Olympic Games

The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; French: Jeux olympiques) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports events in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of athletic competitions. The Olympic Games, open to both amateur and professional athletes, involve more than 200 teams, each team representing a sovereign state or territory.

Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, leading to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement, which encompasses all entities and individuals involved in the Olympic Games.

The Olympic Games have become a significant global event, fostering international cooperation and cultural exchange. At the same time, hosting the Olympic Games can also bring significant economic benefits and challenges to the host city, affecting infrastructure, tourism and local communities. The Games provide athletes with a chance to attain national and international fame while offering the host city an opportunity to showcase itself to the world.

Ancient Olympics

Main article: Ancient Olympic Games

The Ancient Olympic Games were religious and athletic festivals held every four years at the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia, Greece. They featured mainly athletic events, but also combat sports such as wrestling and the pankration, as well as horse and chariot racing.

The first recorded Olympic Games were in 776 BC, starting with a simple footrace called the stadion. Over time, more events were added, including a pentathlon, boxing, and equestrian competitions. The Games were important religious events, with winners being honored with poems and statues, though the only official prize was a wreath of olive leaves. The Ancient Olympics continued until around 393 AD when they were ended by Roman rulers.

Modern Games

See also: List of Olympic Games host cities

Forerunners

Various uses of the term "Olympic" to describe athletic events in the modern era have been documented since the 17th century. The first such event was the Cotswold Games or "Cotswold Olimpick Games", an annual meeting near Chipping Campden, England, involving various sports. It was first organised by the lawyer Robert Dover between 1612 and 1642, with several later celebrations leading up to the present day. The British Olympic Association, in its bid for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, mentioned these games as "the first stirrings of Britain's Olympic beginnings".

L'Olympiade de la République, a national Olympic festival held annually from 1796 to 1798 in Revolutionary France also attempted to emulate the ancient Olympic Games. The competition included several disciplines from the ancient Greek Olympics. The 1796 Games also marked the introduction of the metric system into sport.

In 1834 and 1836, the Olympic Games were held in Ramlösa, Sweden, and in Stockholm in 1843, organised by Gustaf Johan Schartau and others. The Games were attended by 25,000 spectators at most.

In 1850, an Olympian Class was started by William Penny Brookes at Much Wenlock, in Shropshire, England. In 1859, Brookes changed the name to the Wenlock Olympian Games. This annual sports festival continues to this day. The Wenlock Olympian Society was founded by Brookes on 15 November 1860.

Between 1862 and 1867, Liverpool held an annual Grand Olympic Festival. Devised by John Hulley and Charles Pierre Melly, these games were the first to be wholly amateur in nature and international in outlook, although only 'gentlemen amateurs' could compete. The programme of the first modern Olympiad in Athens in 1896 was almost identical to that of the Liverpool Olympics. In 1865 Hulley, Brookes and E. G. Ravenstein founded the National Olympian Association in Liverpool, a forerunner of the British Olympic Association. Its articles of foundation provided the framework for the International Olympic Charter. In 1866, a national Olympic Games in Great Britain was organised at London's Crystal Palace.

Revival

Greek interest in reviving the Olympic Games began with the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821. It was first proposed by poet and newspaper editor Panagiotis Soutsos in his poem "Dialogue of the Dead", published in 1833. Evangelos Zappas, a wealthy Greek-Romanian philanthropist, first wrote to King Otto of Greece, in 1856, offering to fund a permanent revival of the Olympic Games. Zappas sponsored the first Olympic Games in 1859, which was held in an Athens city square. Athletes participated from Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Zappas funded the restoration of the ancient Panathenaic Stadium so that it could host all future Olympic Games.

The stadium hosted the Olympics in 1870 and 1875. In 1890, after attending the Olympian Games of the Wenlock Olympian Society, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who aimed to promote international peace and friendship through sports, was inspired to found the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Coubertin built on the ideas and work of Brookes and Zappas with the aim of establishing internationally rotating Olympic Games that would occur every four years. He presented these ideas during the first Olympic Congress of the newly created International Olympic Committee. This meeting was held from 16 to 23 June 1894, at the University of Paris. On the last day of the Congress, it was decided that the first Olympic Games to come under the auspices of the IOC would take place in Athens in 1896. The IOC elected the Greek writer Demetrius Vikelas as its first president.

