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 were held in Olympia, in Greece. The ancient Olympics are said to have ended in AD 393 or 394, on an order of the Roman emperor Theodosius I. At first, the only event at the ancient Olympics was one footrace, called the stadion, which was about 192 meters long. 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.
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, and 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. The 1896 Olympics had 43 events, including swimming, cycling, fencing and tennis, and James B. Connolly won the triple jump on 6 April 1896, the first modern Olympic championship decided. Greek leaders wanted Athens to be the permanent Olympic host, but the IOC decided to rotate the host city.
You may have heard that the marathon was a race in the ancient Olympics. In fact, the ancient Olympics never had a marathon. Their longest race was 24 stades, about 2.85 miles. A friend of Pierre de Coubertin, Michel Bréal, suggested the marathon race to him. The first Olympic marathon, in 1896, was set at about 40 kilometers. A Greek runner, Spyridon Louis, won it. The marathon distance of 26 miles and 385 yards (42.195 kilometers) was first used at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic marathon is a very long running race, about 26 miles.
You may have heard that winners have always received gold, silver and bronze medals. In fact, at the 1896 Olympics the winner got a silver medal and an olive branch, and gold, silver and bronze medals were first given at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis. At the Olympics, first place wins a gold medal, second place a silver medal and third place a bronze medal. Gold Olympic medals are mostly silver covered with at least six grams of gold, and Olympic medals must be at least 60 mm across and 3 mm thick, with the gold and silver medals at least 92.5% silver. 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; there were no women's events. Women first competed in the modern Olympic Games in Paris in 1900, took part in track and field for the first time in 1928, and ran in an Olympic marathon for the first time in 1984. 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. The Paralympic Games take their name from the Greek word para, meaning beside, because the Paralympics happen alongside the Olympics, and the Paralympic symbol, called the Agitos, has three parts in red, blue and green.
The Olympic symbol is five rings linked together, and Pierre de Coubertin designed the Olympic rings 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. At the opening ceremony of the 1920 Olympics, homing pigeons were released as a symbol of peace.
There are Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics, but the Winter Games did not begin in 1896. 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. Before each Olympics, a flame is lit in Olympia, Greece, with the rays of the sun and a curved mirror, and carried by torch to the host country. You may have heard that the torch relay is an ancient Greek tradition. In fact, it began with the 1936 Olympic Games. In 1952 and 1960, the flame for the Winter Games was lit at Morgedal, Norway, instead of Olympia.
Electronic timing and the photo finish were first used at the Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912. As of November 2026, Olympedia's all-time table lists the United States first, with 1,236 gold, 1,018 silver and 892 bronze medals (3,146 in all), and its athlete table lists swimmer Michael Phelps of the United States first, with 23 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals (28 in all). As of November 2026, Paris 2024 had 329 medal events in 47 disciplines, with 10,762 participants from 206 countries. As of November 2026, the Olympic motto, changed in 2021, is Swifter, Higher, Stronger - Together, or in Latin Citius, Altius, Fortius - Communiter.
Words to know
- stadion: ancient footrace
- pentathlon: five events
- marathon: long running race
- Paralympic: alongside the Olympics
- Agitos: Paralympic symbol
