TheSummer Olympic Games, also known as theSummer Olympics or theGames of the Olympiad, is a major internationalmulti-sport event normally held once every four years. Theinaugural Games took place in 1896 inAthens, then part of theKingdom of Greece, and the most recent was held in2024 inParis, France. This was the first international multi-sport event of its kind, organised by theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) founded byPierre de Coubertin.[1] The tradition of awarding medals began in1904; in eachOlympic event,gold medals are awarded for first place,silver medals for second place, andbronze medals for third place. TheWinter Olympic Games were created out of the success of the Summer Olympic Games, which are regarded as the largest and most prestigious multi-sport international event in the world.
London and Paris have hosted three times, whileLos Angeles, Athens, andTokyo have each hosted twice; Los Angeles will host the Games for the third time in2028.[2] Only three countries have won at least one medal in every Summer Olympic Games: Australia, France and Great Britain. Only Great Britain has won at least a gold medal in every edition. The United States leads theall-time medal count for the Summer Olympics and has topped themedal table on 19 separate occasions, followed by the USSR (seven times, including the 1992 'Unified Team'), and France, Great Britain, Germany and China (once each).
Map of Summer Olympic Games locations – countries that have hosted one Summer Olympics are shaded green, while countries that have hosted two or more are shaded blue.
In1924, Paris became the first city to host the Summer Olympics twice, while in2012, London became the first to host three times. Paris hosted for the third time in2024, while Los Angeles will do so in 2028. Tokyo (1964 and2020) and Athens (1896 and2004, excluding1906) have each hosted two Summer Olympic Games.
The2016 Games inRio de Janeiro, Brazil, were the first Summer Olympics to be held inSouth America and the first that was held completely during the local "winter" season. The only two countries in theSouthern Hemisphere to have hosted have been Australia (1956,2000, and again in2032) and Brazil (2016), withAfrica having yet to host any Summer Olympics.
Hosting the Games requires and accelerates large investments in city infrastructure.[5] The Games now play a key role in city leaders' plans to strengthen their cities' global integration and economic competitiveness.[5]
The opening ceremony of the first modern Olympic Games in thePanathenaic Stadium, Athens
TheInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded in 1894 whenPierre de Coubertin, a Frenchpedagogue and historian, sought to promote international understanding through sporting competition. The first edition of The Olympic Games was held inAthens in 1896 and 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 organised before. Female athletes were not allowed to compete, though one woman,Stamata Revithi, ran the marathon course on her own, saying, "If the committee doesn't let me compete, I will go after them regardless".[6] Women first participated officially in the 1900 Paris Games, with 22 women competing in five sports. Female participation has increased dramatically since then, with nearly half of the athletes in recent Games being women.[1]
The1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the Olympiad, was an internationalmulti-sport event which was celebrated inAthens, Greece, from 6 to 15 April 1896. It was the first Olympic Games held in themodern era. About 100,000 people attended for the opening of the games. The athletes came from 14 nations, with most coming from Greece. AlthoughGreece had the most athletes, the U.S. finished with the most champions; 11 Americans placed first in their events vs. the 10 from Greece.[7]Ancient Greece was the birthplace of the Olympic Games, consequently Athens was perceived to be an appropriate choice to stage the inaugural modern Games. It was unanimously chosen as the host city during a congress organised by Pierre de Coubertin in Paris, on 23 June 1894. The IOC was also established during this congress.
Despite many obstacles and setbacks, the 1896 Olympics were regarded as a great success. The Games had the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date.Panathinaiko Stadium, the first big stadium in the modern world, overflowed with the largest crowd ever to watch a sporting event.[8] The highlight for the Greeks was theMarathon victory by their compatriotSpiridon Louis, a water carrier. He won in 2 hours, 58 minutes and 50 seconds, setting off wild celebrations at the stadium. The most successful competitor was Germanwrestler andgymnastCarl Schuhmann, who won four gold medals.