1896 Games

Main article: 1896 Summer Olympics

The first Games held under the auspices of the IOC were hosted in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens in 1896. The Games brought together 14 nations and 241 athletes who competed in 43 events. Zappas and his cousin Konstantinos Zappas had left the Greek government a trust to fund future Olympic Games. This trust was used to help finance the 1896 Games. George Averoff contributed generously for the refurbishment of the stadium in preparation for the Games. The Greek government also provided funding, which was expected to be recouped through the sale of tickets and from the sale of the first Olympic commemorative stamp set.

Greek officials and the public were enthusiastic about the experience of hosting an Olympic Games. This feeling was shared by many of the athletes, who even demanded that Athens be the permanent Olympic host city. The IOC intended for subsequent Games to be rotated to various host cities around the world. The second Olympics was held in Paris.

Changes and adaptations

Main article: Summer Olympic Games

After the success of the 1896 Games, the Olympics entered a period of stagnation which threatened its survival. The Olympic Games held at the Paris Exposition in 1900 and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904 failed to attract much participation or notice. The Games rebounded with the 1906 Intercalated Games (so-called because they were the second Olympics to take place within the third Olympiad), which were held in Athens. These Games attracted a broad international field of participants and generated a great deal of public interest, marking the beginning of a rise in both the popularity and the size of the Olympics. The 1906 Games were officially recognised by the IOC at the time (although not any longer), and no Intercalated Games have been held since.

Winter Games

Main article: Winter Olympic Games

The Winter Olympics was created to feature snow and ice sports that were logistically impossible to hold during the Summer Games. Figure skating (in 1908 and 1920) and ice hockey (in 1920) were featured as Olympic events at the Summer Olympics. The IOC desired to expand this list of sports to encompass other winter activities. At the 1921 Olympic Congress in Lausanne, it was decided to hold a winter version of the Olympic Games. A winter sports week was held in Chamonix, France, in connection with the Paris Games held three months later; this event became the first Winter Olympic Games. Although, it was intended that the same country host both the Winter and Summer Games in a given year, this idea was quickly abandoned. The IOC mandated that the Winter Games be celebrated every four years in the same year as their summer counterpart. This tradition was upheld until the 1992 Games in Albertville, France; after that, beginning with the 1994 Games, the Winter Olympics were held every four years, two years after each Summer Olympics. This allowed the IOC to space out the logistical and financial costs of the two events from one another, and generate advertising revenue from the Games every two years instead of four.

Paralympics

Main article: Paralympic Games

In 1948, Sir Ludwig Guttmann, determined to promote the rehabilitation of soldiers after World War II, organised a multi-sport event between several hospitals to coincide with the 1948 London Olympics. Originally known as the Stoke Mandeville Games, Guttmann's event became an annual sports festival. Over the next 12 years, Guttmann and others continued their efforts to use sports as an avenue to healing.

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. Since then, the Paralympics have been held in every Olympic year and, starting with the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, the host city for the Olympics has also played host to the Paralympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) signed an agreement in 2001 which guaranteed that host cities would be contracted to manage both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The agreement came into effect at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, and at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

Two years before the 2012 Games, the LOCOG chairman Lord Coe made the following statement about the Paralympics and Olympics in London:

We want to change public attitudes towards disability, celebrate the excellence of Paralympic sport and to enshrine from the very outset that the two Games are an integrated whole.

Youth Games

Main article: Youth Olympic Games

In 2010, the Olympic Games were complemented by the Youth Games, which give athletes between the ages of 14 and 18 the chance to compete. The Youth Olympic Games were conceived by IOC president Jacques Rogge in 2001 and approved during the 119th Congress of the IOC. The first Summer Youth Games were held in Singapore from 14 to 26 August 2010, while the inaugural Winter Games were hosted in Innsbruck, Austria, two years later. These Games will be shorter than the senior Games; the summer version will last twelve days, while the winter version will last nine days. The IOC allows 3,500 athletes and 875 officials to participate at the Summer Youth Games, and 970 athletes and 580 officials at the Winter Youth Games. The sports to be contested will coincide with those scheduled for the senior Games, however there will be variations on the sports including mixed NOC and mixed gender teams as well as a reduced number of disciplines and events.

