Interesting facts about the Olympics

Here is a selection of facts I found HERE that I thought were rather interesting, there are others but htese are my choices... and my two cents *

1896 Athens

Medals, 1896 - At the first games, silver medals were awarded to the winners and bronze to the second place getters *they should have complained

The first modern Games were hardly an international competition. Only 13 nations took part, and just over 300 athletes, more than two-thirds being Greek.

1900 Paris

More athletes than spectators attended the 1900-Paris Games. *Advertising anyone :D

Football was the first team sport added to the Olympics in 1900

Charlotte Cooper, Tennis, 1900
The first woman to win an Olympic event was England's Charlotte Cooper, who won the tennis singles at the 1900 games.

Pigeon Shooting, 1900
Fortunately this short lived event was the only time animals were killed on purpose during an Olympic event * Glad they areusing clay ones now!

1904 St Lois

In 1904 the Olympic Games was still well short of being a true international competition. Eighty-five percent of the competitors were Americans, and eight percent were Canadians. There was only one competitor from Australia, and no British at all. *Poor lonely Aussie, but the British, a no-show?

1912 Stockholm

Jim Thorpe, Decathlon, 1912
The star of the 1912 Games was the American Indian Jim Thorpe, who won both the decathlon and pentathlon. However, in the following year it was discovered that he once played semi-professional baseball, and he was subsequently striped of his gold medals. * Now that is just not fair, its not like he was taking performance enhancing drugs now is it!

Sarah Durack, swimming 1912
The first women's swimming gold medal was won by the Australian Sarah 'Fanny' Durack, who won the 100m freestyle in 1912. *Aussie, Aussie, Aussie - Oi, Oi, Oi!

1928 Amsterdam

Olympic flame, 1928
The idea of an Olympic Flame burning from the start of the games to the closing was first introduced in 1928.

1932 Los Angeles

Mildred Didriksen, athletics, 1932
American Mildred "Babe" Didriksen won medals in high jumping, hurdling, and the javelin in 1932.  She is the only athlete to ever medal in all three events. * I'll bet she was handy in a fight!

1936 Berlin

Television, 1936 - The first games to be televised were the 1936 Berlin Games.

1940

The start of World War II in 1939 forced the cancellation of the 1940 Olympics, which were to be held in Tokyo. This was after they had gone to the trouble of building a huge stadium. * Poor Tkyo, and if that was not insulting enough, they had to wait 24 years to hold the games

1948 London

Cricket, 1948
On the day the 1948 Olympic games began at Wembley Stadium in London, June 29, the famed Australian ‘Invincibles’ cricket side was finishing off England in a test at nearby Lord’s, winning by 409 runs. * Aussie, Aussie, Aussie - Oi, Oi, Oi!

Fanny Blankers-Koen, athletics, 1948
Holland's "Fanny" Blankers-Koen won 4 gold medals in track and field at the 1948 London Games.  Fanny was 30 years old and the mother of 2 at the time. * Thats one busy lady!!

1952 Helsinki

Soviet Union, 1952 - The Soviet Union first entered the Olympic Games in 1952.

In 1952, Emil Zatopek of Czechoslovakia became the only man to win gold metals in the 5000 meters, the 10,000 meters, and the marathon in the same Olympiad.

1956 Melbourne

The Olympic torchbearer for the 1956 Olympics was a virtually unknown 19 year old at the time he carried the torch into the stadium at Melbourne. Ron Clarke went on to become the world's finest distance runner in the 1960s.

The 1956 Games in Melbourne, Australia, were the first games to be held in the southern hemisphere. * Took them long enough to bring them back mind!

Closing Ceremony, 1956
The song that ended the closing ceremony at the 1956 games was 'Will Ye No Come Back Again?'

1964 Tokyo

Bob Windle is relatively unknown, but has a prominent place in Australia's fine 1500m swimming record. He won the event in 1964, in an Olympic record time of 17min 1.7seconds. *  See chant above LOL

Ethiopian marathoner Abebe Bikila was the first man to successfully defend the marathon title. (1960 and 1964).  He only wore shoes for the second victory. * Did anyone speak to Nike?

1968 Mexico City

The Olympic games in Mexico were at the highest altitude. The venue had an altitude of 2,239 meters. * This was theolny games that atheletes were supposed to get high!

1972 Munich

British Equestrian, Lorna Johnstone was 70 years and 5 days old when she rode at the 1972 Games, thus being the oldest woman ever to compete at an Olympic Games. *

Mark Spitz from USA won seven gold medals at the Munich Games, and won them all in world record time. * Go Mark!

1976 Montreal

No gymnast had ever achieved a perfect score of 10, until Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci scored perfect 10's seven times at the 1976-Montreal games. * Does anyone NOT know this girls name?

1980 Moscow

Aleksandr Ditiatin of the Soviet Union earned 8 Gold medals in gymnastics at the 1980 games.

Of course there are loads more facts around but as I have not really mentioned the games I wanted to share these with you all.

More cool sites are the official Athens 2004 site and the Olympic movement site the latter has even got clips of opening cermonies!!