nero nearby. This statue was later remodeled by Neros successors into the likeness of Helios or Apollo, Neros head was also replaced several times with the heads of succeeding emperors. Despite its pagan links, the statue remained standing well into the era and was credited with magical powers. It came to be seen as an symbol of the permanence of Rome. This is often mistranslated to refer to the Colosseum rather than the Colossus, however, at the time that the Pseudo-Bede wrote, the masculine noun coliseus was applied to the statue rather than to what was still known as the Flavian amphitheatre. The Colossus did eventually fall, possibly being pulled down to reuse its bronze, by the year 1000 the name Colosseum had been coined to refer to the amphitheatre. The statue itself was forgotten and only its base survives. The name further evolved to Coliseum during the Middle Ages, in Italy, the amphitheatre is still known as il Colosseo, and other Romance languages have come to use similar forms such as Coloseumul, le Colisée, el Coliseo and o Coliseu. The site chosen was an area on the floor of a low valley between the Caelian, Esquiline and Palatine Hills, through which a canalised stream ran. By the 2nd century BC the area was densely inhabited and it was devastated by the Great Fire of Rome in AD64, following which Nero seized much of the area to add to his personal domain
33.
Greece
–
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
34.
Relay race
–
During a relay race, members of a team take turns running, orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, biathlon, or ice skating parts of a circuit or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of races and amateur games. In the Olympic games, there are types of relay races that are part of track. A swimming relay of four swimmers usually follows this strategy, second-fastest, third-fastest, slowest, then fastest. However, it is not uncommon to see either the slowest swimmer racing in the second slot, besides, many swimmers perform better in a relay than in an individual race owing to a team spirit atmosphere. As a result, relay times are typically 2–3 seconds faster than the sum of best times of individual swimmers, the three standard relays raced at the Olympics are the 4 ×100 m freestyle relay,4 ×200 m freestyle relay and 4 ×100 m medley relay. In athletics, the two standard relays are the 4 ×100 metres relay and the 4 ×400 metres relay. Traditionally, the 4 ×400 m relay finals are the last event of a track meet and it is hard to measure exact splits in a 4 ×400 relay. A4 ×400 relay generally starts in lanes for the first leg, a race organizer then puts the third leg runners into a line depending on the order in which they are running. The faster teams pass first, while the teams have to slide in to the inside lanes as they come available. 4 ×200,4 ×800, and 4 ×1600 relays exist as well, but they are rarer, especially at the school level. Each runner must hand off the baton to the next runner within a certain zone, usually marked by triangles on the track. In sprint relays, runners typically use a blind handoff, where the second stands on a spot predetermined in practice. The second runner opens their hand behind them after a few strides, by time the first runner should be caught up. Usually a runner will give a signal, such as Stick. Repeated several times, for the recipient of the baton to put out his hand, in middle-distance relays or longer, runners begin by jogging while looking back at the incoming runner and holding out a hand for the baton. Although some teams use second-fastest, slowest, third-fastest, then the fastest, but if a runner is better in the starting blocks than the others, he is sometimes moved to the first spot because it is the only spot that uses starting blocks. It is credited with popularizing relay racing in the sport of track & field, the worlds longest relay race is Japans Prince Takamatsu Cup Nishinippon Round-Kyūshū Ekiden, which begins in Nagasaki and continues for 1,064 kilometres
35.
Olive wreath
–
The olive wreath also known as kotinos, was the prize for the winner at the ancient Olympic Games. It was a branch of the olive tree that grew at Olympia. The branches of the sacred tree near the temple of Zeus were cut by a “pais amfithalis” with a pair of golden scissors. Then he took them to the temple of Hera and placed them on a gold-ivory table, from there, the Hellanodikai would take them, make the wreaths and crown the winners of the Games. According to Pausanias it was introduced by Hercules as a prize for the race winner to honor his father Zeus. In the ancient Olympic Games there were no gold, silver, there was only one winner per event, crowned with an olive wreath made of wild-olive leaves from a sacred tree near the temple of Zeus at Olympia. Olive wreaths were given out during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens in honor of the ancient tradition, herodotus describes the following story which is relevant to the olive wreath. Xerxes was interrogating some Arcadians after the Battle of Thermopylae and he inquired why there were so few Greek men defending the Thermopylae. The answer was All other men are participating in the Olympic Games, and when asked What is the prize for the winner. Then Tigranes, one of his generals uttered, Good heavens, mardonius, what kind of men are these against whom you have brought us to fight. Men who do not compete for possessions, but for virtue, aristophanes in Plutus makes a humorous comment on victorious athletes who are crowned with wreath made of wild olive instead of gold, Why, Zeus is poor, and I will clearly prove it to you. In the Olympic games, which he founded, and to which he convokes the whole of Greece every four years, if he were rich he would give them gold. The victorious athletes were honoured, feted, and praised and their deeds were heralded and chronicled so that future generations could appreciate their accomplishments. In fact, the names of the Olympic winners formed the basis of the ancient world, as arranged by Timaeus in his work. Olympic medals Ancient Olympic Games Olive branch Laurel wreath What prizes did Olympic victors get, at Perseus Winners’ rewards in Antiquity not in numbness
36.