21st-century Games

Over 14,000 athletes competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics and 2022 Winter Olympics combined, in 40 different sports and 448 events. The Summer Olympics have grown from 241 participants representing 14 nations in 1896, to more than 11,300 competitors representing 206 nations in 2020. The scope and scale of the Winter Olympics is smaller; for example, Beijing hosted 2,971 athletes from 91 nations in 2022. Most of the athletes and officials are housed in the Olympic Village for the duration of the Games. This accommodation centre is designed to be a self-contained home for all Olympic participants, and is furnished with cafeterias, health clinics, and locations for religious expression.

The IOC has allowed the formation of National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to represent individual nations. These do not meet the strict requirements for political sovereignty that other international organisations demand. As a result, colonies and dependencies are permitted to compete at Olympic Games, examples being territories such as Puerto Rico, Bermuda, and Hong Kong, all of which compete as separate nations despite being legally a part of another country. The current version of the Olympic Charter allows for the establishment of new NOCs to represent nations that qualify as "an independent State recognised by the international community". Consequently, the IOC did not allow the formation of NOCs for Sint Maarten and Curaçao when they gained the same constitutional status as Aruba in 2010, although the IOC had recognised the Aruban Olympic Committee in 1986. Since 2012, athletes from the former Netherlands Antilles have had the option to represent either the Netherlands or Aruba.

Cost of the Games

See also: Cost of the Olympic Games

The Oxford Olympics Study 2016 found that, since 1960, sports-related costs for the Summer Games were on average US$5.2 billion and for the Winter Games $3.1 billion. These figures do not include wider infrastructure costs like roads, urban rail, and airports, which often cost as much or more than the sports-related costs. The most expensive Summer Games were Beijing 2008 at US$40‍–‍44 billion, and the most expensive Winter Games were Sochi 2014 at US$51 billion. As of 2016, costs per athlete were, on average, US$599,000 for the Summer Games and $1.3 million for the Winter Games; for London 2012, the cost per athlete was $1.4 million, and the figure was $7.9 million for Sochi 2014.

Where ambitious construction for the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal and the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow had burdened organisers with expenses greatly in excess of revenues, Los Angeles strictly controlled expenses for the 1984 Summer Games by using existing facilities and only two new that were paid for by corporate sponsors. The organising committee, led by Peter Ueberroth, used some of the profits to endow the LA84 Foundation to promote youth sports in Southern California, educate coaches and maintain a sports library. The 1984 Summer Olympics are often considered until that date, the most financially successful modern Olympics and a model for future Games.

Budget overruns are common for the Games. Average overrun for Games since 1960 is 156% in real terms, which means that actual costs turned out to be on average 2.56 times the budget that was estimated at the time of winning the bid to host the Games. Montreal 1976 had the highest cost overrun for Summer Games, and for any Games, at 720%; Lake Placid 1980 had the highest cost overrun for Winter Games, at 324%. London 2012 had a cost overrun of 76%, Sochi 2014 of 289%.

It has been documented that cost and cost overrun for the Games follow a power-law distribution, meaning that the Games are prone to large cost overruns, and it is only a matter of time before an overrun occurs that exceeds the largest to date. In short, hosting the Games carries extreme economical and financial risks.

The final cost for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was reported to be JPY 1,423.8 billion (US$13 billion). This was achieved by balancing revenues and expenditures through various efforts to increase revenue and continuously review expenditures. The primary sources of revenue included the International Olympic Committee (IOC) contribution of JPY 86.8 billion (US$0.8 billion), TOP sponsorship of JPY 56.9 billion (US$0.5 billion), local sponsorship of JPY 376.1 billion (US$3.4 billion), an insurance payout of JPY 50 billion (US$0.5 billion) for the postponement of the Games, and other sources including licensing. The expenditures included JPY 195.5 billion (US$1.8 billion) for venue-related costs and JPY 444.9 billion (US$4 billion) for service expenditures. The total cost also accounted for COVID-19 countermeasures amounting to JPY 35.3 billion (US$0.3 billion). Despite initial estimates, the total costs were reduced by JPY 220.2 billion (US$2 billion) from the budget announced in December 2020, and JPY 29.2 billion (US$0.3 billion) from the estimated budget in December 2021. This successful financial management resulted in a balanced budget for the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Economic and social impact on host cities and countries

Seeking a scholarly institution to independently research the Games, Bob Barney led efforts to establish the International Centre for Olympic Studies in 1989, endeavouring to write about sociocultural impacts of the Olympic Games. He felt that the Olympics "is worthy of study because it is one of the biggest meetings in a global context and has many political, economic, and other problems associated with it". He began Olympika in 1992, the first peer-reviewed academic journal focused on the Olympic Games. Founded in 1991, the International Society of Olympic Historians publishes the Journal of Olympic History.