Greek officials and the public were enthusiastic about the experience of hosting an Olympic Games. This feeling was shared by many of the athletes, who even demanded that Athens be the permanent Olympic host city. The IOC intended for subsequent Games to be rotated to various host cities around the world. Thesecond Olympics was held in Paris.[9]
Four years later the1900 Summer Olympics in Paris attracted more than four times as many athletes, including 20 women, who were allowed to officially compete for the first time, incroquet,golf,sailing, andtennis. The Games were integrated with theParis World's Fair and lasted over five months. It has been disputed which exact events wereOlympic, as some events were for professionals, some had restricted eligibility, and others lacked international competitors.
Tensions caused by theRusso–Japanese War and the difficulty of travelling to St. Louis may have contributed to the fact that very few top-ranked athletes from outside the U.S. and Canada took part in the1904 Games, the first Games held outside Europe.[10]
The "Second International Olympic Games in Athens", as they were called at the time, were held in 1906.[11] The IOC does not currently recognise these games as being official Olympic Games, although many historians do and credit the 1906 games with preventing the demise of the Olympics. The 1906 Athens games were the first of an alternating series of games to be held in Athens in even non-Olympic years, but the series failed to materialise. The games were more successful than the 1900 and 1904 games, with over 850 athletes competing, and contributed positively to the success of future games.
The1908 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). The first Olympic Marathon in 1896 (a male-only race) was raced at a distance of 40 km (24 miles 85 yards). The new marathon distance was chosen to ensure that the race finished in front of the box occupied by the British royal family. Thus the marathon had been 40 km (24.9 mi) for the first games in 1896, but was subsequently varied by up to 2 km (1.2 mi) depending on local conditions such as street and stadium layout. At the six Olympic games between 1900 and 1920, the marathon was raced over six distances. The Games sawGreat Britain winning 146 medals, 99 more than second-placedAmericans, its best result to this day.
At the end of the 1908 marathon, the Italian runnerDorando Pietri was first to enter the stadium, but he was clearly in distress and collapsed of exhaustion before he could complete the event. He was helped over the finish line by concerned race officials and later disqualified for that. As compensation for the missing medal,Queen Alexandra gave Pietri a gilded silver cup.Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a special report about the race in theDaily Mail.[12]
The Games continued to grow, attracting 2,504 competitors, toStockholm in 1912, including the great all-rounderJim Thorpe, who won both thedecathlon and pentathlon. Thorpe had previously played a few games of baseball for a fee, and saw his medals stripped for this 'breach' ofamateurism after complaints fromAvery Brundage. They were reinstated in 1983, 30 years after his death. The Games at Stockholm were the first to fulfil Pierre de Coubertin's original idea. For the first time since the Games started in 1896, all five inhabited continents were represented with athletes competing in the same stadium.
The1920 Antwerp Games in war-ravagedBelgium were a subdued affair, but again drew a record number of competitors. This record only stood until 1924, when theParis Games involved 3,000 competitors, the greatest of whom was Finnish runnerPaavo Nurmi. The "Flying Finn" won three team gold medals and the individual 1,500- and 5,000-metre runs, the latter two on the same day.[13]
Paris hosted the1924 Games, becoming the first two-time host city. The Games were the last held under the IOC presidency ofPierre de Coubertin, father of the modern Olympics, and saw the introduction of the Olympic mottoCitius, Altius, Fortius, theOlympic Village, and theWinter Olympics as an “International Winter Sports Week.”
The1928 Amsterdam Games was notable for being the first games which allowed females to compete at track & field athletics, and benefited greatly from the general prosperity of the times alongside the first appearance ofsponsorship of the games, from theCoca-Cola Company. The 1928 games saw the introduction of a standard medal design with the IOC, choosingGiuseppe Cassioli's depiction of Greek goddessNike with a winner being carried by a crowd of people. This design was used up until 1972.
The1936 Berlin Games were seen by the German government as a golden opportunity to promote their ideology. The rulingNazi Party commissioned film-makerLeni Riefenstahl to film the games. The result,Olympia, was widely considered to be a masterpiece, despite the infusion ofAdolf Hitler's theories ofAryan racial superiority. Individually, African-American sprinter and long jumperJesse Owens won four gold medals, while the host nation won the most gold and overall medals. The 1936 Berlin Games also saw the introduction of the Torch Relay.[14]
Due to World War II, the1940 Games (scheduled to be held in Tokyo and temporarily relocated toHelsinki upon the outbreak ofthe war) were cancelled. The1944 Games were set to be held in London but were also cancelled; instead, London hosted the first games after the end of the war, in1948.
