Olympics - Information and History of Olympic Sports

This is an international sports festival, which originated in the city of Olympia, an ancient city of Greece. Ancient Olympics These games were held at Mount Olympia in Greece in honour of Zeus from 776 BC to AD 394. From AD 394, games started degenerating and by AD 580, they altogether vanished and were banned by the Roman emperor, Theodosius. Modern Olympics It was French nobleman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who revived Olympic games (almost 1500 years after the last ancient Olympics) in 1894. The modern series of the Olympic Games started in 1896 in Athens and since then are held every four years. Separate winter Olympic Games began in 1924. Women have been competing in the Olympics since 1912. India officially participated in the Olympics for the first time in 1920 when four athletes and two wrestlers were sent to participate in the sixth Olympic Games at Antwerp, Belgium. The Olympic Flag is made up of white silk and contains fine intertwined rings as the Olympics Emblem. From right to left the rings are Blue (for Europe), Yellow (for Asia), Black (for Africa), Red (for America) and Green (for Australia). In 1897, Father Didon composed the games motto 'Citius, Altius, Fortius' in Latin, which means 'Swifter, Higher and Stronger'. However, it was introduced as Olympic motto only in 1920 games.     Olympics - Where and When     Olympiad Year Olympics       Venue Country I 1896 Athens Greece II 1900 Paris France III 1904 St Louis US IV 1908 London Great Britain V 1912 Stockholm Sweden VI* 1916 Berlin Germany VII 1920 Antwerp Belgium VIII 1924 Paris France IX 1928 Amsterdam Netherlands X 1932 Los Angeles US XI 1936 Berlin Germany XII** 1940 Tokyo (then Helsinki) Japan (then Finland) XIII** 1944 London Great Britain XIV 1948 London Great Britain XV 1952 Helsinki Finland XVI 1956 Melbourne Australia XVII 1960 Rome Italy XVIII 1964 Tokyo Japan XIX 1968 Mexico City Mexico XX 1972 Munich W. Germany XXI 1976 Montreal Canada XXII 1980 Moscow USSR XXIII 1984 Los Angeles US XXIV 1988 Seoul S. Korea XXV 1992 Barcelona Spain XXVI 1996 Atlanta US XXVII 2000 Sydney Australia XXVIII 2004 Athens Greece XXIX 2008 Beijing China (Scheduled) XXX 2012 England UK * Games were not held due to World War I ** Games were not celebrated due to World War II. In 1940, the Games were retracted from Tokyo and were awarded to Helsinki by the IOC.         . __,_._,___