Some economists are sceptical about the economic benefits of hosting the Olympic Games, emphasising that such "mega-events" often have large costs while yielding relatively few tangible benefits in the long run. Hosting (or even bidding for) 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. Research suggests that hosting the Summer Olympics has a positive effect on the philanthropic contributions of corporations headquartered in the host city, which seems to benefit the local nonprofit sector. This effect begins in the years leading up to the Games and might persist for several years afterwards, though it is not permanent.

The 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. The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi were the most expensive Olympic Games in history, costing in excess of US$50 billion. According to a report by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development released at the time of the Games, the cost would not boost Russia's national economy but could attract business to Sochi and the southern Krasnodar region of Russia as a result of improved services. By December 2014, eight months after the Games, The Guardian stated that Sochi "now feels like a ghost town", citing the spread-out nature of the stadiums and arenas and the still-unfinished infrastructure. At least four cities withdrew their bids for the 2022 Winter Olympics, citing the high costs or lack of local support, resulting in only a two-city race between Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Beijing, China (which hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics). The Guardian stated that the biggest threat to the future of the Olympics is that few cities or countries want to host them. Bidding for the 2024 Summer Olympics became a two-city race between Paris and Los Angeles, so the IOC took the unusual step of simultaneously awarding both the 2024 Games to Paris and the 2028 Games to Los Angeles. Both of the bids were praised for their high-tech plans and innovative ways of using a record-breaking number of existing and temporary facilities.

International Olympic Committee

See also: International Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is the main organization behind the Olympic Games. It chooses the host city, plans the games, updates the list of sports, and handles sponsorships and broadcasting. The Olympic Movement has three key parts: International Federations, which govern each sport worldwide; National Olympic Committees, which manage the Olympics in each country; and Organising Committees, which plan each specific Olympic event.

In March 2025, Kirsty Coventry became the first woman and the first African to lead the IOC. She hopes to make the Olympics a place where all nations feel welcome and united through sports.

Commercialisation

The Olympic Games have included commercial activities since the very first 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. Early sponsors included companies like Kodak, and later, Coca-Cola became a long-term partner. For many years, each country’s organizing committee handled its own sponsorship deals.

Later, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) began managing these partnerships directly. This shift started in the 1970s and continued under leader Juan Antonio Samaranch. The 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles was a major turning point, as it earned a large surplus through exclusive sponsorships. The IOC then created The Olympic Programme (TOP) in 1985, allowing top companies to advertise globally using the Olympic symbol, the five interlocking rings.

Television has also played a big role in the Olympics’ growth. The 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin were the first to be shown on TV, and later games were broadcast worldwide. As TV viewership grew, the IOC sold broadcasting rights for increasingly large sums. For example, NBC paid large amounts to show the Games from 2000 to 2012, and later extended this to 2032. These TV deals became a major source of income for the Olympic movement.

Symbols

Main article: Olympic symbols

The Olympic Games use special symbols to show their ideals. The main symbol is the Olympic rings—five linked rings that stand for the unity of the world's continents: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. These rings appear on the Olympic flag, which has the rings in blue, yellow, black, green, and red on a white background. These colors were chosen because nearly every country uses at least one of them on its flag.

The Olympic motto, Citius, Altius, Fortius, means "Faster, Higher, Stronger." It reminds athletes to do their best, even if they don’t win. Before each Olympic Games, a flame is lit in ancient Greece and carried by a torch relay to the host city, where it burns during the opening ceremony. Each Games also has a mascot, like an animal or a special figure, representing the host country’s culture.

Ceremonies

The Olympic Games feature special ceremonies that celebrate the spirit of competition and unity among athletes. The opening ceremony happens on a Friday before the sports events begin. It includes the entrance of important leaders, the display of the host country's flag and national anthem, and artistic performances showcasing the host nation's culture. Athletes from each country march into the stadium, with Greece always entering first to honor the origins of the Olympics. The ceremony ends with the lighting of the Olympic flame by a final torch carrier, often a famous athlete from the host country.

