Portal:Olympic Games
The Olympic Games Portal
The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; French: Jeux olympiques) are among the biggest sporting events on Earth. They feature summer and winter sports events in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of athletic competitions. The Olympic Games, open to both amateur and professional athletes, involve more than 200 teams, each team representing a sovereign state or territory. The Games often, but not always, substitute for any world championships during the year in which they take place. The Olympics are staged every four years. Since 1994, they have alternated between the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years during the four-year Olympiad.
Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, leading to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement, which encompasses all entities and individuals involved in the Olympic Games. The Olympic Charter defines their structure and authority.
The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has resulted in numerous changes to the Olympic Games. Some of these adjustments include the creation of the Winter Olympic Games for snow and ice sports, the Paralympic Games for athletes with disabilities, the Youth Olympic Games for athletes aged 14 to 18, the five Continental Games (Pan American, African, Asian, European, and Pacific), and the World Games for sports that are not contested in the Olympic Games. The IOC also endorses the Deaflympics and the Special Olympics. The IOC has adapted to a variety of economic, political, and technological advancements. The abuse of amateur rules prompted the IOC to shift away from pure amateurism, as envisioned by Coubertin, to the acceptance of professional athletes participating at the Games. The growing importance of mass media has created the issue of corporate sponsorship and general commercialisation of the Games. World Wars I and II led to the cancellation of the 1916, 1940, and 1944 Olympics; large-scale boycotts during the Cold War limited participation in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics; and the 2020 Olympics were postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 restrictions.
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The Quietly Confident Quartet was the self-given name of the Australian men's 4 × 100 metres medley relay swimming team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and, through the 2016 Olympics, the Australian victory remains the only occasion the United States has not won the event at Olympic level since its inception in 1960. The quartet consisted of backstroker Mark Kerry, breaststroker Peter Evans, butterflyer Mark Tonelli, and freestyler Neil Brooks. The team was nominally led by its oldest member Tonelli, who was 23 and was also a spokesperson for the Australian athletes' campaign for their right to compete at the Olympics against the wishes of the Fraser government. The team was seen as an unlikely prospect to win; all four of the swimmers had clashed with swimming authorities over disciplinary issues and three experienced suspension or expulsion from the Australian team during their careers.
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The 1932 Winter Olympics, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1932 in Lake Placid, New York, United States.
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| “ | I hope that this medal inspires the kids at home to put down guns and knives and pick up a pair of trainers instead. | ” |
| — Erick Barrondo, Guatemalan racewalker, on winning Guatemala's first Olympic medal in London 2012 | ||
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Current Events
- 22 June 2026 – 2030 Winter Olympics
- The International Olympic Committee approves revisions to the venue plan for the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps, including the proposed use of Thialf in the Netherlands for speed skating, as France lacks a suitable venue for the event. (AP via Toronto Star)
- 17 June 2026 –
- Sudan's women's national under-17 football team makes its first appearance on international stage in Morocco in an effort to qualify for the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles amidst the ongoing civil war in the country that erupted three years ago. (The Independent)
- 7 May 2026 – International sporting sanctions during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Belarus at the Olympics
- The International Olympic Committee lifts restrictions on Belarusian athletes participating in the Olympic Games from 2028, while Russian athletes remain limited to individual neutral participation because of the Russian Olympic Committee's suspension. (AFP via RFI) (BBC News)
- 26 March 2026 – 2028 Summer Olympics, Transgender people in sports
- The International Olympic Committee announces that participation in women's events will be limited to athletes classified as female based on biological criteria, with eligibility determined through a one-time genetic test starting from the 2028 Olympic Games. The policy replaces previous rules that allowed individual sports federations to set their own criteria. (AFP via ABS-CBN News)
Did You Know...-
- ... that 2014 Olympic speed skater Anna Ringsred used to be afraid of racing, calling competition "scary and nerve-racking"?
- ... that speed skater Patrick Meek qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics despite not being able to "really see anything"?
- ... that Zimbabwe's gold-winning women's field hockey team from the 1980 Olympics were promised an ox each by the Prime Minister's wife, but got packages of meat instead?
