Interesting Olympic Facts about the Games

Will and Guy's collection of interesting Olympic facts.

The famous wrestler Milo was said to train by carrying a calf every
day.  As the calf grew heavier, his muscles got stronger.

• 
  Interesting Facts from Past Olympic Events
• Interesting
  History of Olympic Medals
• More Interesting
  Olympic Games Facts
• 
  Interesting Facts from the Ancient Olympic Games

Ten True and
Funny Interesting Facts from Past Olympic Events

1. Rope Climbing took place in the following years: 1896, 1904,
   1906, 1924, 1932. Rudimentary gym skills were all it took to win
   Olympic gold in the early 20th century it appears, as this event
   basically consisted of shimmying up a rope.
2. Club Swinging occurred in 1904 and 1932. This consisted of
   swinging a club festooned with ribbons around your body and head.  Strange but true.
3. Tug-of-War between 1900 -1920.  Indeed this trickiest of
   sports favoured by rather overweight beer drinkers in pubs was
   actually considered an Olympic event.  We hear competitive tug-of-war
   gave way to another short-lived event: the 40m three-legged race.
4. In wrestling at the Stockholm Games in 1912, the light
   heavyweight final between a Swede, Anders Ahlgren, and a Finn, Ivar
   Bohling, lasted nine hours.  Since neither had gained an advantage
   over the other, no gold medal was awarded. Each received a silver
   medal.
5. Motor boating was an official sport at the 1908 Olympics. It was
   frowned upon because the competitors were often out of sight of the
   watching crowds.
6. Polo was played at the Olympics in 1900, 1908, 1920, 1924, and
   1936.
7. In 1912, in Stockholm, the first electric timing devices and
   public address system was used at the Olympics.
8. Ralph Craig ran in the 100m for the USA in
   1912.  He next competed in the Olympics in the USA yachting team, some 36
   years later in 1948.
9. The key word
   "amateur" was eliminated from the Olympic Charter in 1971.
10. American swimmer Michael Phelps holds both the record for most
    gold medals won at an Olympic Games, eight, and most career gold medals with
    14.

Interesting History of Olympic Medals

• At
  the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, silver medals were
  awarded to the winners and bronze to the second place getters.
• Olympic gold medals haven't been pure gold in years. The 1912 Olympics
  was the last time that gold medals were solid gold.  Ever since,
  they've been silver with gold plating.
• Starting in Amsterdam 1928, all Summer Olympic medals featured
  the same design: a Greek goddess, the Olympic Rings, the Coliseum of
  ancient Athens, a Greek vase, a horse-drawn chariot.  Each host
  city then adds their own design together with with the year and the
  number of Olympiad.  The host city has control over the design
  of the reverse side of the medal.
• In 1900, in France, Olympian winners got paintings instead of gold
  medals. Gold, silver and bronze medals weren't given out until the
  third modern Olympics in 1904. The French gave the winners paintings
  because they believed they were more valuable.
• Incidentally, more athletes than spectators attended the 1900
  Paris Olympic Games.

More Interesting Olympic Games Facts

• No women competed in 1896, as de Coubertin felt that their
  inclusion would be "impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and
  incorrect."
• The first black athlete to compete at the Olympics was
  Constantin Henriquez de Zubiera, competing for France in 1900.
• The Berlin 1936 Olympiad was the first games to be televised.
• The only Olympian ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was
  Philip Noel-Baker of Great Britain, who won the silver in the 1500
  metres in 1920.
• The first Winter Olympic Games were held in Chamonix, France in
  1924. Norway has won the most medals (263) at the Winter Games.
• In Beijing 2008, equestrian rider Hiroshi Hoketsu became the
  oldest Japanese Olympic representative at age 67. Hoketsu also took
  part in the 1964 Tokyo Games at the age of 23 where he finished 40th
  in the show jumping event.
• In order for a sport to be considered for inclusion in the
  Olympics it must be 'widely practiced' by men in at least 75
  countries and on four continents, and by women in at least 40
  countries and on three continents.

Interesting Facts from the Ancient Olympic Games

• The very first recorded Ancient Olympic Games took place in 776
  BC. The event was a 'stadion' race - a foot race on a running track
  183m [200 yards] long.  The Greeks called this measurement a stade
  - from which we derive the word "stadium".
• Milo of Kroton, one of the greatest Ancient Olympic champions.
  He won the wrestling event 6 times, over a span of 34 years. [The
  famous wrestler Milo was said to train by carrying a calf every day.
  As the calf grew heavier, his muscles got stronger.]
• Did you know that all athletes competed in the nude at the
  ancient Olympics?
• The early Olympic Games included competitions for trumpeters.
• In the ancient Olympics, the philosopher Plato [427-347 BC] was
  a double winner of the Pankration. [Combat sport, a mix of wrestling
  and boxing].
• In ancient times married women were prohibited from watching the
  Games under penalty of death.
• In ancient times big sunhats were banned in the crowd, because
  they blocked other spectators' view.

Olympic Games Myths

Pelops, a prince from Lydia sought the hand of the daughter of King
Oinomaos of Pisa, namely Hippodamia. Oinomaos had declared that his
daughter's suitors should compete with him in a chariot race; winning it
he gets Hippodamia as his wife; but on losing it, he would be beheaded.

Pelops with his charioteer Myrtilos secretly replaced the bronze
linchpins of the King's chariot with wax linchpins. During the race, the
wax melted and Oinomaos was thrown from his chariot and died. Pelops and
Hippodamia got married and Pelops celebrated his victory with the
Olympic Games.

According to another myth, poet Pindar, in his Olympian Ode, tells
the tale of how King Augeas of Elis reneged on his promise to reward
Herakles for cleaning his stables. Herakles attacked and sacked Elis and
started the Olympic Games in honour of his father Zeus.

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