The closing ceremony takes place on a Sunday after all the events are finished. Athletes enter together without their national flags, and the flags of the current host country, Greece, and the next host country are raised. Speeches are given to officially close the Games, and the Olympic flame is extinguished. The final medals of the Games are awarded during this ceremony, celebrating the top three athletes in the last event.

Sports

Main article: Olympic sports

The Olympic Games feature 35 different sports, with 30 special areas of competition and 408 events in total. For example, wrestling is a Summer Olympic sport with two types: Greco-Roman and Freestyle. The Summer Olympics include 26 sports, while the Winter Olympics have 15 sports. Some sports, like athletics, swimming, fencing, and artistic gymnastics, have always been part of the Summer Olympics. Winter sports such as cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and speed skating have been in every Winter Olympics since they began.

Olympic sports are overseen by international groups known as international sports federations, which are recognized by the IOC. These federations help manage and develop their sports worldwide. Sometimes, new sports are added to the Olympic Games after being reviewed by these federations and the IOC. For example, golf and rugby sevens became Olympic sports for the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2020 Summer Olympic Games.

The Olympics used to only allow amateur athletes, meaning those who did not get paid to play sports. However, this changed over time, especially after countries like the Soviet Union began paying their athletes to train full-time. Today, both amateur and professional athletes can compete in the Olympics.

Controversies

Main article: List of Olympic Games scandals and controversies

Boycotts

Main article: List of Olympic Games boycotts

Australia, France, Greece, Switzerland and the United Kingdom are the only countries to be represented at every Olympic Games since their inception in 1896. While countries sometimes miss an Olympics due to a lack of qualified athletes, some choose to boycott a celebration of the Games for various reasons. The Olympic Council of Ireland withdrew from the 1936 Berlin Games, because the IOC insisted its team needed to be restricted to the Irish Free State rather than representing the entire island of Ireland.

There were three boycotts of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics: the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland refused to attend because of the repression of the Hungarian Revolution by the Soviet Union but did send an equestrian delegation to Stockholm; Cambodia, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon boycotted the Games because of the Suez Crisis; and the People's Republic of China boycotted the Games due to the participation of the Republic of China, composed of athletes coming from Taiwan.

In 1972 and 1976 a large number of African countries threatened the IOC with a boycott to force them to ban South Africa and Rhodesia, because of their segregationist rule. New Zealand was also one of the African boycott targets, because its national rugby union team had toured apartheid-ruled South Africa. The IOC conceded in the first two cases but refused to ban New Zealand on the grounds that rugby was not an Olympic sport. Fulfilling their threat, twenty African countries were joined by Guyana and Iraq in a withdrawal from the Montreal Games, after a few of their athletes had already competed.

The Republic of China (Taiwan) was excluded from the 1976 Games by order of Pierre Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada. Trudeau's action was widely condemned as having brought shame on Canada for having succumbed to political pressure to keep the Chinese delegation from competing under its name. The ROC refused a proposed compromise that would have still allowed them to use the ROC flag and anthem as long as the name was changed. Athletes from Taiwan did not participate again until the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, when they returned under the name of Chinese Taipei and with a special flag and anthem.

In 1980 and 1984, the Cold War opponents boycotted each other's Games. The United States and sixty-five other countries boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980 because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This boycott reduced the number of nations participating to 80, the lowest number since 1956. The Soviet Union and 15 other nations countered by boycotting the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984. Although a boycott led by the Soviet Union depleted the field in certain sports, 140 National Olympic Committees took part, which was a record at the time. The fact that Romania, a Warsaw Pact country, opted to compete despite Soviet demands led to a warm reception of the Romanian team by the United States. The boycotting nations of the Eastern Bloc staged their own alternate event, the Friendship Games, in July and August.

There had been growing calls for boycotts of Chinese goods and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in protest of China's human rights record, and in response to Tibetan disturbances. Ultimately, no nation supported a boycott. In August 2008, the government of Georgia called for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics, set to be held in Sochi, Russia, in response to Russia's participation in the 2008 South Ossetia war. Continuing human rights violations in China have led to "diplomatic boycotts", where athletes still compete at the Games but diplomats do not attend, of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing by several countries, most notably the United States and United Kingdom.

