Facts about Olympics
Next, the Olympic flag is carried horizontally (since the 1960 Summer Olympics) into the stadium and hoisted as the Olympic Anthem is played.
When the modern Olympics resumed in 1896, there was hope that such grand-scale athletic competition could be a force for peace.
The number of competitors at the Winter Olympics is much smaller than at the Summer Games; at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin Italy, 2,633 athletes from 80 countries competed in 84 events.
The interest in reviving the Olympics as an international event grew further when the ruins of ancient Olympia were uncovered by German archaeologists in the mid-nineteenth century.
The Olympic Flame has been lit since the 1928 Summer Olympics, but the torch relay did not start until the 1936 Summer Olympics.
The practice of boycotting dates back to at least 1830, when the National Negro Convention encouraged a boycott of slave-produced goods.
From the 241 participants from 14 nations in 1896, the Games grew to more than 11,000 competitors from 202 countries at the 2004 Summer Olympics, again held in Athens.
The Emperors of China strove for millennia to keep knowledge of sericulture secret to maintain the Chinese monopoly, with the threat of death by torture to anyone sharing the technology or exporting silkworm eggs.
The Olympics continue to engender pride in human accomplishment and respect for political adversaries, yet the promise of the Olympics to rise above about political divisions and exemplify human ideals remains to be realized.
Cross country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and speed skating have been featured on the program at all Winter Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded in 1894, and the first of the IOC's Olympic Games were the 1896 Summer Olympics, held in Athens.
Beginning at the post-World War I 1920 Summer Olympics, the lighting of the Olympic Flame was for 68 years followed by the release of doves, symbolizing peace.
Greece normally marches first, because of its historical status as the origin of the Olympics, while the host nation marches last.
Opening ceremonies have been held outdoors, usually on the main athletics stadium, but those for the 2010 Winter Olympics will be the first to be held indoors, at the BC Place Stadium.
Figure skating and ice hockey also had been contested as part of the Summer Games before the introduction of separate Winter Olympics.
Swiss and Austrian skiers boycotted the 1936 Winter Olympics in support of their skiing teachers, who were not allowed to compete because they earned money with their sport and were considered professionals.
At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, the first three were given wreaths as well as their medals.
The Summer Olympics includes 28 sports with 38 disciplines and the Winter Olympics includes seven sports with 15 disciplines.
Greek officials and the public were very enthusiastic and proposed to have the monopoly over organizing the Olympics.
The growth of the Olympics also means that some less popular (modern pentathlon) or expensive (white water canoeing) sports may lose their place on the Olympic program.
The Olympic Games (often referred to simply as The Olympics) are the worlds premier multi-sport international athletic competition held every four years in various locations.
More broadly speaking, the term Olympic Movement is sometimes also meant to include everybody and everything involved in the Olympics, such as national sport governing bodies, athletes, media, and sponsors of the Olympic Games.
The Olympics are one of the world's largest media events.
The most famous oracular shrine in the Greek world, located at Delphi, was dedicated to Apollo.
The growth of the Olympics is one of the largest problems the Olympics face today.
Nadia Comaneci
In fact, it was the conduct of Roosevelt– who never invited Owens to the White House or acknowledged his triumphs–that disappointed the Olympic champion. “Hitler didn't snub me—it was our president who snubbed me,” he said months after the Games.Sep 12, 2013
1936
Germany has hosted three Olympic Games, in 1936 both the Winter and Summer Games, and the 1972 Summer Olympics. In addition, Germany had been selected to host the 1916 Summer Olympics as well as the 1940 Winter Olympics, both of which had to be cancelled due to World Wars.
Athletes from Germany (GER) have appeared in only 20 of the 22 editions of the Winter Olympic Games as they were not invited to two events after the World Wars, in 1924 and 1948. Germany hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and had been selected to host in 1940 again.
The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games (French: Les IVes Jeux olympiques d'hiver) (German: Olympische Winterspiele 1936), were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1936 in the market town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, Germany.