The first post-war Games were held in1948 in London, with both Germany and Japan excluded.[15] Dutch sprinterFanny Blankers-Koen won four gold medals on the track, emulating Owens' achievement in Berlin.[16]
At the1952 Helsinki Games, theUSSR team competed for the first time and quickly emerged as one of the dominant teams, finishing second in the number of gold and overall medals won. Their immediate success might be explained by the advent of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete". The USSR entered teams of athletes who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession, but many of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full-time basis, hence violating amateur rules.[17][18][19][20][21] Finland made a legend of an amiableCzechoslovak Army lieutenant namedEmil Zátopek, who was intent on improving on his single gold and silver medals from 1948. Having first won both the 10,000- and 5,000-metre races, he also entered the marathon, despite having never previously raced at that distance. Pacing himself by chatting with the other race leaders, Zátopek led from about halfway, slowly dropping the remaining contenders to win by two and a half minutes, and completed a trio of wins.[22]
At the1960 Rome Games, a young light-heavyweight boxer named Cassius Clay, later known asMuhammad Ali, arrived on the scene. Ali would later throw his gold medal away in disgust after being refused service in awhites-only restaurant in his home town ofLouisville, Kentucky.[24] He was awarded a new medal 36 years later at the1996 Olympics in Atlanta.[25] Other notable performers in 1960 includedWilma Rudolph, a gold medallist in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100 metres relay events.[26]
The1964 Tokyo Games were the first to be held in Asia and to be broadcast worldwide on television, enabled by the recent advent of communication satellites.[27] These Games marked a turning point in the global visibility and popularity of the Olympics and are credited for heralding the modern age of telecommunications.Judo debuted as an official sport, and Dutch judokaAnton Geesink caused a stir when he won the final of the open weight division, defeatingAkio Kaminaga in front of his home crowd.[28]
Opening ceremony for the1968 Games in Mexico City, the first held in Latin America
Performances at the1968 Games in Mexico City were affected by the altitude of the host city.[29] These Games introduced the now-universalFosbury flop, a technique which won American high jumperDick Fosbury the gold medal.[30] In the medal award ceremony for the men's 200-metre race,black American athletesTommie Smith (gold medal winner) andJohn Carlos (bronze medal winner) took a stand forcivil rights by raising theirblack-gloved fists and wearing black socks in lieu of shoes.[31] The two athletes were subsequently expelled from the Games by the IOC.Věra Čáslavská, in protest against the1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the controversial decision by the judges on thebalance beam andfloor, turned her head down and away from theSoviet flag while thenational anthem was played during the medal ceremony.[32] She returned home as a heroine of the Czechoslovak people but was made an outcast by the Soviet-dominated government.
Politics again intervened at the1972 Games in Munich, but this time withlethal consequences. A Palestinian terrorist group namedBlack September invaded the Olympic village and broke into the apartment of theIsraeli delegation. They killed two Israelis and held nine others as hostages, demanding that Israel release numerous prisoners. When the Israeli government refused the terrorists' demands, the situation developed into a tense stand-off while negotiations continued. Eventually, the captors, still holding their hostages, were offered safe passage and taken to an airport, where they were ambushed by German security forces. In the ensuing firefight, 15 people were killed, including the nine captive Israeli athletes and five of the terrorists.[33] After much debate, the decision was taken to continue the Games, but the proceedings were understandably dominated by these events.[34] Some memorable athletic achievements did occur during these Games, notably the winning of a then-record seven gold medals by United States swimmerMark Spitz, Finland'sLasse Virén taking back-to-back gold medals in the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres, and the winning of three gold medals by Soviet gymnastic starOlga Korbut, who achieved a historic backflip off thehigh bar. In thefinal of the men's basketball, theUnited States lost to theSoviet Union in what is widely considered as the most controversial game in international basketball history.[35] In a close-fought match, the U.S. team appeared to have won by a score of 50–49. However, the final three seconds of the game were replayed three times by judges until the Soviet team came out on top and claimed a 51–50 victory.[36] Ultimately the U.S. team refused to accept their silver medals.
