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Competitors are entered by a National Olympic Committee ( NOC) to represent their country of citizenship. National anthems and flags accompany the medal ceremonies, and some countries take their patriotism so far as to tabulate medal counts for each competing country, though the IOC does not place any value on these. In general only recognized nations are represented, but a few non-sovereign countries are allowed to take part. The special case of Taiwan was handled by having it compete as Chinese Taipei, to avoid the issue of Taiwanese independence.
Though the most diverse sporting event in the world, the Olympics are perhaps not the most popular. The football World Cup attracts more global interest, as measured by the larger television audience.
The modern Olympic GamesOlympic Flame from Olympia to the opening ceremony. The Olympic Games or Olympics are an international multi-sport event taking place every fourth year. Originally held in ancient Greece, they were revived by a French nobleman, Pierre Fredy, Baron de Coub were founded in 1894Events January 8 A fire at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago causes a good deal of damage. January 9 New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard ( Lexington, Massachusetts). February 15 04:51 GMT when Pierre Fredi, Baron de CoubertinBaron Pierre de Coubertin ( January 1, 1863- September 2, 1937), born as Pierre de Fredy was a French pedagogue and historian, but is best known as the founder of the modern Olympic Games. Born in Paris into an aristocratic family, De Coubertin was inspir sought to promote international understanding through sporting competition. The first games, held in Athens in 1896Events January 4 Utah is admitted as the 45th U. January 5 An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Rontgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays. January 12 H. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph. January 18 The X-ray machine is exhib, attracted just 245 competitors, of whom more than 200 were Greek, and only 14 countries were represented. Nevertheless, no international events of this magnitude had been organized before.
Four years later (in 19001900 is the common year starting on Monday. see link for calendar) For the film, see 1900 (film). Events January January 1 Nigeria becomes British protectorate January 2 John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China. January 2 Chicag) the ParisEiffel Tower has become the symbol of Paris throughout the world. Paris is the capital and largest city of France. The city is built on an arc of the River Seine, and is thus divided into two parts: the Right Bank to the north and the smaller Left Bank to games attracted more than four times as many athletes, including 11 women, who were allowed to compete for the first time, in croquetThis article is about the game. For the Dutch delicatesse see: Croquet (food). Croquet is a recreational game and, latterly, a competitive sport that involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops embedded into the grass playing aren and tennis. The Games were integrated with the Paris World's fair and lasted over 5 months. It is still disputed which events exactly were Olympic, since few or maybe even none of the events were advertised as such at the time.
Numbers declined again for the 1904 Games in St. Louis, USA, due in part to the lengthy transatlantic boat trip required of the European competitors, and the integration with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's fair, which again spread the event out over an extended period. In contrast with Paris 1900, the word Olympic was abused for many contests, such as those for school boys or for Irish-Americans.
There followed a smaller games in Athens in 1906, the first of an alternating series of games to be held in Athens. As it also turned out to be the last, the reason for the games is now sought in the "tenth birthday" of the games. These games are not currently recognised as being Olympic Games by the IOC, though most historians do see them as such. Anyway, they certainly positively contributed to the success of future games after the less successful 1900 and 1904 Games.
The 1908 London Games saw numbers rise again, as well as the first running of the marathon over its now-standard distance of 42.195 km (26 miles 385 yards). This distance was chosen to ensure that the race finished in front of the box occupied by the British royal family. The marathon had been 40 km for the first games in 1896, but was subsequently varied by up to 2 km due to local conditions such as street and stadium layout. Of the six Olympic games between 1900 and 1920, there were six different distances for the marathon.
The finish of the 1908 marathon itself was worth seeing. The Italian runner Dorando Pietri was first to enter the stadium, but was clearly in distress, and collapsed of exhaustion before he could complete the event. Helped over the finish line by concerned race officials, he was later disqualified and the gold medal awarded to John Hayes, who had trailed him by around 30 seconds.
The Games continued to grow, attracting 2,500 competitors to Stockholm in 1912, including the great all-arounder Jim Thorpe, who won both the decathlon and pentathlon. Thorpe had previously played a few games of baseball for a fee, and saw his medals stripped for this breach of amateurism. They were reinstated in 1983, 30 years after his death.
The scheduled Berlin Games of 1916 were cancelled following the onset of World War I.