Portal:Olympic Games
The Olympic Games Portal
The modern Olympic Games (OG; or Olympics; French: Jeux olympiques, JO) are the world's leading international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost sports competition, with more than 200 teams, representing sovereign states and territories, participating. By default, the Games generally substitute for any world championships during the year in which they take place (however, each class usually maintains its own records). The Olympics are staged every four years. Since 1994, they have alternated between the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years during the four-year Olympiad.
Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, held in Olympia, Greece from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, leading to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement, which encompasses all entities and individuals involved in the Olympic Games. The Olympic Charter defines their structure and authority.
The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has resulted in numerous changes to the Olympic Games. Some of these adjustments include the creation of the Winter Olympic Games for snow and ice sports, the Paralympic Games for athletes with disabilities, the Youth Olympic Games for athletes aged 14 to 18, the five Continental Games (Pan American, African, Asian, European, and Pacific), and the World Games for sports that are not contested in the Olympic Games. The IOC also endorses the Deaflympics and the Special Olympics. The IOC need to adapt to a variety of economic, political, and technological advancements. The abuse of amateur rules prompted the IOC to shift away from pure amateurism, as envisioned by Coubertin, to the acceptance of professional athletes participating at the Games. The growing importance of mass media has created the issue of corporate sponsorship and general commercialisation of the Games. World Wars I and II led to the cancellation of the 1916, 1940, and 1944 Olympics; large-scale boycotts during the Cold War limited participation in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics; and the 2020 Olympics were postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 restrictions.
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On 6 April, the Games of the First Olympiad were officially opened. It was Easter Monday for the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches, and was also the anniversary of the outbreak of the war for Greek independence.
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| “ | The Olympic Games must not be an end in itself, they must be a means of creating a vast program of physical education and sports competitions for all young people. | ” |
| — Avery Brundage, The fifth President of the International Olympic Committee | ||
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Brodeur holds numerous NHL and franchise records among goaltenders; he ranks as the league's all-time regular season leader in wins (691), losses (397), shutouts (125), and games played (1,266). He won at least 30 games in twelve straight seasons between 1995–96 and 2007–08 and is the only goaltender in NHL history with eight 40-win seasons. He is a four-time Vezina Trophy winner, a five-time William M. Jennings Trophy winner, a ten-time NHL All-Star, and a Calder Memorial Trophy winner. He is one of 14 NHL goaltenders to score a goal in the regular season and the second to do so in the playoffs; his three goals are the most of any NHL goaltender.
Current Events
- 5 September 2024 – Domestic violence in Kenya
- Ugandan marathoner Rebecca Cheptegei dies at a hospital in Eldoret, Kenya, after sustaining burns from a gasoline attack by her former partner almost a month after participating in the women's marathon at the 2024 Summer Olympics. (BBC News)
- 11 August 2024 – 2024 Summer Olympics
- The 2024 Summer Olympics conclude with the closing ceremony taking place at the Stade de France in Paris, France. (BBC News)
- The United States finish atop the medal table with 40 gold medals and 126 total medals, ahead of China who finished with 40 gold medals and 91 total medals, with silver medals being the tiebreaker. (BBC News)
- 10 August 2024 – 2024 Summer Olympics
- Albania at the 2024 Summer Olympics
- Chermen Valiev wins a bronze medal in Men's freestyle 74 kg wrestling, earning Albania its first ever Olympic medal. (KOHA)
- Breaking at the 2024 Summer Olympics
Did You Know...-
- ... that Chinese Olympic gold medalist and flagbearer Xu Lijia nearly died at age 12 and missed the Athens Olympics because of a tumor?
- ... that 2012 Indian Olympic high jumper Sahana Kumari qualified for the Games after breaking the eight-year-old national record?
- ... that Mollie Phillips was the first woman to carry the flag and lead out her national team at an Olympic Games?
- ... that David Bond took eight weeks of unpaid leave from his job in order to become one of three gold medallists for the British team at the 1948 Summer Olympics?
- ... that Pindar's First Olympian Ode celebrates victory at the Olympic Games to the strains of the phorminx?
