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{| class="infobox" style="width:25em; font-size:95%; text-align:center; border-collapse:collapse;" | style="font-size:110%" | Olympic Games |- | |- | Organizations |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid #aaa;" | Charter IOC NOCs SymbolsSports CompetitorsMedal tables Medalists ceremonies'' |- | Games |- |Ancient Olympic GamesSummer Olympic GamesWinter Olympic GamesParalympic GamesYouth Olympic Games |}
The Olympic Games are a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Games are currently held every two years, with Summer and Winter Olympic Games alternating, although they occur every four years within their respective seasonal games. Since 2008, host cities are contracted to manage both the Olympic and the Paralympic Games, The origin of these Olympics is shrouded in mystery and legend. One of the most popular myths identifies Heracles and his father Zeus as the progenitors of the Games. According to legend, it was Heracles who first called the Games "Olympic" and established the custom of holding them every four years. A legend persists that after Heracles completed his twelve labors, he built the Olympic stadium as an honor to Zeus. Following its completion, he walked in a straight line for 200 steps and called this distance a "stadion" (Greek: στάδιον, Latin: stadium, "stage"), which later became a unit of distance. Another myth associates the first Games with the ancient Greek concept of Olympic truce (ἐκεχειρία, ekecheiria). The most widely accepted date for the inception of the Ancient Olympics is 776 BC; this is based on inscriptions, found at Olympia, of the winners of a footrace held every four years starting in 776 BC. The Ancient Games featured running events, a pentathlon (consisting of a jumping event, discus and javelin throws, a foot race and wrestling), boxing, wrestling, and equestrian events. Tradition has it that Coroebus, a cook from the city of Elis, was the first Olympic champion.
The Olympics were of fundamental religious importance, featuring sporting events alongside ritual sacrifices honoring both Zeus (whose famous statue by Phidias stood in his temple at Olympia) and Pelops, divine hero and mythical king of Olympia. Pelops was famous for his chariot race with King Oenomaus of Pisatis. The winners of the events were admired and immortalized in poems and statues. The Games were held every four years, and this period, known as an Olympiad, was used by Greeks as one of their units of time measurement. The Games were part of a cycle known as the Panhellenic Games, which included the Pythian Games, the Nemean Games, and the Isthmian Games.
The Olympic Games reached their zenith in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, but then gradually declined in importance as the Romans gained power and influence in Greece. There is no consensus on when the Games officially ended, the most common-held date is 393 AD, when the emperor Theodosius I declared that all pagan cults and practices be eliminated. Another date cited is 426 AD, when his successor Theodosius II ordered the destruction of all Greek temples. After the demise of the Olympics, they were not held again until the late 19th century.
An attempt to emulate the ancient Olympic Games was the L'Olympiade de la République, a national Olympic festival held annually from 1796 to 1798 in Revolutionary France. The competition included several disciplines from the ancient Greek Olympics. The 1796 Games also marked the introduction of the metric system into sport. the Olympian Class to Wenlock Olympian Games and this annual games continues to this day. The Wenlock Olympian Society was founded by Dr Brookes on November 15, 1860.
Between 1862 and 1867, Liverpool held an annual Grand Olympic Festival. Devised by John Hulley and Charles Melly, in cooperation with Dr Brookes, these games were elitist in nature since only Gentlemen could compete. Some of the Gentlemen brought their coaches with them. The programme for Athens 1896 has some similarities to that of the Liverpool Olympics but that was to be expected since Dr Brookes had incorporated events from the 1859 Athens Olympics program at Much Wenlock and had contributed to the programme at Liverpool. In 1865 Hulley, Dr. 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.
None of the above forerunners built or used a stadium and the Wenlock Olympian Games that still goes on today does not have a stadium.
The Panathinaiko Stadium hosted Olympics in 1870 and 1875. 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. The IOC elected the Greek writer Demetrius Vikelas as its first president. 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.
Following the success of the 1896 Games, the Olympics entered a period of stagnation that threatened their survival. The Olympic Games held at the Paris Exposition in 1900 and the World's Fair at St. Louis in 1904 were side-shows. The Games at Paris did not have a stadium, however this was the first time women took part in the games. The St. Louis Games hosted 650 athletes, but 580 were from the United States. The homogeneous nature of these celebrations was a low point for the Olympic Movement. The Games rebounded when the 1906 Intercalated Games (so-called because they were the second Games held within the third Olympiad) were held in Athens. These Games are not officially recognized by the IOC and no Intercalated Games have been held since. These Games, which were hosted at the Panathenaic stadium in Athens, attracted a broad international field of participants, and generated great public interest. This marked the beginning of a rise in both the popularity and the size of the Olympics.
in St. Moritz]] The Winter Olympics were 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 (it was actually 11 days) was held in 1924 in Chamonix, France; this event became the first Winter Olympic Games. The IOC mandated that the Winter Games be celebrated every four years on 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 on the third year of each Olympiad.
