50 Fun Facts About Summer Olympics

Under Olympic rules, a Summer Olympics gold medal must be made of at least 92.5% which metal?

Silver makes up at least 92.5% of every Olympic gold medal, which carries only about six grams of gold as plating. The winners' medals were solid gold only from 1904 to 1912.

Which team event at the 1900 to 1920 Summer Olympics saw British police squads compete in service boots?

Tug of war once drew three British police teams to a single tournament. The Americans protested that Liverpool's officers were pulling in their work footwear, lost the appeal and withdrew in disgust.

Which city opened its Summer Olympics with athletes parading on river boats instead of into a stadium?

Paris floated its athletes down the Seine, the first opening ceremony in modern Olympic history held outside a stadium. The parade ended at a temporary arena in the Trocadéro gardens.

Which American swimmer won eight golds at the 2008 Summer Olympics, one by a hundredth of a second?

Michael Phelps touched one hundredth of a second ahead of Milorad Čavić in the 100 m butterfly for his seventh gold, a finish so close that Serbia's delegation filed a protest.

Which Jamaican sprinter won the 100 and 200 metres at three consecutive Summer Olympics?

Usain Bolt took both sprint titles in 2008, 2012 and 2016, which no other sprinter has done at three Games in a row. He lost a ninth gold when a 2008 relay teammate failed a drug retest.

Which gymnast, 14, scored a perfect 10 at the 1976 Summer Olympics that the scoreboard showed as 1.00?

Nadia Comăneci earned six more perfect 10s at those Games. The scoreboard's maker had been told the score was impossible and never programmed it.

Which Ethiopian runner won the marathon at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome while running barefoot?

Abebe Bikila ran barefoot because the new shoes he bought in Rome gave him blisters. He won again four years later, the first runner to defend an Olympic marathon title.

Which former champion, by then living with Parkinson's, lit the cauldron at the 1996 Summer Olympics?

Muhammad Ali had won light-heavyweight gold in 1960 at the age of 18, when he was still known as Cassius Clay. Swimmer Janet Evans handed him the torch.

Which country's team leads the Summer Olympics parade of nations, while the host nation enters last?

Greece leads the parade in recognition of its role in the ancient Games, a custom that dates from the 1928 Summer Olympics.

Which city's Summer Olympics were delayed a year by a pandemic, then held almost without spectators?

Tokyo kept the 2020 name for marketing reasons even though the Games took place in 2021, the first Olympics ever postponed rather than cancelled.

Which American sprinter and long jumper won four golds at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Nazi Germany?

Jesse Owens won the 100 metres, 200 metres, long jump and sprint relay, and was credited with single-handedly crushing the Nazi myth of Aryan supremacy.

Which city's 1972 Summer Olympics were suspended after an attack that killed eleven Israeli team members?

Munich saw competition suspended for 34 hours, the first stoppage in modern Olympic history, and 80,000 people attended a memorial service in the main stadium.

Which nickname did the 1992 US Olympic basketball squad earn as the first to field active NBA players?

The Dream Team beat its opponents by an average of 44 points, with Michael Jordan and Larry Bird on the same roster.

Which American won the long jump at four consecutive Summer Olympics from 1984 to 1996?

Carl Lewis won nine Olympic golds in all, and his long jump run matched discus thrower Al Oerter's four straight titles in a single athletics event.

Which American high jumper won gold at the 1968 Summer Olympics by going over the bar backwards?

Dick Fosbury's back-first technique became known as the Fosbury flop; one newspaper had captioned his picture as the world's laziest high jumper.

Which city's privately funded 1984 Summer Olympics made a profit of more than $200 million?

Los Angeles used existing venues for twenty of its competition sites and leaned on corporate money, finishing with a surplus of $232.5 million.

Which city's 1980 Summer Olympics went ahead despite a boycott led by the United States?

Moscow hosted without the Americans after President Jimmy Carter set a deadline for Soviet troops to leave Afghanistan and it passed unmet.

Which live animals were used as targets in a shooting event at the 1900 Summer Olympics?

Pigeons were the targets, and the Belgian Léon de Lunden shot 21 of them on his way to victory. No other Olympic Games has used living creatures this way.

Which Australian sprinter lit the cauldron at the 2000 Summer Olympics and then won the 400 metres?

Cathy Freeman took her victory lap carrying both the Aboriginal and Australian flags, although unofficial flags were banned at the Games.

Which city staged the first modern Summer Olympics in 1896, in a restored ancient stadium?

Athens held the Games in the Panathenaic Stadium, restored with a donation of 920,000 drachmas from the businessman George Averoff, whose statue was unveiled outside it.

Which American swimmer won seven golds at the 1972 Summer Olympics, each one in world-record time?

Mark Spitz had predicted six golds four years earlier and won only two, both in relays, before his clean sweep of seven events in 1972.

Which American sprinter, who wore a leg brace as a child, won three golds at the 1960 Summer Olympics?

Wilma Rudolph contracted polio as a small child and lost strength in her left leg, yet became the first American woman to win three athletics golds at one Games.

Which Canadian was stripped of 100 metres gold at the 1988 Summer Olympics after a positive drug test?

Ben Johnson had crossed the line in a world-record 9.79 seconds, but his sample contained the steroid stanozolol and he was disqualified three days later.

Which 200 metres champion raised a black-gloved fist on the podium at the 1968 Summer Olympics?

Tommie Smith and bronze medallist John Carlos shared one pair of gloves, because Carlos had left his own in the Olympic Village.

Which American gymnast landed a vault on an injured ankle to seal team gold at the 1996 Summer Olympics?

Kerri Strug was carried onto the medal podium by coach Béla Károlyi, then treated in hospital for a third-degree sprain and tendon damage.

