Olympic Games are major international event consists of summer and winter sports. In Olympic Games thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s best sports competition where over two hundred nations participated. Olympic Games are two seasonal games with Summer Olympic and Winter Olympic Games and are currently held every two years within their respective seasonal games alternating, although they occur every four years. Next Summer Games will be held in London, in the year 2012.
The best amateur athletes in the world match skill and endurance in a series of contests called the Olympic Games. Almost every nation sends teams of selected athletes to take part. The purposes of the Olympic Games are to foster the ideal of a "sound mind in a sound body" and to promote friendship among nations.
The Greeks were the first to start the Summer Games in 776 BC in the plains of Olympia in Peloponnese. The ancient Summer Games grew and continued to be played every four years for nearly 1200 years. In 394 AD, the Christian Byzantine Emperor Theodosius banned the Olympic Games because of their pagan connection. The successful campaign to revive the Olympic Games was started in France by a young Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin in the late 19th century. The first of the modern Summer Games opened on Sunday, March 24, 1896, in Athens, Greece.
Olympic Games originally included only one event, the stadion race, which was a short sprint measuring between 180 and 240 meters. Over the years, more events were added including boxing, wrestling, chariot racing, pentathlon, wrestling; long jump, javelin throw and discus throw among others.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) is the governing body of the Olympic Games, was founded in Paris in 1894. International Olympic Committee headquarters are in Lausanne and Switzerland. Demetrious Vikelas from Greece was its first president. The original committee had 15 individuals, but the number today is currently 113, including the President and the Executive Board. At present, the IOC also has 28 honorary members and one honour member.
The Olympic flag was adopted in 1914 and was first used in the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium. The flag depicts five interlocking rings (blue, yellow, black, green, and red) against a white background. These rings represent the five inhabited continents Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe.
The Winter Games were added in 1924. Winter Games include sports are skating, skiing, bobsledding, luge, tobogganing, ice hockey, and the biathlon (skiing-shooting). World War I and World War II forced cancellation of the Olympics in 1916, 1940, and 1944, but they resumed in 1948 and are held every four years. After 1992 the Winter Games and Summer Games were no longer held within the same calendar year. Winter Games were scheduled for 1994, after only a two-year interval, and every four years thereafter. The Olympic Games were scheduled for 1996, and every four years thereafter.
The official Olympic Motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius", a Latin phrase meaning "Swifter, Higher, Stronger". The concept of Olympic mascot was first introduced in the year 1968 which is usually an animal or human figure representing the cultural heritage of the host country.
Women take part in both summer and winter Olympics. Ten new women's Olympic competitions added in 1984 included the marathon and a 49-mile cycling event. The pentathlon, introduced in 1964, was replaced by the heptathlon, which consists of 100-meter hurdles, shot put, high jump, long jump, javelin throw, and 200- and 800-meter races. Additional events for women in the 1992 Winter Olympic and Summer Olympic included the biathlon, 10-kilometer walk, baseball, and judo.
