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Olympic Games facts

While investigating facts about Olympic Games 2020 and Olympic Games List, I found out little known, but curios details like:

In the 1928 Olympics, Australian sculler Bobby Pearce stopped rowing to let a family of ducks pass. His opponent ended up with a 5 length lead. In the final 1,000 meters Pearce pulled ahead by 30 seconds, not only winning the gold but setting a Games record.

how olympic games started?

Medals from 2016 Rio Olympic Games are defective and show rusting, chipping

When is mario and sonic at the olympic games 2020?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering when is mario and sonic at the olympic winter games. Here are 50 of the best facts about Olympic Games History and Olympic Games 2024 I managed to collect.

what games are played at olympic games?

  1. The 2020 Olympic Games will take place in Tokyo, Japan, as predicted in the manga "Akira" released in 1982.

  2. The night before the Miracle on Ice, American goalie Jim Craig and Soviet star forward Sergei Markov played the arcade game "Centipede" at the Olympic Village. The two could barely speak in each other's language, so they communicated with nods and laughs.

  3. Alexander the Great once organized an Olympic Games to honor a dead religious leader. However, since the Indians weren't familiar with Greek sport, he opted for a wine-drinking contest instead. 41 contestants died and the winner lived for just four days after his victory.

  4. The facial expressions we make are hardwired into our brains rather than learned during life. After comparing the expressions of sighted and blind athletes at the 2004 Olympic games, researchers concluded that both competitors showed or controlled their expressions in exactly the same way.

  5. With less then 24 hours notice before the 2014 Olympics Hockey final Canada vs Sweden, Alberta changed the liquor law to allow bars to open at 5 am and serve liquor so people could watch the game at the bar.

  6. In 67 AD, the Roman Emperor Nero participated in the Olympics, bribing the organizers to postpone the games for a year. Nero won every contest, even one which he left the race after being thrown off his chariot. He was removed from the list of winners after his death.

  7. Doves were traditionally released during the opening ceremony of the Olympics games, until Seoul 1988. Several of the birds, instead of flying away, settled on the cauldron housing the Olympic flame and were subsequently incinerated in front of the crowd when it was lit.

  8. Zambia is the only country to have entered an Olympics as one country (Northern Rhodesia) and left the games as another. Zambia declared independence on the last day of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

  9. The idea of having the Olympic torch run from ancient Olympia to the host country was invented by the Nazis for the 1936 Berlin Summer Games.

  10. 87 year old Leo Thalassites is the oldest living policeman in America. He served in all 5 branches of the U.S military, received 3 purple hearts, competed in the Olympic games, and blames modern-day overweight cops who "are quick to pull a gun because they can’t use their fists."

olympic games facts
What olympic games are in 2020?

Olympic Games data charts

For your convenience take a look at Olympic Games figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.

olympic games fact data chart about Medal table of the Olympic Winter games 2018 in Pyeongchang,
Medal table of the Olympic Winter games 2018 in Pyeongchang, ordered by population of the countries (19. Feb. 2018, 13:00 GMT+1)

olympic games fact data chart about Number of medals at the Winter Olympic Games per average ele
Number of medals at the Winter Olympic Games per average elevation of the country

Why olympic games survived since 776 bc?

You can easily fact check why olympic games started by examining the linked well-known sources.

Mack Robinson, brother of Jackie Robinson, medaled in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Upon returning home to California, the only work he could find as an African American was sweeping streets, which he did while wearing his Olympic 'USA' sweatshirt.

During 1936 Berlin Olympic games, the Nazis ridiculed the US for relying on "non-human black auxiliaries." American black athlete Jesse Owens went on to win 4 gold medals and beat a German at Long Jump in front of Hitler. Four years after Owens' death, a street in Berlin was renamed after him. - source

Finland and Sweden are the only countries in the world that have earned a medal at every Olympic game since 1908. - source

Arrhichion is the only person to have won an Olympic event while dead. His opponent suffocated him during a game of pankration, essentially a no-holds-barred fight, but didn't realize that he had killed Arrhichion and surrendered due to his injuries.

28 countries boycotted the 1976 Olympic Games because New Zealand was allowed to compete - source

When olympic games started?

At the 2000 Sydney Games, the stock of 70,000 condoms was not enough for the athletes, prompting a second order of 20,000 additionally. Since then, a standing order of 100,000 condoms has to be made per Olympics to accommodate all the sex that occurs at the Olympic Village during the downtime.

