Athens 1896
Paris 1900
St. Louis 1904
London 1908
Stockholm 1912
Antwerp 1920
Paris 1924
Amsterdam 1928
Los Angeles 1932
Berlin 1936
London 1948
Helsinki 1952
Melbourne 1956
Rome 1960
Tokyo 1964
Mexico City 1968
Munich 1972
Montreal 1976
Moscow 1980
Los Angeles 1984
Seoul 1988
Barcelona 1992
Atlanta 1996
Sydney 2000
Gold Medal Tally from all modern Olympics – Top Ten Countries
1. United States 860
2. Soviet Union 440
3. France 173
4. Great Britain 172
5. Italy 172
6. East Germany 159
7. Hungary 148
8. Sweden 134
9. Germany 133
10. Australia 102
Gold Medal Tally from Sydney 2000 Olympics – Top Ten Countries
1. United States 39
2. Russia 32
3. China 28
4. Australia 16
5. Germany 14
6. France 13
7. Italy 13
8. Netherlands 12
9. Cuba 11
10. Great Britain 11
- The idea of an Olympic Flame burning from the start of the games to the closing was first introduced at the 1928 Amsterdam games.
- The Torch Relay began in the Ancient Olympics, but was only revived at the 1936 Berlin Games.
- Tug-of-war was an Olympic event from 1900 – 1920!
- The 1956 Games in Melbourne, Australia, were the first games to be held in the southern hemisphere.
- At the first games, silver medals were awarded to the winners and bronze to the second place getters.
- The first modern Games were hardly an international competition. Only 13 nations took part, and just over 300 athletes - more than two-thirds being Greek.
- More athletes than spectators attended the 1900-Paris Games.
- Ice hockey made its first appearance at the 1920 Antwerp Games, before the first Winter Olympics in 1924.
- The first games to be televised were the 1936 Berlin Games.
- British Equestrian, Lorna Johnstone was 70 years and 5 days old when she rode at the 1972 Games, thus being the oldest woman ever to compete at an Olympic Games.
- Hungarian Aladar Gerevich won medals in 6 consecutive Olympic Games.
- The first Olympic Games featured only one even – a foot race
- The last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912.
- The first opening ceremonies were held during the 1908 Olympic Games in London.
- The Olympic symbol consists of five circles or rings. These five circles stand for the five continents. The colours in the circle are green yellow, blue red and black.
- The Summer Olympic sports are archery, badminton, baseball, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, cycling, diving, equestrian, fencing, field hockey, gymnastics, judo, mountain biking, rowing, sailing, shooting, soccer, softball, swimming, synchronized swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, track and field, triathlon (swimming, biking, running), volleyball, water polo, weightlifting and wrestling.
- The next winter Olympics will be held in Torino in 2006, and the next summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008
- The offical mascots for the Athens 2004 Olympics are named Athena and Phevos, after two Olympian gods: Phevos, the Olympian God of light and music; and Athena, goddess of wisdom and the patron of the city of Athens.
"I was not talented enough to run and smile at the same time"
Emil Zatopek, champion Czechoslovakian distance runner, when asked about unusual facial expression when running.
"All I've done is run fast. I don't see why people should make much fuss about that"
Dutch sprinter Fanny Blankers-Koen, who won four gold medals at the 1948 Games
"I think that's terrific. I've never had any qualms about that; she's proud of her Aboriginality and she's proud of being an Australian.''
Australia's Prime Minister John Howard tells ABC radio he approves of Cathy Freeman's decision to carry the Aboriginal flag and the national flag on her lap of honour after winning the 400m gold medal.