Politics

The Olympic Games have been used as a platform to promote political ideologies almost from its inception. Nazi Germany wished to portray the National Socialist Party as benevolent and peace-loving when they hosted the 1936 Games, though they used the Games to display Aryan superiority.^: 107  Germany was the most successful nation at the Games, adding support to their allegations of Aryan supremacy, but the message was somewhat blunted by the notable victories of African American Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals, and Hungarian Jew Ibolya Csák.^{: 111–112}  The Soviet Union did not participate until the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. Instead, starting in 1928, the Soviets organised an international sports event called Spartakiads. During the interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s, communist and socialist organisations in several countries, including the United States, attempted to counter what they called the "bourgeois" Olympics with the Workers Olympics. It was not until the 1956 Summer Games that the Soviets emerged as a sporting superpower and, in doing so, took full advantage of the publicity that came with winning at the Olympics. Soviet Union's success might be attributed to a heavy state's investment in sports to fulfill its political agenda on an international stage.

Individual athletes have also used the Olympic stage to promote their own political agenda. At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, two American track and field athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who finished first and third in the 200 metres, performed the Black Power salute on the victory stand. The second-place finisher, Peter Norman of Australia, wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge in support of Smith and Carlos. In response to the protest, IOC president Avery Brundage ordered Smith and Carlos suspended from the US team and banned from the Olympic Village. When the US Olympic Committee refused, Brundage threatened to ban the entire US track team. This threat led to the expulsion of the two athletes from the Games. In another notable incident in the gymnastics competition, while standing on the medal podium after the balance beam event final, in which Natalia Kuchinskaya of the Soviet Union had controversially taken the gold, Czechoslovakian gymnast Věra Čáslavská quietly turned her head down and away during the playing of the Soviet national anthem. The action was Čáslavská's silent protest against the recent Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Her protest was repeated when she accepted her medal for her floor exercise routine when the judges changed the preliminary scores of the Soviet Larisa Petrik to allow her to tie with Čáslavská for the gold. While Čáslavská's countrymen supported her actions and her outspoken opposition to communism (she had publicly signed and supported Ludvik Vaculik's "Two Thousand Words" manifesto), the new regime responded by banning her from both sporting events and international travel for many years and made her an outcast from society until the fall of communism.

Currently, the government of Iran has taken steps to avoid any competition between its athletes and those from Israel. Arash Miresmaeili, an Iranian judoka, did not compete in a match against an Israeli during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Although he was officially disqualified for being overweight, Miresmaeli was awarded US$125,000 in prize money by the Iranian government, an amount paid to all Iranian gold medal winners. He was officially cleared of intentionally avoiding the bout, but his receipt of the prize money raised suspicion.

After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the IOC Executive Board recommended "no participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials, urges International Sports Federations and organisers of sports events worldwide to do everything in their power to ensure that no athlete or sports official from Russia or Belarus be allowed to take part under the name of Russia or Belarus". In 2023, the IOC announced that Russian and Belarusian athletes could participate in the Olympics under certain conditions: they must not represent their country or any associated organisation, and those actively supporting the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine would be barred from competing. This decision aimed to allow athletes to compete and enhance their stature. While 32 athletes accepted the invitation, 28 qualified athletes declined. Competing under a neutral flag and uniform, these athletes had a neutral song played if they won any medals, instead of their national anthems. Additionally, the audience was prohibited from waving Russian and Belarusian flags.

Use of performance-enhancing drugs

Main article: Doping at the Olympic Games

In the early 20th century, many Olympic athletes began using drugs to improve their athletic abilities. For example, in 1904, Thomas Hicks, a gold medallist in the marathon, was given strychnine by his coach (at the time, taking different substances was allowed, as there was no data regarding the effect of these substances on a body of an athlete). The only Olympic death linked to performance enhancing occurred at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. A Danish cyclist, Knud Enemark Jensen, fell from his bicycle and later died. A coroner's inquiry found that he was under the influence of amphetamines. By the mid-1960s, sports federations started to ban the use of performance-enhancing drugs; in 1967, the IOC followed suit.

According to British journalist Andrew Jennings, a KGB colonel stated that the agency's officers had posed as anti-doping authorities from the International Olympic Committed to undermine doping tests and that Soviet athletes were "rescued with [these] tremendous efforts". On the topic of the 1980 Summer Olympics, a 1989 Australian study said "There is hardly a medal winner at the Moscow Games, certainly not a gold medal winner, who is not on one sort of drug or another: usually several kinds. The Moscow Games might as well have been called the Chemists' Games."