Starting in 2010, the Olympic Games will be complemented by Youth Games, where athletes between the ages of 14 and 18 will 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 August - 26 August 2010, while the inaugural Winter Games will be 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 will allow 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 traditional senior Games, however there will be a reduced number of disciplines and events.
The IOC allows nations to compete that do not meet the strict requirements for political sovereignty that other international organizations demand. As a result, colonies and dependencies are permitted to set up their own National Olympic Committees. Examples of this include 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 Olympic Movement encompasses a large number of national and international sporting organizations and federations, recognized media partners, as well as athletes, officials, judges, and every other person and institution that agrees to abide by the rules of the Olympic Charter. As the umbrella organization of the Olympic Movement, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is responsible for selecting the host city, overseeing the planning of the Olympic Games, updating and approving the sports program, and negotiating sponsorship and broadcasting rights. The Olympic Movement is made of three major elements: International Federations (IFs) are the governing bodies that supervise a sport at an international level. For example, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) is the IF for football (soccer), and the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) is the international governing body for volleyball. There are currently 35 IFs in the Olympic Movement, representing each of the Olympic sports. National Olympic Committees (NOCs) represent and regulate the Olympic Movement within each country. For example, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is the NOC of the United States. There are currently 205 NOCs recognized by the IOC.
In 1998, it was uncovered that several IOC members had taken bribes from members of the Salt Lake City bid committee for the hosting of the 2002 Winter Olympics, to ensure their votes were cast in favor of the American bid. The IOC pursued an investigation which led to the resignation of four members and expulsion of six others. The scandal set off further reforms that would change the way host cities are selected, to avoid similar cases in the future.
A BBC documentary entitled Panorama: Buying the Games, aired in August 2004, investigated the taking of bribes in the bidding process for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The documentary claimed it was possible to bribe IOC members into voting for a particular candidate city. After being narrowly defeated in their bid for the 2012 Summer Games, Parisian Mayor Bertrand Delanoë specifically accused the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the London Bid Committee (headed by former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe) of breaking the bid rules. He cited French President Jacques Chirac as a witness; Chirac gave guarded interviews regarding his involvement. The allegation was never fully explored. The Turin bid for the 2006 Winter Olympics was also shrouded in controversy. A prominent IOC member, Marc Hodler, strongly connected with the rival bid of Sion, Switzerland, alleged bribery of IOC officials by members of the Turin Organizing Committee. These accusations led to a wide-ranging investigation. The allegations also served to sour many IOC members against Sion's bid and potentially helped Turin to capture the host city nomination.
The IOC originally resisted funding by corporate sponsors. It was not until the retirement of IOC president Avery Brundage, in 1972, that the IOC began to explore the potential of the television medium and the lucrative advertising markets available to them. Under the leadership of Juan Antonio Samaranch the Games began to shift toward international sponsors who sought to link their products to the Olympic brand. As president of the IOC from 1952 to 1972, Avery Brundage rejected all attempts to link the Olympics with commercial interest. The organizing committee had been able to create such a surplus in part by selling exclusive sponsorship rights to select companies.
Viewership increased exponentially from the 1960s until the end of the century. This was due to the use of satellites to broadcast live television worldwide in 1964, and the introduction of color television in 1968. Global audience estimates for the 1968 Mexico City Games was 600 million, whereas at the Los Angeles Games of 1984, the audience numbers had increased to 900 million; that number swelled to 3.5 billion by the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. However, at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, NBC drew the lowest ratings for any Summer or Winter Olympics since 1968. This was attributed to two factors: one was the increased competition from cable channels, the second was the internet, which was able to display results and video in real time. Television companies were still relying on tape-delayed content, which was becoming outdated in the information era. A drop in ratings meant that television studios had to give away free advertising time. With such high costs charged to broadcast the Games, the added pressure of the internet, and increased competition from cable, the television lobby demanded concessions from the IOC to boost ratings. The IOC responded by making a number of changes to the Olympic program. At the Summer Games, the gymnastics competition was expanded from seven to nine nights, and a Champions Gala was added to draw greater interest. The IOC also expanded the swimming and diving programs, both popular sports with a broad base of television viewers. The result of these efforts was mixed: the ratings for the 2006 Winter Games, held in Torino, Italy, were significantly lower than those for the 2002 Games, while there was a sharp increase in viewership for the 2008 Summer Olympics, staged in Beijing.