Upcoming Olympic Games
2024 Summer Olympics
The 2024 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held from 26 July to 11 August 2024 in France, with several events started from 24 July. Paris was the host city, with events (mainly football) held in 16 additional cities spread across metropolitan France, including the sailing centre in the second-largest city of France, Marseille, on the Mediterranean Sea, as well as one subsite for surfing in Tahiti, French Polynesia.
Paris was awarded the Games at the 131st IOC Session in Lima, Peru, on 13 September 2017. After multiple withdrawals that left only Paris and Los Angeles in contention, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved a process to concurrently award the 2024 and 2028 Summer Olympics to the two remaining candidate cities; both bids were praised for their high technical plans and innovative ways to use a record-breaking number of existing and temporary facilities. Having previously hosted in 1900 and 1924, Paris became the second city ever to host the Summer Olympics three times (after London, which hosted the games in 1908, 1948, and 2012). Paris 2024 marked the centenary of Paris 1924 and Chamonix 1924 (the first Winter Olympics), as well as the sixth Olympic Games hosted by France (three Summer Olympics and three Winter Olympics) and the first with this distinction since the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville. The Summer Games returned to the traditional four-year Olympiad cycle, after the 2020 edition was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Paris 2024 featured the debut of breaking as an Olympic sport, and was the final Olympic Games held during the IOC presidency of Thomas Bach. The 2024 Games were expected to cost €9 billion. The opening ceremony was held outside of a stadium for the first time in modern Olympic history, as athletes were paraded by boat along the Seine. Paris 2024 was the first Olympics in history to reach full gender parity on the field of play, with equal numbers of male and female athletes.
All-time Combined Olympic Games Medal Table
Separate current and precursor NOCs (records not combined):
| No. | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States (USA) |
1,219 | 1,000 | 875 | 3,094 |
| 2 |  Soviet Union (URS) |
473 | 376 | 355 | 1,204 |
| 3 |  China (CHN) |
325 | 258 | 221 | 804 |
| 4 |  Germany (GER) |
317 | 318 | 320 | 955 |
| 5 |  Great Britain (GBR) |
310 | 345 | 360 | 1,015 |
| 6 |  France (FRA) |
280 | 319 | 354 | 953 |
| 7 |  Italy (ITA) |
271 | 244 | 284 | 799 |
| 8 |  Sweden (SWE) |
216 | 232 | 242 | 690 |
| 9 |  Norway (NOR) |
213 | 187 | 176 | 576 |
| 10 |  Japan (JPN) |
206 | 191 | 221 | 618 |
2026 Winter Olympics
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The 2026 Winter Olympics (Italian: Olimpiadi invernali del 2026), officially the XXV Olympic Winter Games (Italian: XXV Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Milano Cortina 2026, is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 6 to 22 February 2026 in three regions, with the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo hosting.
This will be the fourth Olympic Games hosted in Italy, which previously hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. It will be the first Olympic Games officially featuring multiple host cities and will be the first Winter Olympics since Sarajevo 1984 where the opening and closing ceremonies will be held in different venues. These games will become the first of two consecutive Winter Olympic games to be hosted (at least partially) in the European Alps, followed by the French Alps in 2030. It received the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. Events will also take place in seven other north-northeastern Italian cities. The games will mark the 20th anniversary of the Winter Olympics in Turin, the 70th anniversary of the Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo and the first time that Milan will host an Olympic Games. These games will mark the first Winter Olympics under a new IOC President, who is expected to be elected in 2025 at the 143rd IOC Session. The joint bid from the two cities beat another joint bid from Swedish cities Stockholm–Åre by 47–34 votes at the 134th Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 June 2019.
Olympic Sports
- Archery
- Artistic swimming
- Athletics
- Badminton
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Beach volleyball
- Boxing
- Canoeing
- Cricket
- Cycling
- Diving
- Equestrian
- Fencing
- Football
- Golf
- Gymnastics
- Handball
- Field hockey
- Judo
- Lacrosse
- Modern pentathlon
- Rowing
- Rugby
- Sailing
- Shooting
- Skateboarding
- Softball
- Sport climbing
- Squash
- Surfing
- Swimming
- Table tennis
- Taekwondo
- Tennis
- Triathlon
- Volleyball
- Water polo
- Weightlifting
- Wrestling
Olympic Games Countdown
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