Olive
–
Olea europeana sylvestris is a subspecies that corresponds to a smaller tree bearing noticeably smaller fruits. The olives fruit, also called the olive, is of agricultural importance in the Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil. The tree and its fruit give their name to the plant family, which includes species such as lilacs, jasmine, Forsythia. The word derives from Latin ŏlīva a borrowing from the Greek ἐλαία, the oldest attested forms of the Greek words are the Mycenaean
37.
Olea oleaster
–
The wild-olive, which ancient Greeks distinguished from the cultivated olive tree, was used to fashion the olive wreath awarded victors at the ancient Olympic games. The ancient and sacred wild-olive tree of Olympia stood near the Temple of Zeus, the wild-olive is a tree of the maquis shrubland, itself in part the result of the long presence of mankind. The drought-tolerant sclerophyllous tree is believed to have originated in the eastern Mediterranean Basin and it still provides the hardy and disease-resistant rootstock on which cultivated olive varieties are grafted. So dense they grew together, tangling side by side, in the fourth century BCE Theophrastus, the most prominent pupil of Aristotle, wrote an Enquiry into Plants that stands at the head of the literary tradition of botany. Modern botanists often struggle to identify the plants named and described by Theophrastus, an example is the modern genus Cotinus, which, though named after the ancient Greek kotinos, is unrelated to the wild-olive. Theophrastus noted the kinship of wild-olive with the olive. He noted that the leaf-buds were opposite, timber of the wild-olive was valued, it was proof against decay, and was not affected by shipworm, which was a valuable feature in shipbuilding. It also provided stout handles for carpenters tools, on his return to Olympia, Iphitos found that one among the grove of wild-olives in the sacred precinct was wrapped in spider webs. He walled it round, as A. B. Cook says, of this tree a small part still exists. Against this image, they say, Heracles leaned his club. Now this club, which was of wild-olive, taking root in the earth, grew up again and is alive, Heracles, they say, discovering the wild-olive by the Saronic Sea. In the Koine Greek of the New Testament the wild-olive has become agrielaios, of the fields, and the cultivated tree kallielaios, the fine one
38.
Olympia, Greece
–
Olympia, a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis on the Peloponnese peninsula, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times. The Olympic Games were held four years throughout Classical antiquity. The sanctuary, known as the Altis, consists of an arrangement of various buildings. Enclosed within the temenos are the Temple of Hera, the Temple of Zeus, the Pelopion, and the area of the altar, to the north of the sanctuary can be found the Prytaneion and the Philippeion, as well as the array of treasuries representing the various city-states. The Metroon lies to the south of these treasuries, with the Echo Stoa to the east, the hippodrome and later stadium were located east of the Echo Stoa. To the south of the sanctuary is the South Stoa and the Bouleuterion, whereas the Palaestra, the workshop of Pheidias, the Gymnasion, very close to the Temple of Zeus which housed this statue, the studio of Pheidias was excavated in the 1950s. Evidence found there, such as tools, corroborates this opinion. The ancient ruins sit north of the Alpheios River and south of Mount Kronos, the Kladeos, a tributary of the Alpheios, flows around the area. Building of Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II,13, Pheidias workshop and paleochristian basilica,25. For a history of the Olympic Games, see Olympic Games or Ancient Olympic Games, remains of food and burnt offerings dating back to the 10th century BC give evidence of a long history of religious activity at the site. No buildings have survived from this earliest period of use, the first Olympic festival was organized on the site by the authorities of Elis in the 8th century BC – with tradition dating the first games at 776 BC. Major changes were made to the site around 700 BC, including levelling land, Elis power diminished and the sanctuary fell into the hands of the Pisatans in 676 BC. The Pisatans organized the games until the late 7th century BC, the earliest evidence of building activity on the site dates from around 600 BC. At this time the Skiloudians, allies of the Pistans, built the Temple of Hera, the Treasuries and the Pelopion were built during the course of the 6th century BC. The secular structures and athletic arenas were also under construction during this period including the Bouleuterion, the first stadium was constructed around 560 BC, it consisted of just a simple track. The stadium was remodelled around 500 BC with sloping sides for spectators, over the course of the 6th century BC a range of sports were added to the Olympic festival. In 580 BC, Elis, in alliance with Sparta, occupied Pisa, the classical period, between the 5th and 4th centuries BC, was the golden age of the site at Olympia. A wide range of new religious and secular buildings and structures were constructed, the Temple of Zeus was built in the middle of the 5th century BC
39.
