Important Term About Olympic Sports

Olympics
▸ The Olympic Games were held for the first time by the Greeks in 776 BC on Mount Olympus, in honor of the Greek God, Zeus. They were stopped by a royal order of the Roman Emperor Theodosius in AD 394.
▸ These games were revived in 1894 by the efforts of French Baron Pierre de Coubertin and the first modern Olympic Games were started in Athens the capital of Greece on 6th April, 1896. Separate winter Olympic Games began in 1924. Women have been participating in the Olympics since 1912.
▸ The Olympic Games are organized every 4-years.
Founder and Governing Body
▸ In 1894, Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to govern the Olympic Movement (comprising International Sports Federations (ISF’s), National Olympic Committees (NOCs), and Organising Committees for each specific game).
▸ IOC chooses the host city and the games to be contested organization and funding is made by the host city.
▸ International Sports Federation (ISF) determines the qualification rules for each Olympic.
▸ The Head office of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is at Lausanne (Switzerland).

Olympic Symbol
▸ It contains five rings or circles linked together to represent the sporting friendship of all people. Each ring is of a different colour i.e., blue, yellow, black, green and red. The rings are meant to represent five continents viz Africa (Black), America (Red), Asia (Yellow), Australia (Green) and Europe (Blue).

Olympic Flag
▸ The Olympic Flag was created in 1913 at the suggestion of Baron Pierre de Coubertin. It was adopted in Paris in June 1914, but it was raised over an Olympic stadium for the first time at the Antwerp games (Belgium) in 1920. There is also a second Olympic Flag, which is used for the Winter Games. These flags are made of white silk and contain five intertwined rings of the Olympic Emblem.
▸ From left to right the rings are Blue (Europe), Yellow (Asia), Black (Africa), Red (America) and Green (Australia). At least one of these colors is found on the flag of every country.
▸ The flag is 3 m long and 2 m wide. The emblem placed in the center is 2.06 m by 60 cm.

Olympic motto
Olympic Motto ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’ is the Latin motto meaning ‘Faster, Higher and Stronger’ composed by Father Didon in 1897. The motto was introduced in 1924 at the Olympic Games in Paris.

Olympic Flame
The Olympic flame symbolizes the continuity between ancient and modern games. It was at the Amsterdam Games in 1928 that for the first time an Olympic flame was ceremonially lighted and burned in a giant torch at the entrance of the stadium. The modern version of the flame was adopted in 1936 at the Berlin Games.

Olympic Medals

Olympic champions are rewarded with medals and certificates. The winning athlete or sportsperson receives a Gold Medal which, is 60 mm in diameter and 3 mm thick and is made of 92.5% silver plated with 6 gm of gold.

Olympic Mascot
▸ The Olympic Mascot(s) is/are a character, usually an animal native to the area or occasionally human figures, who represents the cultural heritage of the place, where the Olympic and Paralympic Games are taking place.
▸ Since 1968, Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France the Olympic Games has had a mascot. The first major mascot in the Olympic Games was Misha in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
Olympic Gold Order
▸ It is presented by the International Olympic Committee for distinguished services in the development of the Olympic Movement.

Olympics: Quick Digest
▸ ‘Norman Pritchard’ was the first Indian player to participate in Olympics (2nd Olympic Games in 1900) and won two Silver Medals in athletics.
▸ Marrie Lila Rao is 1st Indian woman participate in the Olympics after Independence.
▸ India officially participated in the Olympics for the first time in the Sixth Olympic Games (1920) at Antwerp Belgium.
▸ The Indian Olympic Association was established in 1927. Sir Dorabji Tata was its first President.
▸ Sonia Denoncourt (Canada) was the 1st woman referee in football in Atlanta Olympics.

The Winter Olympic Games are a major international sporting event that occurs once every 4 years. Unlike the Summer Olympics, the Winter Olympics feature sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympics, the 1924 Winter Olympics, was held in Chamonix, France. The games were held every 4 years from 1924 until 1936, after which they were interrupted by World War II. The Olympics resumed in 1948 and was again held every 4 years. Until 1992, the Winter and Summer Olympic Games were held in the same years, but in accordance with a 1986 decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to place the Summer and Winter Games on separate 4-year cycles in alternating even-numbered years, the next winter Olympics after 1992 was in 1994. The last Olympic games were held in 2014 at Sochi, Russia. It is scheduled to be held in 2018 at Pyeongchang, South Korea. The 2018 winter Olympic games were held in Pyeongchang County, South Korea. Norway topped the medal tally by winning 14 Gold, 14 Silver and 11 Bronze.