There was no such tragedy at the1976 Montreal Games, but bad planning and fraud led to the cost of these Games far exceeding the budget. Costing $1.5 billion (equivalent to $7.58 billion in 2023),[37][38] the 1976 Summer Games were the most expensive in Olympic history (until the2014 Winter Olympics) and it seemed, for a time, that the Olympics might no longer be a viable financial proposition. In retrospect, it is believed that contractors (suspected of being members of the Montreal Mafia) skimmed large sums of money from all levels of contracts while also profiting from the substitution of cheaper building materials of lesser quality, which may have contributed to the delays, poor construction, and excessive costs. In 1988, one such contractor, Giuseppe Zappia "was cleared of fraud charges that resulted from his work on Olympic facilities after two key witnesses died before testifying at his trial".[39] The 1976 Games were boycotted by many African nations as a protest againsta recent tour ofapartheid-run South Africa by theNew Zealand national rugby union team.[40] Romanian gymnastNadia Comăneci made history when she won the women's individual all-around gold medal with two of four possible perfect scores. She won two other individual events, with two perfect scores in the balance beam and all perfect scores in the uneven bars.[41] Lasse Virén repeated his double gold in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres, making him the first athlete to ever win the distance double twice.[42]
Following the Soviet Union's 1979 invasion ofAfghanistan, 66 nations, including the United States, Canada, West Germany, and Japan,boycotted the1980 Games held in Moscow. Eighty nations were represented at the Moscow Games – the smallest number since 1956. The boycott contributed to the 1980 Games being a less publicised and less competitive affair, which was dominated by the host country.
According to British journalistAndrew Jennings, aKGB colonel stated that the agency's officers had posed as anti-doping authorities from the IOC to underminedoping tests and that Soviet athletes were "rescued with [these] tremendous efforts".[43] On the topic of the1980 Summer Olympics, an Australian study in 1989 said "There is hardly a medal winner at the Moscow Games, certainly not a gold medal winner, who is not on one sort of drug or another: usually several kinds. The Moscow Games might as well have been called the Chemists' Games."[43][44]
Documents obtained in 2016 revealed the Soviet Union's plans for a statewide doping system in track and field in preparation for the1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Dated prior to the country's decision to boycott the Games, the document detailed the existing steroids operations of the programme, along with suggestions for further enhancements.[45] The communication, directed to the Soviet Union's head of track and field, was prepared by Dr. Sergei Portugalov of the Institute for Physical Culture. Portugalov was also one of the main figures involved in the implementation of the Russian doping programme prior to the 2016 Summer Olympics.[45]
In 1984, the Soviet Union and13 Soviet allies retaliated byboycotting the1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.Romania andYugoslavia, notably are the only two countries from the Eastern Bloc that did attend the 1984 Olympics. These games were perhaps the first games of a new era to make a profit. Although a boycott led by the Soviet Union depleted the field in certain sports, 140 National Olympic Committees took part, which was a record at the time.[46] The Games were also the first time mainland China (People's Republic) participated.
The1988 Games, in Seoul, was very well planned but the games were tainted when many of the athletes, most notably men's 100 metres winnerBen Johnson, failed mandatory drug tests. Despite splendid drug-free performances by many individuals, the number of people who failed screenings for performance-enhancing chemicals overshadowed the games.
The1992 Barcelona Games featured the admittance of players from one of the North American top leagues, theNBA, exemplified by but not limited to U.S. basketball's "Dream Team". The 1992 games also saw the reintroduction to the Games of several smaller European states which had beenannexed into the Soviet Union during World War II. At these games, gymnastVitaly Scherbo set an inaugural medal record of five individual gold medals at a Summer Olympics, and equaled the inaugural record set byEric Heiden at the1980 Winter Olympics.
By then the process of choosing a location for the Games had become a commercial concern; there were widespread allegations of corruption potentially affecting the IOC's decision process.
