19 Facts About Olympics

1.

Origin of the Olympics is shrouded in mystery and legend; one of the most popular myths identifies Heracles and his father Zeus as the progenitors of the Games.

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2.

Olympics were of fundamental religious importance, featuring sporting events alongside ritual sacrifices honouring both Zeus and Pelops, divine hero and mythical king of Olympia.

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3.

Olympics presented these ideas during the first Olympic Congress of the newly created International Olympic Committee.

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4.

Winter Olympics was created to feature snow and ice sports that were logistically impossible to hold during the Summer Games.

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5.

In 1960, Guttmann brought 400 athletes to Rome to compete in the "Parallel Olympics", which ran in parallel with the Summer Olympics and came to be known as the first Paralympics.

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6.

The 1984 Summer Olympics are often considered the most financially successful modern Olympics and a model for future Games.

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7.

Conversely hosting the Olympics appears to increase the host country's exports, as the host or candidate country sends a signal about trade openness when bidding to host the Games.

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8.

Games have had significant negative effects on host communities; for example, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions reports that the Olympics displaced more than two million people over two decades, often disproportionately affecting disadvantaged groups.

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9.

Furthermore, at least four cities withdrew their bids for the 2022 Winter Olympics, citing the high costs or the lack of local support, resulting in only a two-city race between Almaty, Kazakhstan and Beijing, China.

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10.

Nevertheless, from sporting and business standpoints, the 2002 Olympics were one of the most successful Winter Games in history; records were set in both the broadcasting and marketing programs.

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11.

Olympics cited French president Jacques Chirac as a witness; Chirac gave guarded interviews concerning his involvement but the allegation was never fully explored.

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12.

The Summer Olympics programme includes 26 sports, while the Winter Olympics programme features 15 sports.

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13.

Olympics's medals were posthumously restored by the IOC in 1983 on compassionate grounds.

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14.

Olympics was officially cleared of intentionally avoiding the bout, but his receipt of the prize money raised suspicion.

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15.

Russia was partially banned from the 2016 Summer Olympics and was banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics due to the state-sponsored doping programme.

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16.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, every participating nation included female athletes for the first time in Olympic history.

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17.

In preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the Russian Olympic Committee naturalised a South Korean-born short-track speed-skater, Ahn Hyun-soo, and an American-born snowboarder, Vic Wild.

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18.

One of the most famous cases of changing nationality for the Olympics was Zola Budd, a South African runner who emigrated to the United Kingdom because there was an apartheid-era ban on the Olympics in South Africa.

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19.

The 2020 Summer Olympics were held in Tokyo in 2021 due to postponement from the COVID-19 pandemic.

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