The Olympic Movement uses symbols to represent the ideals embodied in the Olympic Charter. The Olympic symbol, better known as the Olympic rings, consists of five intertwined rings and represents the unity of the five inhabited continents (America, Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe). The colored version of the rings—blue, yellow, black, green, and red—over a white field forms the Olympic flag. These colors were chosen because every nation had at least one of them on its national flag. The flag was adopted in 1914 but flown for the first time only at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. It has since been hoisted during each celebration of the Games.
The Olympic motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius, a Latin expression meaning "Faster, Higher, Stronger". Coubertin's ideals are further expressed in the Olympic creed:
Months before each Games, the Olympic flame is lit in Olympia in a ceremony that reflects ancient Greek rituals. A female performer, acting as a priestess, ignites a torch by placing it inside a parabolic mirror which focuses the sun's rays; she then lights the torch of the first relay bearer, thus initiating the Olympic torch relay that will carry the flame to the host city's Olympic stadium, where it plays an important role in the opening ceremony. Though the flame has been an Olympic symbol since 1928, the torch relay was introduced at the 1936 Summer Games, as part of the German government's attempt to promote its National Socialist ideology. The mascots of the most recent Summer Olympics, in Beijing, were the Fuwa, five creatures that represent the five fengshui elements important in Chinese culture.
As mandated by the Olympic Charter, various elements frame the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Most of these rituals were established at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. The ceremony typically starts with the hoisting of the host country's flag and a performance of its national anthem.
After the artistic portion of the ceremony, the athletes parade into the stadium grouped by nation. Greece is traditionally the first nation to enter in order to honor the origins of the Olympics. Nations then enter the stadium alphabetically according to the host country's chosen language, with the host country's athletes being the last to enter. During the 2004 Summer Olympics, which was hosted in Athens, Greece, the Greek flag entered the stadium first, while the Greek delegation entered last. Speeches are given, formally opening the Games. Finally, the Olympic torch is brought into the stadium and passed on until it reaches the final torch carrier—often a well-known and successful Olympic athlete from the host nation—who lights the Olympic flame in the stadium's cauldron. The president of the organizing committee and the IOC president make their closing speeches, the Games are officially closed, and the Olympic flame is extinguished. In what is known as the Antwerp Ceremony, the mayor of the city that organized the Games transfers a special Olympic flag to the president of the IOC, who then passes it on to the mayor of the city hosting the next Olympic Games. After these compulsory elements, the next host nation briefly introduces itself with artistic displays of dance and theater representative of its culture.
A medal ceremony is held after each Olympic event is concluded. The winner, second and third-place competitors or teams stand on top of a three-tiered rostrum to be awarded their respective medals. After the medals are given out by an IOC member, the national flags of the three medalists are raised while the national anthem of the gold medalist's country plays. Volunteering citizens of the host country also act as hosts during the medal ceremonies, as they aid the officials who present the medals and act as flag-bearers. For every Olympic event, the respective medal ceremony is held, at most, one day after the event's final. For the men's marathon, the competition is usually held early in the morning on the last day of Olympic competition and its medal ceremony is then held in the evening during the closing ceremony.
The Olympic Games program consists of 26 sports, 30 disciplines and nearly 300 events. For example, wrestling is a Summer Olympic sport, comprising two disciplines: Greco-Roman and Freestyle. It is further broken down into fourteen events for men and four events for women, each representing a different weight class. The Summer Olympics program includes 26 sports, while the Winter Olympics program features 15 sports. Athletics, swimming, fencing, and artistic gymnastics are the only summer sports that have never been absent from the Olympic program. Cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and speed skating have been featured at every Winter Olympics program since its inception in 1924. Current Olympic sports, like badminton, basketball, and volleyball, first appeared on the program as demonstration sports, and were later promoted to full Olympic sports. Some sports that were featured in earlier Games were later dropped from the program.
Olympic sports are governed by international sports federations (IFs) recognized by the IOC as the global supervisors of those sports. There are 35 federations represented at the IOC. There are sports recognized by the IOC that are not included on the Olympic program. These sports are not considered Olympic sports, but they can be promoted to this status during a program revision that occurs in the first IOC session following a celebration of the Olympic Games. During such revisions, sports can be excluded or included in the program on the basis of a two-thirds majority vote of the members of the IOC. There are recognized sports that have never been on an Olympic program in any capacity, including chess and surfing.