How many games in olympic?

In the 1936 Olympic games, boxer Thomas Hamilton-Brown lost his opening bout so went on an eating binge to console himself. An error was soon discovered and it turned out he didn't lose, but was disqualified from competition because he had gained so much weight from binge eating.

During the parade of nations at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, Greece always enters the stadium first due to its status as the birthplace of the Olympics.

The Olympics has handed out participation medals since the first Olympic Games.

The 1992 Olympics US basketball team (the "Dream Team") won all of their games by an average of 44 points. They have been called "the most dominant squad ever assembled in any sport."

At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona Zhang Shan became the first and only woman to win a gold medal in a mixed gender event; Skeet Shooting. She was unable to defend her title at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta because the Skeet Shooting event was only open to men.

Olympic games infographics

Beautiful visual representation of Olympic Games numbers and stats to get perspecive of the whole story.

olympic games fact infographic about Height and weight of athletes of modern Olympic Games by dis

Height and weight of athletes of modern Olympic Games by discipline


olympic games fact infographic about BMI of athletes of modern Olympic Games by discipline

BMI of athletes of modern Olympic Games by discipline


When olympic games held?

Only five (5) athletes--three women and two men--have ever won a medal at both the Winter AND Summer Olympic Games. Eddie Eagan, the first to do it, is still the only athlete to win gold in both.

Before becoming President of Nauru, Marcus Stephen was at one time his country's only weightlifter, but went on to win 7 gold and 5 silver medals at the Commonwealth Games (Olympics style event held for former British colonies)

Denver, Colorado is the only city to be awarded the Olympic Games to reject them.

The 1940 Winter Olympics were originally given to Japan. They declined the games due to the start of the Sino-Japanese War. Eventually they were awarded to Germany. Three months later, Germany invaded Poland. The games were canceled altogether.

Despite lack of media coverage, the Special Olympics World Games is often the largest sporting event of the year

How did the olympic games begin?

Hockey announcer Doc Emrick used 153 distinct verbs to describe the movement of the hockey puck in the 2014 Olympic game between USA and Canada.

Emperor Nero competed in the Olympic Games. Nero did terribly and was nearly killed in a chariot race, but was nonetheless declared the winner in every event he competed in.

At the 1936 Olympic games, competitors from Liechtenstein were shocked to discover their flag was the exact same as Haiti's. Liechtenstein added a crown to their flag a year later.

The last time the Olympics were in Korea, North Korean agents tried to derail the games by blowing a passenger plane and killing 115 people.

Architecture, painting, poetry, music, literature, all used to be part of the Olympic Games.

In 1976 the mayor of Montreal declared before the Olympic games that "The Olympics can no more lose money than a man can have a baby." He was wrong. Mismanagement and gross cost overruns left the city with $1.5 billion of debt that wasn't paid off until 2006.

Killing an opposing boxer in the original Olympic Games resulted in the dead boxer being declared the winner

Athletes in the Olympic Village reportedly used 70,000 condoms at the 2000 games, and 100,000 at the 2008 games. About 450,000 were provided in 2016.

In the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, skateboarding will be included for the very first time as an Olympic game. Bowling was also suggested but didn't make the final 5 additions.

Lithuania's Olympic basketball team was able to participate in the 1992 Games despite post-independence financial issues partly thanks to a sponsorship from the Grateful Dead. They returned home in tie dye uniforms with bronze medals.

Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam are independently participating in the Olympic games even though they are US territories and the athletes are US Citizens.

The Yellow Fleet, 15 ships trapped in the Suez Canal for 8 years as a result of hostilities between Egypt and Israel. Over time they formed a micronation, a yacht club and staged the Bitter Lake Olympic Games.

The London 2012 Summer Olympic Committee contacted The Who manager Bill Curbishley about Kieth Moon performing at the games, 34 years after his death.

Canada is the only host nation in the history of the games not to win a gold medal in their own Summer Olympic Games (Montreal 1976)

Female athletes suffering from hyperandrogenism (a condition characterized by excessive levels of androgens in the body) are not allowed to compete in Olympic Games on the ground that it can confer an unfair advantage

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about Olympic Games. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is Olympic Games so important!

Editor Veselin Nedev Editor