15 Facts About The Olympics
The Olympic Games are round the corner and garnering a lot of eagerness and zeal from sports enthusiasts all over the world. This is the time to refresh your knowledge about the history and some very interesting facts about the worldwide event that is held every four years. Listed below are some important facts about the Olympics that you should know.
1. From 776 B.C. to 393 A.D., the Olympics were not games, but a religious festival and were then banned as it was a pagan festival. The Olympics were revived as a sports event in 1894, almost about 1500 years later by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French educator.
2. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, wrote both the Olympics oath and the motto. The oath signifies that each athlete participates in the games “in true spirit of sportsmanship” and for “the glory of the sport.”
3. The motto for the modern Olympics was adopted by Baron Pierre de Coubertin from a Latin phrase: “Citius, Altius, Fortius” which translates as “Swifter, Higher, Stronger” in English.
4. The five rings in the official Olympic flags represent the five significant regions of the world – Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceana. The colors of the rings – blue, yellow, black, green and red – were specifically chosen because at least one of these colors appears in every national flag in the world.
5. The winter Olympics began from 1924, a few months earlier than the summer Olympics but in a different city. But 1994 onwards, the winter Olympics began to be held two years apart from the summer Olympics.
6. The first ever winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France in the year 1924.
7. The only country to have won more medals at the Olympic Games than any other country is the United States. It has won about 2189 medals till date.