In October and November 2004, the IOC established an Olympic Programme Commission, which was tasked with reviewing the sports on the Olympic program and all non-Olympic recognized sports. The goal was to apply a systematic approach to establishing the Olympic program for each celebration of the Games. The commission formulated seven criteria to judge whether a sport should be included on the Olympic program.
The 114th IOC Session, in 2002, limited the Summer Games program to a maximum of 28 sports, 301 events, and 10,500 athletes. The independent schools subscribed to the belief that sport formed an important part of education, an attitude summed up in the saying mens sana in corpore sano, a sound mind in a sound body. In this ethos, a gentleman was one who became an all-rounder, not the best at one specific thing. There was also a prevailing concept of fairness, in which practicing or training was considered tantamount to cheating. Swiss and Austrian skiers boycotted the 1936 Winter Olympics in support of their skiing teachers, who were not allowed to compete because they earned money with their sport and were thus considered professionals.
As class structure evolved through the 20th century, the definition of the amateur athlete as an aristocratic gentleman became outdated. Beginning in the 1970s, amateurism requirements were gradually phased out of the Olympic Charter. After the 1988 Games, the IOC decided to make all professional athletes eligible for the Olympics, subject to the approval of the IFs. As of 2004, the only sport in which no professionals compete is boxing, although even this requires a definition of amateurism based on fight rules rather than on payment, as some boxers receive cash prizes from their National Olympic Committees. In men's football (soccer), only three players over the age of 23 are eligible to participate per team in the Olympic tournament. There were three boycotts of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics: Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland refused to attend because of the repression of the Hungarian uprising by the Soviet Union; Cambodia, Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon boycotted the Games because of the Suez Crisis; and China (the "People's Republic of China") boycotted the Games because Taiwan (the "Republic of China") was allowed to compete in the games. 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 regimes. 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 Tanzania-led withdrawal from the Montreal Games, after a few of their athletes had already competed. Taiwan also decided to boycott these Games because the People's Republic of China (PRC) exerted pressure on the Montreal organizing committee to keep the delegation from the Republic of China (ROC) from competing under that 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. Taiwan did not participate again until 1984, when it 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. Sixty-five nations refused to compete at the Moscow Olympics in 1980 because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This boycott reduced the number of nations participating to 81, the lowest number since 1956. The Soviet Union and 14 of its Eastern Bloc partners (except Romania) countered by boycotting the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984, contending that they could not guarantee the safety of their athletes. Soviet officials defended their decision to withdraw from the Games by saying that "chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria are being whipped up in 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 and ongoing conflict in Darfur. 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. The International Olympic Committee responded to concerns about the status of the 2014 games by stating that it is "premature to make judgments about how events happening today might sit with an event taking place six years from now".
Currently, the government of Iran has taken steps to avoid any competition between its athletes and those from Israel. An Iranian judoka did not compete in a match against an Israeli during the 2004 Summer Olympics. Although he was officially disqualified for excessive weight, Arash 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.
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. The most publicized doping-related disqualification was that of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who won the 100 meter dash at the 1988 Seoul Olympics but tested positive for stanozolol. His gold medal was subsequently stripped and awarded to runner-up Carl Lewis, who himself had tested positive for banned substances prior to the Olympics.
In the late 1990s, the IOC took the initiative in a more organized battle against doping, by forming the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 1999. There was a sharp increase in positive drug tests at the 2000 Summer Olympics and 2002 Winter Olympics. Several medalists in weightlifting and cross-country skiing were disqualified because of doping offenses. During the 2006 Winter Olympics, only one athlete failed a drug test and had a medal revoked. The IOC-established drug testing regimen (now known as the Olympic Standard) has set the worldwide benchmark that other sporting federations around the world 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. Several athletes were barred from competition by their National Olympic Committees prior to the Games; only three athletes failed drug tests while in competition in Beijing. When Nino Salukvadze of Georgia won the bronze medal in the 10 meter air pistol competition, she stood on the medal podium with Natalia Paderina, a Russian shooter who had won the silver. In what became a much-publicized event from the Beijing Games, Salukvadze and Paderina embraced on the podium after the ceremony had ended.