Pausanias (geographer)
–
Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the time of Roman emperors Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece, a work that describes ancient Greece from his first-hand observations. This work provides crucial information for making links between classical literature and modern archaeology, andrew Stewart assesses him as, A careful, pedestrian writer. interested not only in the grandiose or the exquisite but in unusual sights and obscure ritual. He is occasionally careless, or makes unwarranted inferences, and his guides or even his own notes sometimes mislead him, yet his honesty is unquestionable, before visiting Greece, he had been to Antioch, Joppa and Jerusalem, and to the banks of the River Jordan. In Egypt, he had seen the pyramids, while at the temple of Ammon, in Macedonia, he appears to have seen the alleged tomb of Orpheus in Libethra. Crossing over to Italy, he had something of the cities of Campania. He was one of the first to write of seeing the ruins of Troy, Alexandria Troas, Pausanias Description of Greece is in ten books, each dedicated to some portion of Greece. He begins his tour in Attica, where the city of Athens, subsequent books describe Corinthia, Laconia, Messenia, Elis, Achaea, Arcadia, Boetia, Phocis and Ozolian Locris. He famously leaves out key portions of Greece such as Crete, the project is more than topographical, it is a cultural geography. Pausanias digresses from description of architectural and artistic objects to review the mythological and historical underpinnings of the society that produced them and his work bears the marks of his attempt to navigate that space and establish an identity for Roman Greece. He is not a naturalist by any means, though he does from time to comment on the physical realities of the Greek landscape. He notices the pine trees on the sandy coast of Elis, the deer and the boars in the oak woods of Phelloe. Pausanias is most at home in describing the art and architecture of Olympia. Yet, even in the most secluded regions of Greece, he is fascinated by all kinds of depictions of gods, holy relics, Pausanias has the instincts of an antiquary. Some magnificent and dominating structures, such as the Stoa of King Attalus in the Athenian Agora or the Exedra of Herodes Atticus at Olympia are not even mentioned. While he never doubts the existence of the gods and heroes, he criticizes the myths. His descriptions of monuments of art are plain and unadorned and they bear the impression of reality, and their accuracy is confirmed by the extant remains. He is perfectly frank in his confessions of ignorance, when he quotes a book at second hand he takes pains to say so
40.
Heracles
–
Heracles, born Alcaeus or Alcides, was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson and half-brother of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of clans who claimed to be Heracleidae. In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well. Extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females were among the characteristics commonly attributed to him, together with Hermes he was the patron and protector of gymnasia and palaestrae. His iconographic attributes are the skin and the club. These qualities did not prevent him from being regarded as a figure who used games to relax from his labors. By conquering dangerous archaic forces he is said to have made the safe for mankind. Many popular stories were told of his life, the most famous being The Twelve Labours of Heracles and his figure, which initially drew on Near Eastern motifs such as the lion-fight, was widely known. Heracles was the greatest of Hellenic chthonic heroes, but unlike other Greek heroes, the core of the story of Heracles has been identified by Walter Burkert as originating in Neolithic hunter culture and traditions of shamanistic crossings into the netherworld. Heracles role as a hero, whose death could be a subject of mythic telling, was accepted into the Olympian Pantheon during Classical times. Around him cries of the dead rang out like cries of birds scattering left, in Christian circles a Euhemerist reading of the widespread Heracles cult was attributed to a historical figure who had been offered cult status after his death. The ancient Greeks celebrated the festival of the Heracleia, which commemorated the death of Heracles, what is believed to be an Egyptian Temple of Heracles in the Bahariya Oasis dates to 21 BCE. A reassessment of Ptolemys descriptions of the island of Malta attempted to link the site at Ras ir-Raħeb with a temple to Heracles, several ancient cities were named Heraclea in his honor. A major factor in the tragedies surrounding Heracles is the hatred that the goddess Hera. A full account of Heracles must render it clear why Heracles was so tormented by Hera, Heracles was the son of the affair Zeus had with the mortal woman Alcmene. Zeus made love to her after disguising himself as her husband, Amphitryon, thus, Heracles very existence proved at least one of Zeus many illicit affairs, and Hera often conspired against Zeus mortal offspring as revenge for her husbands infidelities. His twin mortal brother, son of Amphitryon, was Iphicles, Hera did this knowing that while Heracles was to be born a descendant of Perseus, so too was Eurystheus
41.
