Olympic Games

B

Sporting Achievers

Most of the memorable sporting achievers have come from the centrepiece of the Olympic Games—the athletics competition. Famous and successful competitors have included Harold Abrahams, Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis, Linford Christie, Michael Johnson, Sebastian Coe, Peter Snell, Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek, Lasse Viren, Abebe Bikila, Dick Fosbury, Sergei Bubka, Bob Beamon, Al Oerter, Yuriy Sedykh, Bob Mathias, and Daley Thompson. Female athletes have included Fanny Blankers-Koen, Florence Griffith Joyner, Betty Cuthbert, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

Swimming, one of the ever-present sports since 1896, is also considered one of the highlights of any Olympic meeting, with the events traditionally being dominated by American and Australian swimmers until the advent of eastern European swimmers in the 1970s. Famous participants have been Mark Spitz, Johnny Weissmuller, Roland Matthes, Kristin Otto, Dawn Fraser, Matt Biondi, Aleksandr Popov, Ian Thorpe, and Michael Phelps.

Other notable competitors have included: Teófilo Stevenson, Cassius Clay, Sugar Ray Leonard, Floyd Patterson, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, and Lennox Lewis (all boxing); Chris Boardman, Jeannie Longo, Miguel Indurain, Leontien Zijlaard, Chris Hoy, and Bradley Wiggins (all cycling); Raimondo d'Inzeo, Liselott Linsenhoff, Richard Meade, and Mark Todd (all equestrianism); Larissa Latynina, Lilia Podkopayeva, Nadia Comaneci, Vitaly Scherbo, and Olga Korbut (all gymnastics); and Andre Agassi, Suzanne Lenglen, Helen Wills Moody, Steffi Graf, Lindsay Davenport and Venus Williams (all tennis).

C

Professionalism

The Olympic Games were originally intended as amateur competitions, though over the years there has been increasing involvement by professional athletes. Today, the tennis, basketball, cycling, and baseball events are competed for by professionals, while even among the other sports payments for competing (though not at the Olympics themselves), endorsements, and other forms of advertising mean that the strict definition of amateur participation has long since gone.

In the early years of competition amateur status was paramount and athletes such as Jim Thorpe who were caught receiving payment (Thorpe was paid to play baseball and was stripped of his gold medals) could be severely penalized. Amateur boxers regularly turn professional after participating at the Olympics and the early Olympics competitions were denied the spectacle of sprinters, in particular, who sought to earn cash payments for competing in their chosen sport and were thus barred from competition.

D

Olympic Records

The competitor with the greatest number of Olympic medals is Larissa Latynina, the Soviet gymnast who competed between 1956 and 1964. She won 18 in a sport where six medals were available at each Games. Three yachtsmen, Paul Elvstrøm (Denmark), Magnus Konow (Norway), and Durwood Knowles (UK) appeared in Games that spanned 40 years along with the Danish fencer Ivan Ossier.

Other highlights include the seven gold medals won in a single Games by American swimmer Mark Spitz in 1972 and the eight gold medals won by Michael Phelps in 2008. Four athletics golds were won in a single Games by Jesse Owens (1936), Fanny Blankers-Koen (1948), and Carl Lewis (1984). Al Oerter in the discus (1956-1968) won consecutive gold medals at four Olympic Games; British rower Steve Redgrave (1984-2000) exceeded that total with his fifth at the Sydney Olympics. Fencer Aladar Gerevich won six consecutive gold medals (1932-1960), and fellow Hungarian fencers to do likewise at five Olympics are Pal Kovacs and Ildiko Sagine-Uljakine-Rejto. Canoeist Birgit Fischer won eight gold medals between 1980 and 2004.

IV

Changes in Competition

Since the first Olympics of the modern cycle, the number of women and the number of sports and events open to competition at the Games have increased. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing the following sports were part of the Games: Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Canoeing, Cycling, Diving, Equestrian, Fencing, Football, Gymnastics, Handball, Hockey, Judo, Modern Pentathlon, Rowing, Sailing, Shooting, Softball, Swimming, Synchronized Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis, Trampolining, Triathlon, Volleyball (beach and indoor), Water Polo, Weightlifting, and Wrestling.

V

Ceremonies

An elaborate ceremony traditionally opens the Olympic Games. The athletes parade into the stadium in alphabetical order, though traditionally led by the Greek team, in honour of the founding of the Olympic Games, and with the host nation marching in last. The Olympic Hymn is then played and the official Olympic flag (five interlocking rings—of blue, black, red, yellow, and green—on a white background) is raised. At the end of each Olympics the flag is traditionally given to the mayor of the city that will next host the Olympics for safe-keeping. A runner then enters the stadium bearing the Olympic torch, initially lit by rays of the Sun at Olympia, Greece, and carried to the present site by a relay of runners.

During the games, medal ceremonies are held to honour the medal winners in each event. The first-, second-, and third-placed finishers stand on a podium and receive gold, silver, and bronze medals, respectively. Flags from the athletes' countries are raised, and the national anthem of the country of the gold medallist is played. An elaborate closing ceremony ends with the release of doves, symbolizing the peaceful spirit of the Games. Other associations with the Games include the Olympic Motto: “citius, altius, fortius” (“swifter, higher, stronger”) to represent the greatest athletic achievements; and the Olympic Creed, oft repeated at the ceremonies, of “The important thing in these Olympics is not so much winning as taking part”.