Terrorism has also threatened the Olympic Games. In 1972, when the Summer Games were held in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by the terrorist group Black September in what is now known as the Munich massacre. The terrorists killed two of the athletes soon after they had taken them hostage and killed the other nine during a failed liberation attempt. A German police officer and 5 terrorists also perished. During the Summer Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta, a bomb was detonated at the Centennial Olympic Park, which killed 2 and injured 111 others. The bomb was set by Eric Robert Rudolph, an American domestic terrorist, who is currently serving a life sentence for the bombing. Security of the Olympic Games has been an increasing concern and focus for Olympic planners since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The athletes or teams who place first, second, or third in each event receive medals. The winners receive gold medals, which were solid gold until 1912, then made of gilded silver and now gold-plated silver. Every gold medal must contain at least six grams of pure gold. The runners-up receive silver medals and the third-place athletes are awarded bronze medals. In events contested by a single-elimination tournament (most notably boxing), third place might not be determined and both semifinal losers receive bronze medals. At the 1896 Olympics only the first two received a medal; silver for first and bronze for second. The current three-medal format was introduced at the 1904 Olympics. From 1948 onward athletes placing fourth, fifth, and sixth have received certificates, which became officially known as victory diplomas; in 1984 victory diplomas for seventh- and eighth-place finishers were added. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, the gold, silver, and bronze medal winners were also given olive wreaths. The IOC does not keep statistics of medals won, but National Olympic Committees and the media record medal statistics as a measure of success.
Once the candidate cities are selected, they must submit to the IOC a bigger and more detailed presentation of their project as part of a candidature file. Each city is thoroughly analyzed by an evaluation commission. This commission will also visit the candidate cities, interviewing local officials and inspecting prospective venue sites, and submit a report on its findings one month prior to the IOC's final decision. During the interview process the candidate city must also guarantee that it will be able to fund the Games. |- ! rowspan="2" | Year ! colspan="2" | Summer Olympic Games ! colspan="2" | Winter Olympic Games ! colspan="2" | Youth Olympic Games |- ! Olympiad !! Host city !! No. !! Host city !! No. !! Host City |- bgcolor="#EFEFEF" | 1896 || I || Athens, Greece|| || || || |- |1900 || II || Paris, France|| || || || |- bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |1904 || III || St. Louis, United States || || || || |- style="font-style:italic;" |1906 || III || Athens, Greece || || || || |- bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |1908 || IV || London, United Kingdom|| || || || |- |1912 || V || Stockholm, Sweden || || || || |- bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |1916 || VI || Berlin, Germany →Cancelled because of World War I'' || || || || |- |1920 || VII || Antwerp, Belgium || || || || |- bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |1924 || VIII || Paris, France || I || Chamonix, France || || |- |1928 || IX || Amsterdam, Netherlands || II || St. Moritz, Switzerland || || |-bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |1932 || X || Los Angeles, United States|| III || Lake Placid, United States || || |- |1936 || XI || Berlin, Germany || IV || Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany || || |-bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |1940 || XII|| Tokyo, Japan → Helsinki, Finland →Cancelled because of World War II || V|| Sapporo, Japan → St. Moritz, Switzerland → Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany →Cancelled because of World War II || || |- |1944 || XIII|| London, United Kingdom →Cancelled because of World War II || V|| Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy →Cancelled because of World War II || || |-bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |1948 || XIV || London, United Kingdom || V || St. Moritz, Switzerland || || |- |1952 || XV || Helsinki, Finland || VI || Oslo, Norway || || |-bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |1956 || XVI || Melbourne, Australia + Stockholm, Sweden || VII || Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy || || |- |1960 || XVII || Rome, Italy || VIII || Squaw Valley, United States || || |-bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |1964 || XVIII || Tokyo, Japan || IX || Innsbruck, Austria || || |- |1968 || XIX || Mexico City, Mexico || X || Grenoble, France || || |-bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |1972 || XX || Munich, West Germany || XI || Sapporo, Japan || || |- |1976 || XXI || Montreal, Canada || XII || Denver, United States → Innsbruck, Austria || || |-bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |1980 || XXII || Moscow, Soviet Union || XIII || Lake Placid, United States || || |- |1984 || XXIII || Los Angeles, United States || XIV || Sarajevo, Yugoslavia || || |-bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |1988 || XXIV || Seoul, South Korea || XV || Calgary, Canada || || |- |1992 || XXV || Barcelona, Spain || XVI || Albertville, France || || |-bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |1994 || || || XVII || Lillehammer, Norway || || |- |1996 || XXVI || Atlanta, United States || || || || |-bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |1998 || || || XVIII || Nagano, Japan || || |- |2000 || XXVII || Sydney, Australia || || || || |-bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |2002 || || || XIX || Salt Lake City, United States || || |- |2004 || XXVIII || Athens, Greece || || || || |-bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |2006 || || || XX || Turin, Italy || || |- |2008 || XXIX || Beijing, China || || || || |-bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |2010 || || || XXI || Vancouver, Canada ||I (Summer) || Singapore |- |2012 || XXX || London, United Kingdom || || || I (Winter) || | Innsbruck, Austria |-bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |2014 || || || XXII || Sochi, Russia || II (Summer) || | Nanjing, China |- |2016 || XXXI || Rio de Janeiro, Brazil || || || II (Winter) || | To be determined |-bgcolor="#EFEFEF" |2018 || || || XXIII || To be determined || III (Summer) || To be determined |- |2020 || XXXII || To be determined|| || || || |}
Category:Multi-sport events Category:Athletic culture based on Greek antiquity Category:Recurring sporting events established in 1896
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Terry Brands (born April 9, 1968 in Omaha, Nebraska) is an American Olympic wrestler who won a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. While wrestling at the University of Iowa, Brands won NCAA titles in 1990 and 1992, both at 126 pounds. He was a two-time world freestyle champion at 58 kg, winning titles in 1993 and 1995. Terry became the head wrestling coach at The University of Tennessee at chattanooga in the spring of 2002 where he coached the likes of Christopher Bird and Matthew Wilbanks.
His twin brother, Tom Brands, a fellow wrestler, won a gold medal in the 1996 Summer Olympics. Brands grew up in Sheldon, Iowa. After serving as resident coach for the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, he currently is an assistant coach for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, serving under his twin brother, head coach Tom Brands.
Brands lost to Kendall Cross in the 1996 Olympic trials in one of the most exciting series of matches in the history of the trials. Cross went on to win the gold medal in Atlanta.
Category:1968 births Category:Living people Category:American sport wrestlers Category:Olympic wrestlers of the United States Category:Wrestlers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Category:Olympic bronze medalists for the United States Category:Iowa Hawkeyes athletes Category:Twin people from the United States
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Coordinates | 41°52′55″N87°37′40″N |
---|---|
Title | Paul Wylie |
Caption | Wylie at the 2007 An Evening with Champions |
Country | |
Dateofbirth | October 24, 1964 |
Formerpartner | Dana Graham |
Formercoach | Evy Scotvold, Mary Scotvold, Carlo Fassi, John Nicks |
Retired | 1992 |
Paul Stanton Wylie (born October 28, 1964) is an American figure skater and 1992 Olympic silver medalist.
In 1979, Wylie won the novice men's title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, and in the 1981 season, he won both the U.S. junior title and the World Junior Championship. At the latter event, he landed his first triple jumps in competition -- two triple toe loops.
At the same time, Wylie was competing in pair skating with partner Dana Graham. They won the junior pairs title at the 1980 U.S. nationals. They were coached by John Nicks, commuting to work with him in California. They placed eighth in the senior division at the 1981 U.S. nationals, but then dissolved their partnership when they lost financial sponsorship.
In 1985, wanting to reconstruct some of his technique, Wylie left Fassi and began to train instead with Evy and Mary Scotvold, who were at that time located in Janesville, Wisconsin. Shortly afterwards, they all moved to the Boston area. Wylie attended Harvard University beginning in 1986. He was a member of the Fox Club, one of eight elite final clubs at the college. He graduated in 1991.
Wylie placed second at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1988, 1990, and 1992. He won the silver medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. The medal was considered a major upset. Wylie had never finished higher than ninth at the World Figure Skating Championships — four years prior — and had skated such a poor performance at the U.S. Championships immediately prior to the games that reporters questioned his placement on the Olympic team. The USFSA had even left Wylie off the team for the 1992 World Championships, naming Mark Mitchell in his place.
After the Olympics, Wylie joined the professional skating ranks. He won the 1992 U.S. Open Professional Championship and the 1993 World Professional Figure Skating Championships. Wylie toured with Stars on Ice from 1992 to 1998 before retiring to attend Harvard Business School and work in the corporate world. For some time he held a position with The Walt Disney Company.
In 2004, after leaving Disney, Wylie returned to the ice for twenty two dates with Stars on Ice. He has also continued his long association with An Evening with Champions, the annual benefit show at Harvard. Wylie has worked as a sports commentator/analyst, most recently for ESPN and Universal Sports.