Stadion (running race)
–
Stadion or stade was an ancient running event, part of the Ancient Olympic Games and the other Panhellenic Games. It was one of the five major Pentathlon events and it was the premier event of the gymnikos agon. From the years 776 to 724 BC, the stadion was the event that took place at the Olympic Games. This allows scholars to know the names of every ancient Olympic stadion winner. The stadion was named after the building in which it took place and this word became stadium in Latin, which became the English word stadium. There were other types of running events, but the stadion was the most prestigious, though a separate event, the stadion was also part of the ancient Pentathlon. At the Olympic Games, the Stadion was big enough for twenty competitors, the original stadion track in Olympia measures approximately 190 meters. The race began with a blow, with officials at the starting blocks to make sure there were no false starts. There were also officials at the end to decide on a winner, if the officials decided there was a tie, the race would be re-run. Runners started the race from a position, probably with their arms stretched out in front of them. They ran naked on a packed earth track, by the fifth century, the track was marked by a stone-starting line known as the balbis. Advancements in this stone starting block led to it having a set of grooves in which the runner placed his toes. The design of these grooves were intended to give the runner leverage for his start, the winner of the stadion in the first Olympic Games was Coroebus of Elis. The race gave its name to the unit of length, the Stadion, running in Ancient Greece Olympic winners of the Stadion race
42.
Zeus
–
Zeus /ˈzjuːs/ is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter and his mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of the Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin. Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, in most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus. At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses. He was equated with many foreign weather gods, permitting Pausanias to observe That Zeus is king in heaven is a common to all men. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak, in addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical cloud-gatherer also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses, standing, striding forward with a thunderbolt leveled in his right hand. The gods name in the nominative is Ζεύς Zeús and it is inflected as follows, vocative, Ζεῦ Zeû, accusative, Δία Día, genitive, Διός Diós, dative, Διί Dií. Diogenes Laertius quotes Pherecydes of Syros as spelling the name, Ζάς, Zeus is the Greek continuation of *Di̯ēus, the name of the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph2tēr. The god is known under this name in the Rigveda, Latin, Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology. The earliest attested forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek
43.
Athens
–
Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, culture, education and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the later on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines, Satine, and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common
44.
Laurus nobilis
–
Laurus nobilis is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glabrous leaves, in the flowering plant family Lauraceae. It is native to the Mediterranean region and is used as bay leaf for seasoning in cooking and its common names include bay laurel, sweet bay, bay, true laurel, Grecian laurel, laurel tree or simply laurel. Laurus nobilis figures prominently in classical Greek, Roman, and Biblical culture, the laurel is an evergreen shrub or small tree, variable in size and sometimes reaching 7–18 metres tall. The genus Laurus includes four accepted species, whose diagnostic key characters often overlap, the bay laurel is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants. Each flower is pale yellow-green, about 1 cm diameter, the leaves are glabrous, 6–12 cm long and 2–4 cm broad, with an entire margin. On some leaves the margin undulates, the fruit is a small, shiny black berry-like drupe about 1 cm long that contains one seed. A recent study found considerable genetic diversity within L. nobilis, Laurus nobilis is a widespread relic of the laurel forests that originally covered much of the Mediterranean Basin when the climate of the region was more humid. With the drying of the Mediterranean during the Pliocene era, the forests gradually retreated. The most abundant component found in essential oil is 1, 8-cineole. Both essential and fatty oils are present in the fruit, the fruit is pressed and water-extracted to obtain these products. The fruit contains up to 30% fatty oils and about 1% essential oils, the plant is the source of several popular herbs and one spice used in a wide variety of recipes, particularly among Mediterranean cuisines. Most commonly, the leaves are added whole to Italian pasta sauces. They are typically removed from dishes before serving, unless used as a simple garnish, whole bay leaves have a long shelf life of about one year, under normal temperature and humidity. Whole bay leaves are used almost exclusively as flavor agents during the preparation stage. Ground bay leaves, however, can be ingested safely and are used in soups and stocks. Dried laurel berries and pressed leaf oil can both be used as robust spices, and the wood can be burnt for strong smoke flavoring, aqueous extracts of bay laurel can also be used as astringents and even as a reasonable salve for open wounds. In massage therapy, the oil of bay laurel is reputed to alleviate arthritis and rheumatism, while in aromatherapy, it is used to treat earaches. A traditional folk remedy for rashes caused by poison ivy, poison oak, the chemical compound lauroside B isolated from Laurus nobilis is an inhibitor of human melanoma cell proliferation at high concentrations in-vitro
45.