Which American diver hit his head on the springboard at the 1988 Summer Olympics and still won gold?

Greg Louganis suffered a concussion in the preliminaries, yet posted the round's highest single score with his very next dive and won the final by 25 points.

Which American was stripped of two 1912 Summer Olympics golds for having played semi-professional baseball?

Jim Thorpe had his titles restored in 1983, thirty years after his death, when the IOC ruled that the decision to strip him had come too late under its own rules.

Which Pacific nation's first Olympic medal was the rugby sevens gold at the 2016 Summer Olympics?

Fiji had never won an Olympic medal of any colour before its men, captained by Osea Kolinisau, took the first men's rugby sevens title ever contested at the Games.

Which sport made its Summer Olympics debut in 2021, when a 13-year-old won one of its first golds?

Skateboarding crowned Momiji Nishiya in the women's street event at just 13 years and 330 days old, ahead of Brazil's Rayssa Leal.

Which city took 30 years to pay off its 1976 Summer Olympics stadium, nicknamed the Big Owe?

Montreal's mayor had promised the Games could no more run a deficit than a man could have a baby, yet the stadium was not paid off until November 2006.

Which American long jumper broke the world record by 55 centimetres at the 1968 Summer Olympics?

Bob Beamon leapt 8.90 metres, and when a teammate told him he had beaten the record by nearly two feet, his legs gave way and he sank to his knees.

Which runner won the 5,000 metres, 10,000 metres and his first-ever marathon at the 1952 Summer Olympics?

Emil Zátopek, nicknamed the Czech Locomotive, decided at the last minute to enter the longest race, a distance he had never run in competition.

Which Dutch athlete, a 30-year-old mother of two, won four golds at the 1948 Summer Olympics?

Fanny Blankers-Koen was nicknamed the Flying Housewife, and her wins are credited with helping to end the belief that motherhood was a barrier in women's sport.

Which gymnast's total of 18 Olympic medals, won from 1956 to 1964, stood as the record for 48 years?

Larisa Latynina won nine of those medals in gold, and once took five world titles while four months pregnant.

Which city hosted the 1908 Summer Olympics after Rome withdrew following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius?

London had a mere 18 months to prepare, and its marathon from Windsor Castle to a finish in front of the Royal Box set the 26 miles 385 yards that became the standard distance.

Which city's Summer Olympics opened with an archer shooting a flaming arrow to light the cauldron?

Barcelona chose the Paralympian Antonio Rebollo from 200 archers, and he rehearsed at sunrise with wind machines before igniting the gas above the bowl in 1992.

Which sport joined the Summer Olympics in 1996, when two Brazilian pairs met in the women's final?

Beach volleyball had been a demonstration event four years earlier, and its first women's champions were Jackie Silva and Sandra Pires.

Which Summer Olympics event traditionally earns its winner the title of world's greatest athlete?

Decathlon champions have carried the title since 1912, when Sweden's king is said to have greeted that year's winner of the ten-event contest with those words.

By which method is the flame for every Summer Olympics kindled at the ancient site of Olympia?

The sun's rays in a mirror kindle the fire: a parabolic reflector concentrates them in front of the Temple of Hera. Runners first relayed the flame to a host city in 1936.

Which country won men's field hockey gold at six consecutive Summer Olympics between 1928 and 1956?

India won 30 Olympic matches in a row before neighbours Pakistan beat them 1–0 in the 1960 final.

Which city held the 1956 Summer Olympics equestrian events because of Australia's strict horse quarantine?

Stockholm held the riding events in June 1956, five months before the main Games opened in Melbourne, because Australia would not relax a six-month quarantine.

Which Belgian city's 1920 Summer Olympics were the first to fly the five-ring flag and release doves?

Antwerp was given the Games as a tribute to the Belgian people after the First World War, and the athletes' oath was also voiced there for the first time.

Which American city's 1904 Summer Olympics marathon was first finished by a man who had ridden in a car?

St. Louis saw Frederick Lorz disqualified for hitching the lift, while the real winner, Thomas Hicks, was dosed with brandy, raw eggs and strychnine by his trainers.

Which Italian lost the 1908 Summer Olympics marathon when officials helped him across the finish line?

Dorando Pietri fell five times inside the stadium and was lifted up by umpires each time; he was later presented with a gilded cup in place of the medal.

Which American won boxing gold at the 1920 Summer Olympics and bobsled gold at the 1932 Winter Games?

Eddie Eagan became the first person to win gold at both the Summer and Winter Games in different sports, riding in Billy Fiske's four-man sled at Lake Placid.

Which French baron won literature gold at the 1912 Summer Olympics with a poem entered under a pseudonym?

Pierre de Coubertin, known as the father of the modern Games, entered his Ode to Sport under two invented names in the first year arts contests were held.

Under which name did twelve former Soviet republics compete at the 1992 Summer Olympics?

The Unified Team finished top of the medal table with 45 golds to the Americans' 37, while Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania chose to compete separately.

Which country beat the USSR 4–0 in the 1956 Summer Olympics water polo match called Blood in the Water?

Hungary met the Soviets weeks after their army had crushed a revolution at home, and the match was named for the blood pouring from above Ervin Zádor's eye.

Which Cuban heavyweight won three Summer Olympics golds and refused a $5 million offer to turn professional?

Teófilo Stevenson took the heavyweight title in 1972, 1976 and 1980, and might have added a fourth had Cuba not stayed away from the 1984 Games.

Which country's rugby tour of apartheid South Africa led more than twenty nations to boycott the 1976 Summer Olympics?

New Zealand stayed in the Games when the IOC refused to ban it, so more than twenty mostly African teams went home, some after marching in the opening parade.