At the Atlanta1996 Summer Olympics, the highlight was200 metres runnerMichael Johnson annihilating the world record in front of a home crowd. Canadians savouredDonovan Bailey recording a gold medal run in the 100-metre dash. This was generally felt to be an appropriate recompense for the previous national disgrace involving Ben Johnson. There were also emotional scenes, such as when Muhammad Ali, clearly affected byParkinson's disease, lit the Olympic torch and received a replacement medal for the one he had discarded in 1960. The latter event took place in the basketball arena. The atmosphere at the Games was marred, however, when abomb exploded during the celebration in Centennial Olympic Park. In June 2003, the principal suspect in this bombing,Eric Robert Rudolph, was arrested.
The2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, were known as the "Games of the New Millennium".
The2000 Summer Olympics, held in Sydney, Australia, showcased individual performances by locals favoritesIan Thorpe in the pool andCathy Freeman, anIndigenous Australian whose triumph in the400 metres united a packed stadium., BritonSteve Redgrave who won a rowing gold medal in an unprecedented fifth consecutive Olympics, andEric "the Eel" Moussambani, a swimmer from Equatorial Guinea, received wide media coverage when he completed the 100-metre freestyle swim in by far the slowest time in Olympic history. He nevertheless won the heat as both his opponents had been disqualified for false starts. His female compatriotPaula Barila Bolopa also received media attention for her record-slow and struggling but courageous performance. The Sydney Games also saw the first appearance of a joint North and South Korean contingent at the opening ceremonies, though they competed in all events as different teams. Controversy occurred in the Women's Artistic Gymnastics when the vaulting horse was set to the wrong height during the All-Around Competition.
In2004, the Olympic Games returned to their birthplace in Athens, Greece. At least $7.2 billion was spent on the 2004 Games, including $1.5 billion on security.Michael Phelps won his first Olympic medals, tallying six gold and two bronze medals.Pyrros Dimas, winning a bronze medal, became the most decorated weightlifter of all time with four Olympic medals, three gold and one bronze. Although unfounded reports of potential terrorism drove crowds away from the preliminary competitions at the first weekend of the Olympics (14–15 August 2004), attendance picked up as the Games progressed. A third of the tickets failed to sell,[47] but ticket sales still topped figures from the Seoul and Barcelona Olympics (1988 and1992). IOC PresidentJacques Rogge characterised Greece's organisation as outstanding and its security precautions as flawless.[48] All 202 NOCs participated at the Athens Games with over 11,000 participants.
The2008 Summer Olympics was held in Beijing, People's Republic of China. Several new events were held, including the new discipline ofBMX for both men and women. Women competed in thesteeplechase for the first time. The fencing programme was expanded to include all six events for both men and women; previously, women had not been able to compete in team foil or sabre events, although women's team épée and men's team foil were dropped for these Games. Marathon swimming events were added, over the distance of 10 km (6.2 mi). Also, the doubles events in table tennis were replaced by team events.[49] American swimmer Michael Phelps set a record for gold medals at a single Games with eight, and tied the record of most gold medals by a single competitor previously held by both Eric Heiden and Vitaly Scherbo. Another notable star of the Games was Jamaican sprinterUsain Bolt, who became the first male athlete ever to set world records in the finals of both the 100 and 200 metres in the same Games. Equestrian events were held in Hong Kong.
London held the2012 Summer Olympics, becoming the first city to host the Olympic Games three times. In his closing address, Jacques Rogge described the Games as "Happy and glorious". The host nation won 29 gold medals, the best haul for Great Britain since the1908 Games in London. The United States returned to the top of the medal table after China dominated in 2008. The IOC had removedbaseball andsoftball from the 2012 programme. The London Games were successful on a commercial level because they were the first in history to completely sell out every ticket, with as many as one million applications for 40,000 tickets for both the Opening Ceremony and the 100m Men's Sprint Final. Such was the demand for tickets to all levels of each event that there was controversy over seats being set aside for sponsors and National Delegations which went unused in the early days. A system of reallocation was put in place so the empty seats were filled throughout the Games.
