- published: 29 Jun 2015
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The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially called the Games of the XXI Olympiad (French: Les XXIes olympiques d'été), was an international multi-sport event in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1976; the first Olympic Games hosted by Canada. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games on May 12, 1970, at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam, over the bids of Moscow and Los Angeles. Calgary and Vancouver would later host Winter Olympic Games in Canada. It is so far the only Summer Olympic Games to be held in Canada.
Most sovereign African, and a few other, nations boycotted the Montreal Games when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would not support, as had other international sporting organizations, the banning from competition of those countries whose athletes had participated in sporting events in South Africa as long as apartheid continued. The New Zealand rugby team had been touring South Africa during apartheid and were excluded from international sporting events due to implementation of the anti-apartheid policy.
The Summer Olympic Games or the Games of the Olympiad (French: Jeux olympiques d'été), first held in 1896, are an international multi-sport event, occurring every four years, organized by the International Olympic Committee. Medals are awarded in each event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition that started in 1904. The Winter Olympic Games were also created due to the success of the Summer Olympics.
The Olympics have increased from a 42-event competition with fewer than 250 male competitors from 14 nations to a 300-event sporting celebration with over 10,000 competitors from 205 nations. Organizers for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing expected approximately 10,500 competitors to take part in the 302 events on the program for the games.
Eighteen countries have hosted the Summer Olympics, with Great Britain 2012 being the most recent. The United States has hosted four Summer Olympics (1904, 1932, 1984, and 1996), more than any other nation, and Great Britain has hosted three Summer Olympics (1908, 1948, and 2012), all in London. Three cities have hosted two Summer Olympics: Los Angeles (1932 and 1984), Paris (1900 and 1924), and Athens (1896 and 2004).
Caitlyn Marie Jenner (born October 28, 1949), formerly known as Bruce Jenner, is an American television personality and retired Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete. Jenner was a college football player for the Graceland Yellowjackets before incurring a knee injury requiring surgery. Coach L. D. Weldon, who had coached Olympic decathlete Jack Parker, convinced Jenner to try the decathlon. After intense training, Jenner won the 1976 Olympics decathlon title at the Montreal Summer Olympics (after a Soviet athlete had won the title in 1972) during the Cold War, gaining fame as "an all-American hero". Jenner set a third successive world record while winning the Olympics. The winner of the Olympic decathlon is traditionally given the unofficial title of "world's greatest athlete." With that stature, Jenner subsequently established a career in television, film, authoring, as a Playgirl cover model, auto racing and business.
Jenner has six children from marriages to ex-wives Chrystie Crownover, Linda Thompson and Kris Jenner. Since 2007, Jenner has appeared on the reality television series Keeping Up with the Kardashians with Kris; their daughters Kendall and Kylie Jenner; and step-daughters Kourtney, Kim, and Khloé Kardashian. Previously identifying publicly as a male, Jenner revealed her identity as a trans woman in April 2015 and publicly announced her name change from Bruce to Caitlyn in a July 2015 Vanity Fair cover story. Her name and gender change became official on September 25, 2015. She has been called the most famous openly transgender woman in the world. Jenner currently stars in the reality television series I Am Cait, which focuses on her gender transition.