In 2016, documents obtained revealed the Soviet Union's plans for a statewide doping system in track and field in preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Dated prior to the country's decision to boycott the Games, the document detailed the existing steroids operations of the program, along with suggestions for further enhancements. The communication, directed to the Soviet Union's head of track and field, was prepared by Sergei Portugalov of the Institute for Physical Culture. Portugalov was also one of the main figures involved in the implementation of the Russian doping programme prior to the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The first Olympic athlete to test positive for the use of performance-enhancing drugs was Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, a Swedish pentathlete at the 1968 Summer Olympics, who lost his bronze medal for alcohol use. One of the most publicised doping-related disqualifications occurred after the 1988 Summer Olympics where Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson (who won the 100-metre dash) tested positive for stanozolol.

In 1999, the IOC formed the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in an effort to systematise the research and detection of performance-enhancing drugs. There was a sharp increase in positive drug tests at the 2000 Summer Olympics and 2002 Winter Olympics due to improved testing conditions. Several medallists in weightlifting and cross-country skiing from post-Soviet states were disqualified because of doping offences. The IOC-established drug testing regimen (now known as the Olympic Standard) has set the worldwide benchmark that other sporting federations attempt to emulate. During the Beijing games, 3,667 athletes were tested by the IOC under the auspices of the World Anti-Doping Agency. Both urine and blood tests were used to detect banned substances. In London over 6,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes were tested. Prior to the Games, 107 athletes tested positive for banned substances and were not allowed to compete.

Sex discrimination

Main article: Participation of women in the Olympics

Women were first allowed to compete at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, but at the 1992 Summer Olympics 35 countries were still only fielding all-male delegations. This number dropped rapidly over the following years. In 2000, Bahrain sent two women competitors for the first time: Fatema Hameed Gerashi and Mariam Mohamed Hadi Al Hilli. In 2004, Robina Muqimyar and Fariba Rezayee became the first women to compete for Afghanistan. In 2008, the United Arab Emirates sent female athletes for the first time; Maitha Al Maktoum competed in taekwondo, and Latifa Al Maktoum in equestrian. Both athletes were from Dubai's ruling family.

By 2010, only three countries had never sent female athletes to the Games: Brunei, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Brunei had taken part in only three celebrations of the Games, sending a single athlete on each occasion, but Saudi Arabia and Qatar had been competing regularly with all-male teams. In 2010, the International Olympic Committee announced it would "press" these countries to enable and facilitate the participation of women for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Anita DeFrantz, chair of the IOC's Women and Sports Commission, suggested that countries be barred if they prevented women from competing. Shortly thereafter, the Qatar Olympic Committee announced that it "hoped to send up to four female athletes in shooting and fencing" to the 2012 Summer Games.

In 2008, Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs, likewise called for Saudi Arabia to be barred from the Games, describing its ban on women athletes as a violation of the International Olympic Committee charter. He noted: "For the last 15 years, many international nongovernmental organisations worldwide have been trying to lobby the IOC for better enforcement of its own laws banning gender discrimination.  While their efforts did result in increasing numbers of women Olympians, the IOC has been reluctant to take a strong position and threaten the discriminating countries with suspension or expulsion." In July 2010, The Independent reported: "Pressure is growing on the International Olympic Committee to kick out Saudi Arabia, who are likely to be the only major nation not to include women in their Olympic team for 2012. ... Should Saudi Arabia ... send a male-only team to London, we understand they will face protests from equal rights and women's groups which threaten to disrupt the Games".

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, every participating nation included female athletes for the first time in Olympic history. Saudi Arabia included two female athletes in its delegation; Qatar, four; and Brunei, one (Maziah Mahusin, in the 400 m hurdles). Qatar made one of its first female Olympians, Bahiya al-Hamad (shooting), its flagbearer at the 2012 Games, and runner Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain became the first Persian Gulf female athlete to win a medal when she won a bronze for her showing in the 1500 m race.

The only sports on the Olympic programme that features men and women individually competing against one another are the equestrian disciplines, as there is no "Women's Eventing", or "Men's Dressage". As of 2008, there were still more medal events for men than women. With the addition of women's boxing to the programme in the 2012 Summer Olympics, however, women athletes were able to compete in all the sports open to men. In the winter Olympics, women are still unable to compete in the Nordic combined. After men were included in artistic swimming at the Paris 2024 games, the only remaining Olympic event in which male athletes may not compete is rhythmic gymnastics. Despite being eligible to qualify for the 2024 Paris games, no men were included on any artistic swimming team.

