Olympics history image credit: Wikimedia Commons

The Olympics are perhaps sports most enduring events. With its roots firmly in antiquity and so much relevance and importance up until the present day, the games are surely unique. Let’s take a whirlwind trip through some key moments, dates and facts as we take a closer look at some Olympics history.

Ancient Greek Olympics history

Even the most casual sports fan will know that the Olympics history stretches back a really, really, really long time. In fact, it’s estimated that the first games were held around 1250 B.C., or perhaps even before that. The first recorded games took place around 500 years after that fact, in 776 B.C., but the evidence suggest they were already well established by then.

In Ancient Greece, the Olympics were held during a festival that celebrated the god of the sky Zeus. It included several events that would be familiar to us these days, like running, boxing and the long jump. But some events are long since gone, such as chariot racing and the ancient art of Pankration. This was said to be like a mix of wrestling and martial arts, and legend has it it was the brainchild of mythical figure Theseus who came up with it while battling a Minotaur in a labyrinth.

The first Olympics in the modern era

Modern Olympics history dates back to the late 19th century. In April 1896, 14 nations took part in the inaugural Olympic games in Athens, Greece. A reported 100,000 people watched the opening ceremony. It was a major event of the time, even though those figures might seem modest to us now when we think about the behemoth that the event has become.

Winner of the most medals in Olympics history

United States swimmer Michael Phelps is by far and away the most decorated athlete in Olympics history. In 12 years, he took home 28 medals, including 23 gold. This puts him far ahead of the athlete in second place, Larisa Latynina. That Soviet Union gymnast won 18 medals during her Olympics career. Still impressive, but Phelps has definitely swum pretty far ahead of the competition.

Women in the games

In Ancient Greece, unmarried women were allowed to attend the Olympic games. However, once you got married it was games over and if you were caught hanging around, you could be punished by death. Although the main Olympic games were just for men, women had their own athletic festival. Little is known about that, except that you had to be unmarried to take part and it likely had events such as running.

During the 1896 Athens games of the modern era, no women took part. However, by the time the next games rolled around, 1900 Paris, a handful took part. Just under two dozen competed in the games, making up a paltry 2% of the total contestants. Now of course, more women take part. Although there are still dozens of events that exclude women from competing.

The International Olympic Committee has endeavored to increase female representation on its board, with a target of reaching 20% female members by 2005. It just missed the target, but now, over 15 years later, thankfully it is surpassing it.

Missed games

Over the years, there have been only a handful examples of summer and winter Olympics games not happening as planned. Berlin 1916 was cancelled due to World War One. Then there were a few casualties due to World War Two, including 1940 Tokyo-Helsinki (summer), 1940 Sapporo-Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Winter), 1944 London (summer) and 1944 Cortina (winter).

All of the above games were cancelled and didn’t ever take place. However, Tokyo 2020 made history for being the first postponed games in Olympics history, taking place instead in 2021.

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