Gold
–
Gold is a chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number 79. In its purest form, it is a bright, slightly yellow, dense, soft, malleable. Chemically, gold is a metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions, Gold often occurs in free elemental form, as nuggets or grains, in rocks, in veins, and in alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the element silver and also naturally alloyed with copper. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium, golds atomic number of 79 makes it one of the higher numbered, naturally occurring elements. It is thought to have produced in supernova nucleosynthesis, from the collision of neutron stars. Because the Earth was molten when it was formed, almost all of the present in the early Earth probably sank into the planetary core. Gold is resistant to most acids, though it does dissolve in aqua regia, a mixture of acid and hydrochloric acid. Gold also dissolves in solutions of cyanide, which are used in mining and electroplating. Gold dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys, but this is not a chemical reaction, as a precious metal, gold has been used for coinage, jewelry, and other arts throughout recorded history. A total of 186,700 tonnes of gold is in existence above ground, the world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry. Gold is also used in infrared shielding, colored-glass production, gold leafing, certain gold salts are still used as anti-inflammatories in medicine. As of 2014, the worlds largest gold producer by far was China with 450 tonnes, Gold is cognate with similar words in many Germanic languages, deriving via Proto-Germanic *gulþą from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃-. The symbol Au is from the Latin, aurum, the Latin word for gold, the Proto-Indo-European ancestor of aurum was *h₂é-h₂us-o-, meaning glow. This word is derived from the root as *h₂éu̯sōs, the ancestor of the Latin word Aurora. This etymological relationship is presumably behind the frequent claim in scientific publications that aurum meant shining dawn, Gold is the most malleable of all metals, a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter, and an avoirdupois ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be thin enough to become semi-transparent
46.
Silver
–
Silver is a metallic element with symbol Ag and atomic number 47. The symbol Ag stems from Latin argentum, derived from the Greek ὰργὀς, a soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. The metal is found in the Earths crust in the pure, free form, as an alloy with gold and other metals. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, gold, lead, Silver is more abundant than gold, but it is much less abundant as a native metal. Its purity is measured on a per mille basis, a 94%-pure alloy is described as 0.940 fine. As one of the seven metals of antiquity, silver has had a role in most human cultures. Silver has long valued as a precious metal. Silver metal is used in many premodern monetary systems in bullion coins, Silver is used in numerous applications other than currency, such as solar panels, water filtration, jewelry, ornaments, high-value tableware and utensils, and as an investment medium. Silver is used industrially in electrical contacts and conductors, in specialized mirrors, window coatings, Silver compounds are used in photographic film and X-rays. Dilute silver nitrate solutions and other compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides, added to bandages and wound-dressings, catheters. Silver is similar in its physical and chemical properties to its two neighbours in group 11 of the periodic table, copper and gold. This distinctive electron configuration, with an electron in the highest occupied s subshell over a filled d subshell. Silver is a soft, ductile and malleable transition metal. Silver crystallizes in a cubic lattice with bulk coordination number 12. Unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in silver are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak and this observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of silver. Silver has a brilliant white metallic luster that can take a polish. Protected silver has greater optical reflectivity than aluminium at all wavelengths longer than ~450 nm, at wavelengths shorter than 450 nm, silvers reflectivity is inferior to that of aluminium and drops to zero near 310 nm. The electrical conductivity of silver is the greatest of all metals, greater even than copper, during World War II in the US,13540 tons of silver were used in electromagnets for enriching uranium, mainly because of the wartime shortage of copper
47.
