Olympic Games

The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; French: Jeux olympiques) are the world's biggest international sporting events. They include summer and winter sports where athletes from over 200 countries compete every four years. The Games began in ancient times in Olympia, Greece, and the modern version started in Athens in 1896, led by Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

Today, the Olympics feature many sports and rituals like the Olympic flag, Olympic flame, and torch relay. Over 14,000 athletes took part in the recent 2020 Summer Olympics and 2022 Winter Olympics. Winning athletes receive gold, silver, or bronze Olympic medals.

The Games help countries work together and share cultures, but they also bring challenges like doping and boycotts. Still, the Olympics remain a wonderful chance for athletes to earn fame and for cities to show themselves to the world.

Ancient Olympics

Main article: Ancient Olympic Games

The Ancient Olympic Games were big sports events held every four years in Olympia, Greece to honor the god Zeus. These games started in 776 BC and included many kinds of competitions like running, wrestling, and chariot racing. At first, only certain people could join, but later anyone who spoke Greek was allowed to compete.

These games were also important religious festivals. Winners were celebrated with poems and statues, and they often received gifts from their hometowns. The games stopped in the year 393 AD when a Roman emperor decided to end all such festivals.

Modern Games

See also: List of Olympic Games host cities

Various events in the past have used the term "Olympic" to describe athletic competitions. The first such event was the Cotswold Games or "Cotswold Olimpick Games", held near Chipping Campden, England, organized by Robert Dover between 1612 and 1642. In France, L'Olympiade de la République was a national Olympic festival held from 1796 to 1798.

The Olympic Games were revived in Athens in 1896, bringing together athletes from 14 nations. Since then, the Olympics have grown into the world’s largest international sporting event, with thousands of athletes from over 200 teams competing every four years. The Games include both Summer and Winter events, showcasing a wide range of sports and bringing countries together in friendly competition.

International Olympic Committee

See also: International Olympic Committee

The Olympic Movement includes many sports groups, media partners, and people who follow the rules of the Olympic Charter. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) chooses the host city, plans the Olympic Games, updates the list of sports, and handles sponsorships and broadcasting.

The Olympic Movement has three main parts:

• International Federations (IFs) manage each sport worldwide. For example, FIFA manages football, and the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball manages volleyball. There are 35 IFs today.
• National Olympic Committees (NOCs) represent the Olympics in each country. For example, the Hellenic Olympic Committee is Greece's NOC. There are 206 NOCs recognised by the IOC.
• Organising Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOGs) are temporary groups that plan each Olympic event. They dissolve after the Games end.

French and English are the official languages of the Olympics. The host country's language is also used. In March 2025, Kirsty Coventry became the first woman and first African to lead the IOC. She wants the Olympics to bring countries together through sports.

Commercialisation

The Olympic Games have had business partnerships since the very first 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, where companies like Kodak paid to advertise. Over time, more companies joined in, such as Coca-Cola, which has been a sponsor since the 1928 Summer Olympics.

As the Games grew, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) began managing these partnerships. This shift started in the 1970s and continued under leader Juan Antonio Samaranch. The 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles was a big change, making a lot of money through special deals with companies. The IOC created a special program called The Olympic Programme (TOP) in 1985, allowing big companies to advertise worldwide with the Olympic symbol, the five interlocking rings.

Television also played a big role. The 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin were the first to be shown on TV, but only locally. Later, the 1956 Winter Olympics were the first to be shown internationally. As TV became more important, the IOC sold the rights to show the Games, which helped make even more money. Companies like NBC paid a lot to show the Games, and these payments helped fund the Olympics. Today, TV and business partnerships are key to making the Olympic Games happen.

Symbols

Main article: Olympic symbols

The Olympic Games use special symbols to show their ideas and values. The most famous symbol is the Olympic rings—five connected rings that stand for the unity of the world's continents: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. The rings’ colors—blue, yellow, black, green, and red—are on the Olympic flag, and these colors were chosen because nearly every country uses at least one of them on their flag. This flag was first used in 1920 and is raised at every Olympic event.

The Olympic motto, Citius, Altius, Fortius, means "Faster, Higher, Stronger" and reminds athletes to do their best. Before the Games begin, a special flame is lit in Olympia using sunlight and then carried by runners to the host city, where it becomes part of the opening ceremony. Each Games also has a mascot, like an animal or a special figure, that represents the host country’s culture and adds fun to the events.

Ceremonies

The Olympic Games have special opening and closing ceremonies that celebrate the spirit of sports and bring together athletes from around the world. The opening ceremony happens on a Friday before the sports begin. It starts with important guests entering the stadium, followed by performances showing the host country's culture. Athletes then march in, with Greece always entering first to honor the origins of the Olympics. Speeches are given to officially start the Games, and the Olympic torch is carried into the stadium to light a special flame.

The closing ceremony happens on a Sunday after all the events are done. Athletes enter together, and flags from the current host country, Greece, and the next host country are shown. Speeches are given to end the Games, and the Olympic flame is put out. The final medals for the Games are also awarded during the closing ceremony, honoring the top three athletes in the last event.

Sports

Main article: Olympic sports

The Olympic Games programme includes many different sports and events. For example, wrestling is a Summer Olympic sport with two types: Greco-Roman and Freestyle. The Summer Olympics have 26 sports, while the Winter Olympics have 15 sports. Some sports, like athletics, swimming, and fencing, have always been part of the Summer Olympics.

Olympic sports are managed by special groups called international sports federations, which are approved by the IOC. These groups help make sure the sports follow the rules. Over time, some new sports have joined the Olympics, like badminton and basketball, while others have been removed. The IOC reviews sports regularly to decide which ones should be included in future Games.