On August 14, 1999, Wylie married Cape Cod blueblood Kate Presbrey. They have three children, Hannah, Emma and Caleb, and currently reside in Charlotte, North Carolina where Wylie previously worked with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, as director of the Dare to be a Daniel program. Wylie is currently in business for himself running a sports-related travel agency and is coaching figure skaters at the Extreme Ice Center in Indian Trail, North Carolina.
On January 10, 2008, the World Figure Skating Museum and Hall of Fame announced that Wylie would be inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame on January 25, 2008.
Category:American male single skaters Category:Olympic figure skaters of the United States Category:Figure skaters at the 1988 Winter Olympics Category:Figure skaters at the 1992 Winter Olympics Category:Figure skating commentators Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:Olympic silver medalists for the United States Category:Harvard Business School alumni
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Coordinates | 41°52′55″N87°37′40″N |
---|---|
Name | Jim McKay |
Birth name | James Kenneth McManus |
Birth date | September 24, 1921 |
Birth place | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Death date | June 07, 2008 |
Death place | Monkton, Maryland, U.S. |
Occupation | Sportscaster, sportswriter, actor |
Years active | 1955–1998 2002 2006 |
Spouse | Margaret Dempsey (1948–2008); his death |
Children | Sean and Mary |
James Kenneth McManus (September 24, 1921 – June 7, 2008), better known by his professional name of Jim McKay, was an American television sports journalist.
McKay is best known for hosting ABC's Wide World of Sports (1961–1998). His introduction for that program has passed into American pop culture. He is also known for television coverage of 12 Olympic Games, and for his reporting on the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics.
McKay covered a wide variety of special events, including horse races such as the Kentucky Derby, golf events such as the British Open, and the Indianapolis 500. McKay's son, Sean McManus, a protégé of Roone Arledge, is president of CBS Sports and News divisions.
He moved on to ABC and was the host of ABC's influential Wide World of Sports for more than 40 years.
While covering the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics for ABC, McKay took on the job of reporting the events live on his only scheduled day off during the Games, substituting for Chris Schenkel. He was on air for fourteen hours without a break, After an unsuccessful rescue attempt of the athletes held hostage, at 3:24 AM German Time, McKay came on the air with this statement:
Although McKay received numerous accolades for his reporting of the Munich hostage crisis (including two Emmy Awards, one for sports and one for news reporting), he stated in a 2003 HBO documentary about his life and career that he was most proud of a telegram he received from Walter Cronkite praising his work he received the day after the massacre.
In 1994, he was the studio host for the FIFA World Cup coverage, the first ever held on American soil. McKay also covered the 2006 FIFA World Cup for ABC. In 2002, ABC "loaned" McKay to NBC to serve as a special correspondent during the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. In 2003, HBO released a documentary by McKay called Jim McKay: My World In My Words, tracing his career. This film outlines McKay's personal and professional accomplishments.
Category:1921 births Category:2008 deaths Category:American broadcasters of Irish descent Category:American horse racing announcers Category:American journalists Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American television sports anchors Category:American television sports announcers Category:Association football commentators Category:Baltimore, Maryland television anchors Category:Baseball announcers Category:Eclipse Award winners Category:Figure skating commentators Category:Golf writers and broadcasters Category:Loyola University Maryland alumni Category:Motorsport announcers Category:National Basketball Association broadcasters Category:National Football League announcers Category:Peabody Award winners Category:People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:Sports Emmy Award winners Category:Tennis commentators Category:United States Navy officers Category:Wide World of Sports (U.S. TV series) Category:American Football League announcers
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Francis Morgan Ayodélé Thompson CBE (born 30 July 1958 in Notting Hill, London), known commonly as "Daley Thompson", is a former decathlete from England. He won the decathlon gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984, and broke the world record for the event four times.
With four world records, two Olympic gold medals, three Commonwealth titles, and wins in the World and European Championships, Thompson is considered by many to be the greatest decathlete of all time.
Initially he was a member of Haywards Heath Harriers, but when he returned to London in 1975 he joined the Essex Beagles club. Later that year he won the first two decathlon competitions he entered, while in 1976 he won the AAA title and was the 18th at the Montréal Olympic Games. The following year, he won the European Junior Title and in 1978 came the first of his three Commonwealth titles. He cites Sam Nichols and Sian Rathore as "great inspirations" to him, even in the early days.
