Olympic Games Facts for kids

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

20 Amazing Facts about the Olympic Games

1. Exertion for Zeus

The original Olympic games started back in Greece in about 770 BCE and were part of a festival to celebrate Zeus, the Greek’s chief god. The main event was a running race but later wrestling, boxing and throwing events were added into the mix. Around 390 CE the games were banned by the Roman Emperor because they were thought to be pagan.

2. No girls allowed

Only men were allowed to take part in the games for a very long time. To start with they wore loin cloths but then some athletes decided to run naked to show their fearlessness, power and courage and as a tribute to the gods. They often showed off their physique by rubbing in olive oil. Our word gymnasium comes from the Greek word ‘gymnos’ meaning naked.  

3. Bringing them back (the games not the girls)

Fast forward 1,500 years and a Frenchman, Pierre de Coubertin decided to revive the games. The first games of the modern era were held in the Greek capital city, Athens, in 1896. Women first took part four years later, but even then there were only 22 female competitors out of a total of 997 athletes!

FUN FACT TRUMPET

The Paris 2024 Olympics will be the first Games in which the male/female gender representation is equal!

4. Ancient crowns

In ancient Greece, winners were given a crown made of laurel or olive leaves.The winners of the 1896 games were awarded a silver medal and the runners-up one of copper. In 1904 the tradition started of awarding gold, silver and bronze medals for the first three places.

5. Precious metals

Until 1912 winners’ medals were made entirely of gold. Now they only contain a small amount of the precious metal. In recent games, a total of some 5,000 medals have been awarded. This year in Paris each medal will contain a small fragment of iron from the Eiffel Tower, France’s most notable landmark!

Baron Pierre de Coubertin, half-length portrait, standing, facing front
Photograph from Bain News Service., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

6. Fire starter

Today, the Olympic flame is lit from the Sun’s rays using a parabolic mirror at Olympia in Greece and is then carried in a massive international relay to the place where the games are being held. The Olympic torch has even been taken into space! 

7. A global affair

The five interlocking Olympic rings, first used in 1913, represent the five inhabited continents: Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and Oceania. At least one of the colours used, blue, black, red, yellow and green features on the flags of all the countries taking part.

8. Crossing the line

Originally the marathon event was about 26 miles long but the course had to be extended by 385 yards at London in 1908 to make sure the finishing line was opposite the Royal Box. It remains that distance today! The race in 1908 was won by Italian Dorando Pietri but he was later disqualified because he had collapsed near the finish several times and officials had helped him over the line. The gold medal went to second-place runner American, Johnny Hayes. To mark his achievement, Queen Alexandra awarded Pietri a silver cup.

Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower, Paris, 2024. Ibex73, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

9. Teamwork makes the dreamwork

In the 1936 Berlin Olympics two Japanese pole-vaulters tied for second place and did not want to compete any further. The silver and bronze medals were cut in half and then fused together so that each athlete had a share of the silver and the bronze.

10. King of the swimmers

There was once an interesting cross-over between the Olympics and movie making in Hollywood. Johnny Weissmuller, who played the role of Tarzan in 12 films, was an Olympic swimming champion who won five gold medals during the 1920s.

11. Record breaker

Abebe Bikila from Ethiopia was the first person from the continent of Africa to win a gold medal at the Olympics. He won his first gold at Rome in 1960, while running the marathon barefoot, and his second four years later in Tokyo. Both victories were done in a world record time!

12. Surf’s up

Surfing will be an official event at the Paris Olympics this year but the event will take place thousands of kilometres away from France. The surfing event will be held on beaches in French Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean, the furthest distance any event has ever been held away from the host city.

Abebe Bikila at the 1960 Olympics Unknown author (ANSA.it), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

13. The quietest games in history

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Tokyo Olympics of 2020 was held in almost complete silence. No foreign travel into Japan was allowed and no spectators were allowed in to watch events. Millions though were able to follow competitions on television.

FUN FACT TRUMPET

The youngest competitor to take part in the 2024 Paris Olympics is just 11 years old! Chinese park skateboarder Zheng Haohao only started competing in global events in 2023!

14. Winning the bling

Michael Phelps, the American swimmer, is the most decorated Olympian of all time. He took part in four Olympic Games and collected a total of 28 medals, 23 of them gold. Britain’s most decorated Olympian is the cyclist Sir Jason Kenny who holds nine medals, seven of them gold. The most decorated British female athlete is his wife, Dame Laura Kenny, also a cyclist, who holds five gold medals and a silver.

15. In it for the long haul

The longest running Olympic record, which is still standing today, was achieved by Bob Beamon of the USA who reached 8.9m in the long jump at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968.

16. Computer said NO

Heard the one about the computer that couldn’t add up? In the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, the Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci scored several perfect 10s in her events. The electronic scoreboard could not record this, however, and showed the marks as 1.00. Today, a perfect 10 score is not permitted. 

American track and Field athlete Bob Beamon jumping 8.90 m (29 ft. 2.5 in) at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics Dutch National Archives, The Hague, Fotocollectie Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANEFO)

18 Be kind

There will be an International Olympic Committee Refugee team competing at the Paris Olympics. There will be 36 athletes from 11 different countries of origin taking part in 12 sports.

19 The 27-Storey LEGEND

Paris will also host the Paralympic Games which was first held in Rome in 1960. Originally for war veterans, events are now open to other athletes with disabilities. Britain’s most successful Paralympian is swimmer turned cyclist Sarah Storey. She holds 27 medals in all, 16 of them gold.

20 Cool Card-beds!

The beds in the Paris Olympic village are made from cardboard! The ingenious design, first trialled at the Tokyo Olympics four years earlier, are making the games a little bit more eco-friendly. They can be transported as flat pieces of cardboard in small containers and once finished with, they can be recycled! When the cardboard beds are assembled they are amazingly strong, as British Olympic diver Tom Daley showed the world in a social media post when he filmed himself jumping up and down on his bed! 

Sarah Storey Olympic Parade
Sarah Storey Olympic Parade. By Richard Gillin from St Albans, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

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Words: John Davis