- ... that Slovenia won eight medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics, including two gold?
- ... that the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project's Night Train sled guided the United States team to the 2010 Winter Olympics gold medal, their first since 1948?
Upcoming Olympic Games
2028 Summer Olympics
The 2028 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 2028 or LA28, is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from July 14 to 30, 2028, in the United States. Los Angeles will be the host city, with various events also scheduled to be held at other cities spread across the Greater Los Angeles area, plus two subsites in Oklahoma City.
Los Angeles had originally bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Following multiple withdrawals, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved a process to concurrently award the 2024 and 2028 Games to Los Angeles and Paris as the two remaining candidates; Paris was preferred as host for 2024, while Los Angeles agreed to host in 2028. Los Angeles was formally awarded the Games at the 131st IOC Session in Lima, Peru, on September 13, 2017. They will mark the fifth Summer Olympics, and ninth Olympics overall to be hosted by the United States. Los Angeles has previously hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984, and will become the third three-time host city after London (1908, 1948, 2012) and Paris (1900, 1924, 2024), and the first non-European city to do so. These will be the first Summer Olympics held under the IOC presidency of Kirsty Coventry.
After debuting in 2020 as optional events, skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing have been promoted to the Summer Olympics' core event program. The Games will feature the debut of flag football and squash as optional sports, joined by the return of baseball/softball, cricket (for the first time since 1900) and lacrosse (for the first time as a medal event since 1908).
All-time Combined Olympic Games Medal Table
Separate current and precursor NOCs (records not combined):
| No. | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States |
1,231 | 1,012 | 885 | 3,128 |
| 2 |  Soviet Union |
473 | 376 | 355 | 1,204 |
| 3 |  China |
330 | 262 | 227 | 819 |
| 4 |  Germany |
326 | 327 | 328 | 981 |
| 5 |  Great Britain |
313 | 345 | 361 | 1,019 |
| 6 |  France |
289 | 328 | 360 | 977 |
| 7 |  Italy |
281 | 250 | 298 | 829 |
| 8 |  Norway |
231 | 199 | 188 | 618 |
| 9 |  Sweden |
224 | 238 | 247 | 709 |
| 10 |  Japan |
211 | 198 | 233 | 642 |
2030 Winter Olympics
The 2030 Winter Olympics (French: Jeux olympiques d'hiver de 2030), officially known as the XXVI Olympic Winter Games (French: XXVIes Jeux Olympiques d'hiver) and branded as Alpes 2030, is an upcoming international winter multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 1 to 17 February 2030 in the French Alps.
As part of the new Olympic bid process, the Future Host Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) nominated the French Alps as its preferred candidate on 29 November 2023. The French Alps' bid was approved during the 142nd IOC Session in Paris, France on 24 July 2024.
The events will take place in two French regions, mainly in the Metropolis of Lyon and in the departments of Savoie and Haute-Savoie in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, as well as in the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Long track speed skating is scheduled to be held in the Netherlands, at Thialf. These will be the fourth Winter Olympics, and the seventh Olympics overall, to be hosted by France.
Olympic Sports
- Archery
- Artistic swimming
- Athletics
- Badminton
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Beach volleyball
- Boxing
- Canoeing
- Cricket
- Cycling
- Diving
- Equestrian
- Fencing
- Football
- Golf
- Gymnastics
- Handball
- Field hockey
- Judo
- Lacrosse
- Modern pentathlon
- Rowing
- Rugby
- Sailing
- Shooting
- Skateboarding
- Softball
- Sport climbing
- Squash
- Surfing
- Swimming
- Table tennis
- Taekwondo
- Tennis
- Triathlon
- Volleyball
- Water polo
- Weightlifting
- Wrestling
Olympic Games Countdown
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Topics
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| Winter sports | |
| 2026 optional | |
| 2028 optional | |
| Past sports | |
| Demonstration sports | |
| Unofficial sports |
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National Olympic Committees that have competed at the Olympic Games | |
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| Africa |
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| Americas |
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| Asia |
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| Europe |
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| Oceania | |
| Other | |
| Historical | |
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