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 Summer Olympics and 1976 Summer Olympics 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. When the Romanian athletes entered during the opening ceremonies, they received a standing ovation from the spectators, who comprised mostly U.S. citizens. 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, Czechoslovak 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.

In 2024, rumors about China's doping spread as many of the athletes, especially in swimming, were accused of doping before Tokyo 2020. 23 Chinese swimmers were tested positive for prohibited substances, with both the World Anti-Doping Agency and World Aquatics accepting Chinese claims that positive tests were caused by tainted food. After the FBI and Justice Department started investigating, the IOC threatened to revoke the 2034 Olympics in Salt Lake City, unless they dropped the investigation.

Russian doping scandal

Further information: Doping in Russia, McLaren Report, Russia at the 2012 Summer Olympics § Russian doping scandal, Russia at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Russia at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Olympic Athletes from Russia at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and Oswald Commission

Doping in Russian sports has a systemic nature. Russia has had 44 Olympic medals stripped for doping violations—the most of any country, and more than a quarter of the global total. From 2011 to 2015, more than a thousand Russian competitors in various sports, including summer, winter, and Paralympic sports, benefited from a cover-up. Russia was partially banned from the 2016 Summer Olympics and was banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics (while still being allowed to participate as the "Olympic Athletes from Russia") due to the state-sponsored doping programme.

In December 2019, Russia was banned for four years from all major sporting events for systematic doping and lying to WADA. The ban was issued by WADA on 9 December 2019, and the Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA had 21 days to make an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The ban meant that Russian athletes would only be allowed to compete under the Olympic flag after passing anti-doping tests. Russia appealed the decision to the CAS. On review of Russia's appeal of its case from WADA, CAS ruled on 17 December 2020 to reduce the penalty that WADA had placed. Instead of banning Russia from sporting events, the ruling allowed Russia to participate at the Olympics and other international events, but for a period of two years the team cannot use the Russian name, flag, or anthem and must present themselves as "Neutral Athlete" or "Neutral Team". The ruling does allow for team uniforms to display "Russia" on the uniform as well as the use of the Russian flag colours within the uniform's design, although the name should be up to equal predominance as the "Neutral Athlete/Team" designation.

In February 2022, during the Beijing Olympics, the international news media reported that the issue of doping was again raised over a positive test for trimetazidine by the ROC's Kamila Valieva, which was officially confirmed on 11 February. Valieva's sample in question was taken by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) at the 2022 Russian Figure Skating Championships on 25 December, but the sample was not analyzed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) laboratory where it was sent for testing until 8 February, one day after the team event concluded. CAS was expected to hear the case on 13 February with a decision scheduled for announcement the next day, ahead of her scheduled appearance in the women's singles event beginning on 15 February. Due to Valieva being a minor at the time, as well as being classified as a "protected person" under WADA guidelines, RUSADA and the IOC announced on 12 February that they would broaden the scope of their respective investigations to include members of her entourage (e.g. coaches, team doctors, etc.). By the end of the Beijing Olympics, a total five athletes were reported for doping violations. A decision by RUSADA, issued in mid-October and endorsed by WADA, stated that the details of the Valieva hearing and its scheduled dates would be placed under international guidelines for the protection of minors (Valieva was 15 years old when the positive test results were disclosed) and would not be disclosed publicly. Although Russia as a country is currently banned from participating in international skating events due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Valieva has continued to compete within Russian borders without being hindered by RUSADA as recently as the Russian Grand Prix held in October 2022. On 28 September 2023, CAS "ordered the production of further documentation" and announced that her hearing had been adjourned until 9‍–‍10‍ November. It appeared that one of the parties in the case requested a file that had not previously been a part of the proceedings. On 10 November, CAS announced that a final decision was expected by the end of January 2024. On 29 January 2024, the CAS disqualified Valieva for four years retroactive to 25 December 2021 for an anti-doping rule violation.

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 citizens of the country they represent. If an athlete has citizenship in two countries, they can choose which one to compete for, but they must wait three years after competing for one country before switching to the other, unless special permission is given.

Sometimes athletes change their citizenship to compete for a different country. This can happen because of better training opportunities or because they cannot qualify for their birth country’s team. For example, before the 2014 Winter Olympics, two athletes changed their citizenship to compete for Russia and won several medals.

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 each gold medal always contains at least six grams of real gold. In some sports where there is a knockout style competition, sometimes only two bronze medals are given instead of three.

Historically, the medal system has evolved. At the very first Olympics in 1896, only the top two places received medals. Today, even athletes who finish fourth through eighth may receive special certificates called Olympic diplomas.

Nations

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

Main article: List of Olympic Games host cities

See also: List of Olympic medals by host nation

Many countries from all around the world take part in the Olympic Games. By the time of the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, athletes from 207 different groups, called National Olympic Committees (NOCs), had joined in the fun. Some countries, like Australia, France, Great Britain, Greece, and Switzerland, have been in every Summer Olympics ever held.

In the Winter Olympics, 119 different NOCs have joined in. Twelve countries have been in every Winter Olympics so far, including Austria, Canada, Finland, and Norway.

Choosing a city to host the Olympics used to take about seven or eight years. Now, it takes even longer so cities have more time to get ready. The city first applies through its country's Olympic group. Then, a special group checks each city’s plans before the International Olympic Committee makes the final choice.

So far, the Olympics have been held in 47 different cities across 23 countries. Recently, the Games have been in Asia and Oceania more often. The 2016 Games were in Rio de Janeiro, making it the first time a South American country hosted the Olympics.