Rio de Janeiro in Brazil hosted the2016 Summer Olympics, becoming the first South American city to host the Olympics, the second Olympic host city in Latin America, afterMexico City in1968, as well as the third city in the Southern Hemisphere to host the Olympics after Melbourne, Australia, in1956 andSydney, Australia, in2000. The preparation for these Games was overshadowed bycontroversies, including political instability and an economic crisis in the host country, health and safety concerns surrounding theZika virus, and significant pollution in theGuanabara Bay. However, these concerns were superseded by astate-sponsored doping scandal involvingRussian athletes at the Winter Olympics held two years earlier, which affected the participation of its athletes in these Games.[50]
The2020 Summer Olympics were originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020 in Tokyo, Japan. The city was the fifth in history to host the Games twice and the first Asian city to have this title. Due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, the then-Japanese Prime MinisterShinzo Abe, the IOC and the Tokyo Organising Committee announced that the 2020 Games were to be delayed until 2021, marking the first time that the Olympic Games have been postponed. This was the first time since 1900 that the games were not held in aleap year, and were instead hosted on anon-leap year. Unlike previous Olympics, these Games took placewithout spectators because of concerns over COVID-19 and a state of emergency imposed in the host city.[51][52][53] Nevertheless, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games featured many memorable moments and feats of technical excellence. One star of the Games, U.S. gymnastSimone Biles, gracefully bowed out to focus on her mental health, but later returned to claim an individual bronze medal.[54] Norway'sKarsten Warholm smashed his own world record in the 400m hurdles.[55]
The2024 Summer Olympics were held in Paris, France, making it the second city after London to host the Summer Olympics three times (the other times being1900 and1924, marking a centenary since the later). This is the first of any Olympic Games after the pandemic to allow spectators to attend. In a first, the opening ceremonies were staged outside the main stadium with the athletes parading down boats along theSeine River. Following this, the open water swimming competitions also occurred in the River.[56]
The2028 Summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles, California, United States, making it the third city (after Paris (1900,1924,2024) and London (1908,1948,2012)) to host the Games three times (the other times being1932 and1984), with the U.S. hosting the Summer Olympics for the fifth time.[57]
The2032 Summer Olympics will be held in Brisbane, Australia, which is the third city to host the Games in Australia and the fourth south of theequator.[58]
There has been a total of 42 sports, spanning 55 disciplines, included in the Olympic programme at one point or another in the history of the Games. The schedule has comprised 33 sports for the recent Summer Olympics (2020), with 32 sports planned for the next Summer Olympics (2024).
Qualification rules for each of the Olympic sports are set by theInternational Sports Federation (IF) that governs that sport's international competition.[59]
For individual sports, competitors typically qualify by attaining a certain place in a major international event or on the IF's ranking list. There is a general rule that a maximum of three individual athletes may represent each nation per competition. National Olympic Committees (NOCs) may enter a limited number of qualified competitors in each event, and the NOC decides which qualified competitors to select as representatives in each event if more have attained the benchmark than can be entered.[60]
Nations most often qualify teams for team sports through continental qualifying tournaments, in which each continental association is given a certain number of spots in the Olympic tournament. Each nation may be represented by no more than one team per competition; a team consists of just two people in some sports.
SomeNational Olympic Committees, whose nations are underrepresented after qualifications, may be granted wild card quotas, which are termedUniversality Places, in some eligible sports.[61]
The IOC divides Summer Olympic sports into five categories (A – E) based on popularity, gauged by six criteria: television viewing figures (40%), internet popularity (20%), public surveys (15%), ticket requests (10%), press coverage (10%), and number of national federations (5%). The category of a sport determines the share of Olympic revenue received by that sport's International Federation.[62][63] Sports that were new to the 2016 Olympics (rugby and golf) have been placed in Category E.
The IOC has never decided which events of the early Games were "Olympic" and which were not.[64] The founder of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, ceded that determination to the organisers of those Games.
^abcThe IOC site for the1896,1900 and1904 Summer Olympic Games does not includeMixed teams (teams of athletes from different nations) as a separate "nation" when counting participating nations. At the same time, the IOC shows Mixed teams in the results of competitions where these teams competed. Thus, specified number of national teams plus Mixed teams participated in the Games.