A recent addition to the Games has been the inclusion of mixed events, whereby men and women of the same nation compete together against other teams. Beginning in 2018, the sport of curling introduced a mixed event where teams of one man and one women competed in their own tournament for a medal. As of the 2024 Paris games, there are now 13 mixed medal events across 11 disciplines at the summer games.

War and terrorism

The world wars caused three Olympiads to pass without a celebration of the Games: the 1916 Games were cancelled because of World War I, and the summer and winter games of 1940 and 1944 were cancelled because of World War II. The Russo-Georgian War between Georgia and Russia erupted on the opening day of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Both American President George W. Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were attending the Olympics at that time and spoke together about the conflict at a luncheon hosted by the Chinese president Hu Jintao.

Terrorism most directly affected the Olympic Games in 1972. When the Summer Games were held in Munich, Germany, eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September in what is now known as the Munich massacre. The terrorists killed two of the athletes soon after taking them hostage and killed the other nine during a failed liberation attempt. A German police officer and five of the terrorists also died. Following the selection of Barcelona, Spain, to host the 1992 Summer Olympics, the separatist ETA terrorist organisation launched attacks in the region, including the 1991 bombing in the Catalonian city of Vic that killed ten people.

Terrorism affected two Olympic Games held in the United States. During the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, a bomb was detonated at the Centennial Olympic Park, killing two people and injuring 111 others. The bomb was set by Eric Rudolph, who is serving a life sentence for the bombing. The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City took place just five months after the September 11 attacks, which meant a higher level of security than ever before provided for an Olympic Games. The opening ceremonies of the Games featured symbols relating to 9/11, including the flag that flew at Ground Zero and honour guards of NYPD and FDNY members.

Citizenship

The Olympic Charter says that athletes must be a legal national of the country they compete for. If an athlete has two nationalities, they can choose which country to represent, but they must wait three years after competing for one country before switching to the other, unless special permission is granted. However, if an athlete gains a new nationality, they can compete for the new country right away.

In 2023 and 2024, the IOC allowed some athletes from Russia to change their citizenship to other countries because of special circumstances. This included athletes like Georgi Tiblov and Aleksandr Komarov who competed for Serbia, and others who competed for Israel and France. Sometimes athletes change citizenship to get better training or sponsorship opportunities, as happened before the 2014 Winter Olympics when athletes like Ahn Hyun-soo and Vic Wild competed for Russia despite being born in other countries.

Champions and medallists

Further information: Lists of Olympic medallists and List of multiple Olympic gold medallists

In the Olympic Games, athletes or teams who finish in the top three places in each event receive medals. The first-place winner gets a gold medal, the second place a silver medal, and the third place a bronze medal. Over time, the materials for these medals have changed but they always contain a small amount of pure gold. In some sports where there is no final match to decide third place, both losing teams in the semi-finals receive bronze medals.

Originally, only the top two finishers received medals. Today, athletes who finish as high as eighth place receive Olympic diplomas, which are special certificates. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, winners also received olive wreaths as part of their celebration. While the IOC does not officially track which countries win the most medals, many people and media outlets follow these statistics to see how different nations perform in the Games.

Nations

Participants

Main articles: List of participating nations at the Summer Olympic Games and List of participating nations at the Winter Olympic Games

The Olympic Games bring together athletes from all over the world. By the time of the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, athletes from 207 different countries, known as National Olympic Committees (NOCs), had taken part in at least one Summer Olympics. Five countries—Australia, France, Great Britain, Greece, and Switzerland—have been in every Summer Olympics so far.

For the Winter Olympics, 119 different NOCs have joined in. Twelve countries—Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States—have been in every Winter Olympics held up to now.

Host nations and cities

Main article: List of Olympic Games host cities

See also: List of Olympic medals by host nation

Choosing a city to host the Olympics used to happen about seven or eight years before the Games. Now, the process starts even earlier to give cities more time to get ready. Countries first pick a city to apply, and then that city fills out forms and plans showing how it can host the Games. A group of experts checks these plans and visits the cities. Finally, members of the International Olympic Committee vote to choose the host city.

So far, 47 different cities in 23 countries have hosted the Olympics. In recent years, the Games have been in Asia and Oceania more often. The 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro were the first to be held in South America. No African country has hosted the Olympics yet, though some have tried.