In 1979, he failed to finish in his only decathlon of the year but won the long jump at the UK Championships. He then opened the 1980 Olympic season with a world decathlon record of 8,648 points at Götzis, Austria, in May, and followed this with a comfortable win at the Moscow Olympics. After a quiet 1981 season he was in devastating form in 1982; back at Götzis in May, he raised the world record to 8,730 points and then in September, at the European Championships in Athens, he took the record up to 8,774 points. The following month in Brisbane, Thompson took his second Commonwealth title.
In 1983 Daley was crowned the all-round king at the inaugural World Championships and became the first decathlete to hold the European, World and Olympic titles simultaneously. He spent much of the summer of 1984 in California preparing for the defence of his Olympic title, with Jürgen Hingsen, the West German who had taken over from Thompson as the world record holder, expected to be a major threat. Thompson took the lead in the first event and was never headed throughout the competition, although it seemed that, by easing off in the 1,500 metres he had missed tying the world record by just one point. When the photo-finish pictures were examined, however, it was found that Thompson should have been credited with one more point in the 110 metres hurdles so he had in fact, equaled Hingsen’s record. Then when the new scoring tables were introduced, Thompson became the sole record holder once more with a recalculated score of 8,847 points – a world record that stood until 1992, when it was surpassed by the American athlete Dan O'Brien with a score of 8891. His two victories in the decathlon are a feat shared only with the American Bob Mathias. Thompson's 1984 performance is still the UK record.
After his Olympic success, Thompson won his third Commonwealth title in 1986 but after that he never quite recaptured the superlative form of earlier years. In 1987 he suffered his first decathlon defeat for nine years when he finished ninth in the World Championships, and at his third Olympics in Seoul in 1988 he finished fourth. He made the Commonwealth Games team for the fourth time in 1990 but was forced to withdraw because of injury
Thompson's rivalry with West German athlete Jürgen Hingsen was legendary in the sport throughout the 1980s. The pair consistently traded world records, but Thompson always had the upper hand in the major events, remaining undefeated in all competitions for nine years between 1979 and 1987.
Thompson was a natural showman who endeared himself to the British public with his irreverent personality, notably when he whistled the British national anthem God Save the Queen with studied insouciance after receiving his gold medal in 1984. Afterwards, he famously sent a message to friends back home via a TV interview, showing his medal and saying I've got the Big G, boys - the Big G!
Sometimes Thompson's behaviour caused offence, not least when he refused to carry the Union Jack at the opening ceremony of the 1982 Commonwealth Games, claiming that the effort required participating in the four-and-a-half hour ceremony would reduce his chances of winning his event. He won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award the same year. Making his acceptance speech during the live broadcast of the programme Thompson uttered an obscenity, which caused media comment. Despite this, he was awarded the MBE in 1982, the OBE in 1986, and the CBE in 2000.
Thompson worked as a fitness trainer and motivational speaker, as well as appearing at corporate events. He was also well known for his appearances in commercials for the drink Lucozade in the 1980s. Thompson's name was used for three officially licensed home computer games by Ocean Software in the 1980s: Daley Thompson's Decathlon, Daley Thompson's Supertest, and Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge.
Thompson is an ambassador for the London 2012 Olympics, focusing during the bid stage on highlighting the benefits that hosting the Olympics would bring to education and sport in schools.
Bruce Jenner|title=Men's decathlon world record holder|years=15 May 1980 – 14 June 1980|after= Guido Kratschmer}} Guido Kratschmer|title=Men's decathlon world record holder|years=23 May 1982 – 15 August 1982|after= Jürgen Hingsen}} Jürgen Hingsen|title=Men's decathlon world record holder|years=8 September 1982 – 6 June 1983|after= Jürgen Hingsen}} Jürgen Hingsen|title=Men's decathlon world record holder|years=9 August 1984 – 5 September 1992|after= Dan O'Brien}} Ian Botham |after= Steve Cram|years=1982}}
Category:BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners Category:English athletes Category:Decathletes Category:English people of Nigerian descent Category:Athletes at the 1978 Commonwealth Games Category:Athletes at the 1982 Commonwealth Games Category:Athletes at the 1986 Commonwealth Games Category:Athletes at the 1980 Summer Olympics Category:Athletes at the 1984 Summer Olympics Category:Athletes at the 1988 Summer Olympics Category:Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Category:Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Category:Olympic gold medalists for Great Britain Category:Mansfield Town F.C. players Category:Stevenage F.C. players Category:People from Worcester Park Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:Olympic athletes of Great Britain Category:Black British sportspeople
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