^At an earlier time the IOC database for the 1900 Summer Olympics listed 85 medal events, 24 participating countries and 997 athletes (22 women, 975 men).[67] The Olympic historian and author,Bill Mallon,[68] whose studies have shed light on the topic, suggested the number 95 events satisfying all four retrospective selection criteria (restricted to amateurs, international participation, open to all competitors and without handicapping) and now should be considered as Olympic events. In July 2021, the IOC upgraded its complete online database of all Olympic results explicitly to incorporate the data of the Olympic historians website,Olympedia.org, thus accepting Mallon's recommendation (based on four applied criteria) for events of the 1900 Olympic Games. The eleven events, the results of which had nevertheless been shown within the earlier IOC database, have been added over the former total of 85. Оne shooting event (20 metre military pistol, which was an event for professionals) have been removed. Acceptance of Mallon's recommendation increased the number of events to 95, and also entailed increasing the number of participating countries up to 26 and athletes up to 1226. After upgrading of the IOC online database the IOC web site results section contains 95 events.[69] The IOC webpage for the 1900 Summer Olympics shows a total of 95 medal events, 26 participating countries and 1226 athletes.[66] Furthermore, the IOC factsheet "The Games of the Olympiad" of November 2021 refers to 95 events, but still refers to old numbers of participating countries (24) and athletes (997).[10]
^According to the International Olympic Committee, 26 nations sent competitors to this edition.[66] The concept of "national teams" chosen byNational Olympic Committees did not exist at this point in time. When counting the number of participating countries in the early Olympic Games, the IOC does not take into account otherwise unrepresented countries whose citizens competed for other countries. Modern research shows[68] that at the 1900 Olympics, the athletes of at least four otherwise unrepresented countries (Canada,Luxembourg,Colombia, New Zealand) competed for other countries in both individual and team sports. The IOC website lists all of them in the results section under their nationalities,[69] but does not include their countries among the 26 participating countries.[66]
^The IOC webpage for the 1904 Summer Olympics[70] sets the number at 95 events, while at one time the IOC webpage[71] listed 91. The figure of 91 is sourced to a work by Olympic historian and author,Bill Mallon,[72] whose studies have shed light on the topic. Events satisfying all four of these retrospective selection criteria of the early 20th century — restricted to amateurs, allowing international participation, open to all competitors and without handicapping — are now regarded as Olympic events.
^abcAlthough the Games of 1916, 1940, and 1944 were cancelled, the Roman numerals for those Games were still applied because the official titles of the Summer Games count theOlympiads, not the Games themselves, per the Olympic Charter.[75] This contrasts with the Winter Olympics, which ignore the cancelled Winter Games of 1940 and 1944 in their numeric count.
^The IOC webpage for the 1920 Summer Olympics[76] gives the figure of 156 events, while at one time the IOC webpage[77] listed 154 (difference was two sailing events inAmsterdam).
^The IOC webpage for the 1956 Summer Olympics[4] gives a total of 151 events (145 events in Melbourne and sixequestrian events inStockholm).
^Owing to Australian quarantine laws, six equestrian events were held in Stockholm for the 1956 Summer Olympics several months before the other events in Melbourne; five of the 72 nations that competed in the equestrian events in Stockholm did not attend the main Games in Melbourne.
^The 1972 Summer Olympics was originally scheduled to end on 10 September 1972, but was postponed by one day, to 11 September, after events had been suspended for 34 hours because of theMunich massacre, which happened after day 9.
^IOC records state Brezhnev opened the Moscow Games as "President", a title used at that time by the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, orde jure head of state. (The office ofPresident of the Soviet Union was not created until 1990, a year before the nationbroke up.)[88]
^Originally scheduled for 24 July – 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed by one year due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. However, the event was still referred to as the 2020 Summer Olympics (marking the 32ndOlympiad) to preserve the four-year Olympiad cycle.[51]
^Number of athletes are an equal number of gender participants.[99]
^abcThe LA28 programme maintains the core athlete quota of 10,500, with an extra 698 quota places allocated for the five optional sports proposed by the LA28 Organizing Committee, for 5,167 male athletes and 5,333 female. This will be the first Olympics to feature more female than male athletes.[101]
^Lennartz, Karl; Teutenberg, Walter (1995).Olympische Spiele 1900 in Paris. Kassel, Germany: Agon-Sportverlag. p. 147.ISBN3-928562-20-7.In many works, it is read that the IOC later met to decide which events were Olympic and which were not. This is not correct and no decision has ever been made. No discussion of this item can be found in the account of any Session.
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