10 Fun Facts About the Olympics: Only Since 2012 Have All Selections Include at Least One Woman

The Olympics I am the most important sporting event in the world and keep billions of viewers glued to their televisions. In Italy, these days the attention is focused on Paris Gameswhich are arousing great interest, also thanks to the excellent performances of the athletes of the Peninsula. The Olympic Games were held for twelve centuries in the ancient world and were refounded, in a different form, in 1896 by Pierre de Coubertin. Their history is rich in curiosities and anecdotessometimes told inaccurately, if not entirely invented. Let’s find out below ten curiosities on the ancient and modern Olympics, from the origin of the name “Olympics”, to the year in which women were first allowed to compete in all the disciplines in which men were allowed: just think, we are talking about the very recent 2012.

1. The name of the Olympics

The name of the Games comes from the Greek city of Olympiawhich in ancient times, starting from 776 BC, hosted “panhellenic” sports competitions every four years, that is, open to citizens of all Greek city-states. The Olympics were part of a larger religious celebration organized in honor of Zeus. With the rise of Christianity, the Games gradually lost importance and in the 4th century AD they were abolished along with other pagan celebrations.

2. Sports of the Ancient Olympics

In the first editions, the ancient Olympics included only one competition, the distance race of a stadiumequal to about 200 meters (the word “stadium” later came to indicate the facility in Olympia where they ran and, later, modern sports facilities). Gradually other competitions were added: races over other distances, running while wearing armor, discus throwing, boxing, pankration (i.e. wrestling without holds barred), chariot racing. There were no swimming events. All Greeks could participate in the ancient Olympics, but they were excluding women.

3. The Birth of the Modern Olympics

In the second half of the nineteenth century, in conjunction with the development of sport in its modern form and with the archaeological excavations at the site of Olympia, several intellectuals and enthusiasts proposed organizing gymnastic-athletic competitions inspired by those of ancient Greece. The “winning” proposal was that of French baron Pierre de Coubertinwhich in 1894 established an International Olympic Committee (IOC) to organize the Games. The Committee decided to have the Olympics held every four years in a different city and to award the first edition to Greece. Therefore, the first modern Olympics were those of Athens 1896. De Coubertin also created the motto “Citius, altius, fortius” (“faster, higher, stronger”) and the flag with the five rings.

4. The artistic and literary competitions of the Olympics

From 1912 to 1948, the Olympics included, along with sports, artistic and literary competitions involving painters, sculptors, musicians, architects, and writers. The competitions required competitors to create works on specific themes, which were then evaluated by special juries. The results were generally not included in the medal table.

5. The Olympic Torch

The practice of lighting a torch at the site of Olympia and carrying it with a long relay to the venue of the Games, began in 1936, on the occasion of the Berlin Olympics. The lighting of the torch gives rise to a suggestive ceremony, which reproduces the one organized in the ancient world. After the lighting, the torch passes through numerous countries and finally arrives at the site of the Olympics. The lighting of the Olympic cauldron is the most suggestive moment of the opening ceremony of the Games.

6. Female participation

The athletes had to “fight” for a long time to achieve equal conditions and opportunities for participation in the Olympics. Until a few years ago the number of participating athletes was significantly lower than that of male athletes, and women were excluded from many competitions. Furthermore, some national delegations included only male athletes. The London 2012 Games were the first in which all teams included at least one woman, and in recent editions the number of female athletes has almost equalled that of male athletes. Even today, however, the gender issue has not been fully resolvedbecause women have fewer opportunities to play sports, have more difficulty becoming professionals and on average receive lower wages than their male colleagues.

Cities that have hosted the Olympics the most times

Paris is hosting the Olympics for the third time these days, after the editions of 1900 and 1924. Only one other city has had the same privilege: Londonwhich hosted the Games in 1908, 1948 and 2012. In 2028 it will also achieve the same result Los Angeleswhich has hosted the Olympics already in 1932 and 1984.

And Italy? Up to now our country has hosted only one edition of the Summer Games, that of 1960, organized in Rome. However, two editions of the Winter Games have been organized in the Peninsula, Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956 and Turin 2006, to which will be added the edition of Milan and Cortina in 2026.

The divided medal of Berlin 1936

We all know that at the Olympics, gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded. However, there is also a mixed medal, silver and bronze, dating back to the 1936 Olympics. The story is this: in the pole vault event, two Japanese athletes, Shuhei Nishida and Sueo Oe, obtained the same result, 4.25 meters, which was worth the second place. Since at the time it was not planned to award the silver medal to both athletes, the organizers awarded it only to Nishida, who had achieved the jump of 4.25 meters on the first attempt, and gave the bronze to Oe, who had succeeded on the second attempt. The two athletes, however, believed that their performances had been equally worthy and after returning to Japan they entrusted the medals to a goldsmith to “melt” them. So each of the two medals has a silver half and a bronze half.

The flag with the five rings

The Olympic flag was designed by De Coubertin and adopted by the IOC in 1914. The circles represent the continentsbut without specific associations (i.e. there is no specific color for each continent). The colors – green, yellow, black, blue, red and the white background – were chosen because they are the most common colors on flags around the world.

Sports that are no longer Olympic

The disciplines included in the Olympic program have changed over the years. From the first edition to today, there have been many new sports added. Other events have been excluded. These include the standing high jump, the standing long jump, the swimming obstacle course, the tug of war, the pigeon shooting (only held in Paris in 1900), the pistol duel, and cricket, all of which were held in the early editions of the Games. Other events, such as the single synchronized swimming and the 50 km race walk, have been excluded in more recent times.