Many people around the world watch the Olympic Games, a huge sports competition, and the Games began long ago in Greece. The ancient Olympic Games, which lasted for about 1,200 years, were held in Olympia, in Greece, and at first, the only event at the ancient Olympics was one footrace, called the stadion, which was about 192 meters long, and its name is the origin of the word stadium. The running track in the ancient stadium at Olympia is 192.27 meters long. The ancient Olympics later added a pentathlon of five events, including a long jump, discus and javelin throws. Winners at the ancient Olympics were given a wreath of olive branches, and the ancient Olympics are said to have ended in AD 393 or 394 on an order of the Roman emperor Theodosius I.

A Harvard classics professor calls the modern Olympics an explicit revival of the ancient games, founded on a sense of the educational value of sports. A Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, led the effort to bring the Olympic Games back. At the Sorbonne Congress in Paris on 24 June 1894, Athens was chosen for the 1896 Games, and Coubertin convinced the delegates to re-establish the Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded in 1894 and became the governing body of the modern Games. The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896, in the Panathenaic Stadium, which was first built in 330 B.C. Greek leaders wanted Athens to be the permanent Olympic host, but the IOC decided to rotate the host city, and in the ancient Olympics, athletes always competed at Olympia, while cities compete to host the modern Games.

The 1896 opening ceremony date was 25 March by the Julian calendar then used in Greece and 6 April by the Gregorian calendar used by most of the world. Those Olympics had 43 events, including swimming, cycling, fencing and tennis, and on 6 April 1896, James B. Connolly won the triple jump, the first modern Olympic championship decided. The winner got a silver medal and an olive branch, and the Olympic Anthem, by Spyros Samaras with words by Kostis Palamas, was first played at the 1896 Games. The IOC does not count the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens as official Olympic Games, and the 1908 Olympics were first awarded to Rome but moved to London after Mount Vesuvius erupted in 1906. After the 1912 Games, the IOC decided to limit the power of host nations in choosing the Olympic program, and the Olympic Oath was first spoken at the 1920 Games in Antwerp.

You may have heard that the marathon was a race in the ancient Olympics. In fact, the ancient Games never had such a long race, and their longest race was 24 stades, about 2.85 miles. A friend of Pierre de Coubertin, Michel Bréal, suggested the marathon race to him, and the first Olympic marathon, in 1896, was set at about 40 kilometers. A Greek runner, Spyridon Louis, won it, and the marathon distance of 26 miles and 385 yards (42.195 kilometers) was first used at the 1908 Olympics in London. Electronic timing and the photo finish were first used at the Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912. You may have heard that winners have always received gold, silver and bronze medals. In fact, gold, silver and bronze medals were first given at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, and only in 1908 and 1912 did gold medallists receive medals of pure gold. In 1932, Olympic medal winners first stood on a podium while flags were raised and the winner's anthem played.

You may have heard that women have always competed at the Olympic Games. In the ancient Olympics, only men from Greece could compete, and there were no women's events. Women first competed in the modern Olympic Games in Paris in 1900, and women took part in track and field at the Olympics for the first time in 1928. There are Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics, and Winter Olympic events include figure skating, ice hockey and bobsledding. An Olympic event is a specific competition in a sport or discipline that results in a ranking and the awarding of medals and diplomas. The first Olympic Winter Games were held in Chamonix, France, in 1924, and figure skating was the first winter sport at the Olympics, at London in 1908, helped by artificial ice. Tennis was dropped from the Olympics after 1924 and did not return for 64 years.

Dr. Ludwig Guttmann organized the first competition for wheelchair athletes in 1948, called the Stoke Mandeville Games. The first Paralympic Games were held in Rome in 1960, with 400 athletes from 23 countries. Paralympic Games are held right after the Olympic Games in the same host city, and the word Paralympic comes from the Greek word para, meaning beside, because the Paralympics happen alongside the Olympics. The Paralympic symbol, called the Agitos, has three parts in red, blue and green, and the name comes from the Latin for "I move." The current Paralympic symbol was launched at the closing ceremony of the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games. The International Paralympic Committee was founded on 22 September 1989 in Dusseldorf, Germany, as the governing body of the Paralympic Movement. The Youth Olympic Games are for young athletes between the ages of 14 and 18, and, as of November 2026, the fourth Youth Olympic Games, planned for 2022, were held in Dakar, Senegal, from 31 October to 13 November 2026.

The Olympic symbol is five rings linked together, and Pierre de Coubertin designed the Olympic rings in 1913. The origin of the rings design is in dispute, and classics scholars doubt the story that Coubertin saw the rings at Delphi in 1913. The Olympic flag shows five rings in two rows: blue, black and red on top, and yellow and green below. The flag's six colors, including its white background, were chosen so that every national flag has at least one of them. The Olympic flag was flown at the Olympic Games for the first time in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1920. As of November 2026, the Olympic motto, changed in 2021, is Swifter, Higher, Stronger - Together, or in Latin Citius, Altius, Fortius - Communiter.

Before each Olympics, a flame is lit in Olympia, Greece, and carried by torch to the host country, and the flame is lit at Olympia with the rays of the sun and a curved mirror. You may have heard that the torch relay is an ancient Greek tradition. In fact, the torch relay began with the 1936 Olympic Games, and in 1952 and 1960, the flame for the Winter Games was lit at Morgedal, Norway, instead of Olympia. The 2026 Winter Olympics were the first host vote under the new IOC system, in which the IOC talks with cities and narrows the field before the final vote. The IOC required future hosts to use existing facilities, so the 2026 Winter Olympics were spread across northern Italy in four clusters. As of November 2026, the next Summer Olympics are planned for Los Angeles, California, in 2028.

Words to know

• revival: coming back
• marathon: long running race
• Paralympic: alongside the Olympics
• Agitos: Paralympic symbol