Bronze
–
These additions produce a range of alloys that may be harder than copper alone, or have other useful properties, such as stiffness, ductility, or machinability. The archeological period where bronze was the hardest metal in use is known as the Bronze Age. In the ancient Near East this began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, with India and China starting to use bronze around the same time, everywhere it gradually spread across regions. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age starting from about 1300 BC and reaching most of Eurasia by about 500 BC, the discovery of bronze enabled people to create metal objects which were harder and more durable than previously possible. Bronze tools, weapons, armor, and building such as decorative tiles were harder and more durable than their stone. It was only later that tin was used, becoming the major ingredient of bronze in the late 3rd millennium BC. Tin bronze was superior to arsenic bronze in that the process could be more easily controlled. Also, unlike arsenic, metallic tin and fumes from tin refining are not toxic, the earliest tin-alloy bronze dates to 4500 BCE in a Vinča culture site in Pločnik. Other early examples date to the late 4th millennium BC in Africa, Susa and some ancient sites in China, Luristan, ores of copper and the far rarer tin are not often found together, so serious bronze work has always involved trade. Tin sources and trade in ancient times had a influence on the development of cultures. In Europe, a source of tin was the British deposits of ore in Cornwall. In many parts of the world, large hoards of bronze artefacts are found, suggesting that bronze also represented a store of value, in Europe, large hoards of bronze tools, typically socketed axes, are found, which mostly show no signs of wear. With Chinese ritual bronzes, which are documented in the inscriptions they carry and from other sources and these were made in enormous quantities for elite burials, and also used by the living for ritual offerings. Pure iron is soft, and the process of beating and folding sponge iron to wrought iron removes from the metal carbon. Careful control of the alloying and tempering eventually allowed for wrought iron with properties comparable to modern steel, Bronze was still used during the Iron Age, and has continued in use for many purposes to the modern day. Among other advantages, it does not rust, the weaker wrought iron was found to be sufficiently strong for many uses. Archaeologists suspect that a disruption of the tin trade precipitated the transition. The population migrations around 1200–1100 BC reduced the shipping of tin around the Mediterranean, limiting supplies, there are many different bronze alloys, but typically modern bronze is 88% copper and 12% tin
48.
1904 Summer Olympics
–
The 1904 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the III Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in St. Louis. It was the first time that the Olympic Games were held in a majority English language nation, European tension caused by the Russo-Japanese War, and the difficulty of getting to St. Louis, kept most of the worlds top athletes away. Only 62 of the 650 athletes who competed came from outside of North America, 80% of competitors were from the United States, and in over half of the events these were the only competitors. In some cases the U. S. national championship was combined with the Olympic championship, pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, gave in and awarded the games to St. Louis. St. Louis organizers treated the games in a similar to the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. Competitions were reduced to a side-show of the Worlds Fair and were overshadowed by other, david R. Francis, the President of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, declined to invite anybody else to open the Games and, on July 1 did so himself. Officially, the games lasted for four and a half months, in fact, the Olympic-calibre events were mixed with other sporting events that Sullivan also called Olympic. The IOC later declared that 94 of these events were Olympic, the actual athletics events that formed the bulk of the recognised Olympic sports were held from Monday, August 29 to Saturday, September 3. The participants totalled 651 athletes –645 men and 6 women representing 12 countries, however, only 42 events actually included athletes who were not from the United States. Boxing, dumbbells, freestyle wrestling and the made their debuts. The swimming events were held in a pond near Skinker and Wydown Boulevards. The organizers of the Worlds Fair held Anthropology Days on August 12 and 13, one of the most remarkable athletes was the American gymnast George Eyser, who won six medals even though his left leg was made of wood. Frank Kugler won four medals in wrestling, weightlifting and tug of war. Chicago runner James Lightbody won the steeplechase and the 800 m, sprinter Archie Hahn was champion in the 60 m,100 m and 200 m. In this last race, he set an Olympic record in 21.6, in the discus, after American Martin Sheridan had thrown exactly the same distance as his compatriot, Ralph Rose, the judges gave them both an extra throw to decide the winner. Sheridan won the decider and claimed the gold medal, ray Ewry again won all three standing jumps. The team representing Great Britain was awarded a total of two medals, both won by Irish athletes, the top non-USA athlete was Emil Rausch of Germany, who won three swimming events. Zoltan Halmay of Hungary and Charles Daniels of the United States each won two swimming gold medals, galt Football Club from Canada won the gold medal in football
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
