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The modernOlympic Games (Olympics;French:Jeux olympiques) are the world's preeminent internationalsporting events. They feature summer andwinter sports events in which thousands ofathletes from around the world participate in avariety of athletic competitions. The Olympic Games,open to both amateur and professional athletes, involve more than 200 teams, each team representing a sovereign state or territory. The Games often, but not always, substitute for anyworld championships during the year in which they take place. The Olympics are staged every four years. Since1994, they have alternated between theSummer andWinter Olympics every two years during the four-yearOlympiad.
Their creation was inspired by theancient Olympic Games, held inOlympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD.Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, leading to the first modern Games inAthens in1896. The IOC is the governing body of theOlympic Movement, which encompasses all entities and individuals involved in the Olympic Games. TheOlympic Charter defines their structure and authority.
The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has resulted in numerous changes to the Olympic Games. Some of these adjustments include the creation of the Winter Olympic Games for snow and ice sports, theParalympic Games for athletes with disabilities, theYouth Olympic Games for athletes aged 14 to 18, the five Continental Games (Pan American,African,Asian,European, andPacific), and theWorld Games for sports that are not contested in the Olympic Games. The IOC also endorses theDeaflympics and theSpecial Olympics. The IOC has adapted to a variety of economic, political, and technological advancements. Theabuse of amateur rules prompted the IOC to shift away from pureamateurism, as envisioned by Coubertin, to the acceptance ofprofessional athletes participating at the Games. The growing importance of mass media has created the issue ofcorporate sponsorship and general commercialisation of the Games. World WarsI andII led to the cancellation of the1916,1940, and1944 Olympics; large-scale boycotts during theCold War limited participation in the1980 and1984 Olympics; and the2020 Olympics were postponed until 2021 because of theCOVID-19 restrictions.
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| Rank | NOC | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Norway | 10 | 3 | 7 | 20 |
| 2 |  Italy* | 6 | 3 | 9 | 18 |
| 3 |  United States | 4 | 8 | 4 | 16 |
| 4 |  France | 4 | 6 | 2 | 12 |
| 5 |  Germany | 4 | 4 | 3 | 11 |
| 6 |  Sweden | 4 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| 7 |  Switzerland | 4 | 2 | 3 | 9 |
| 8 |  Austria | 3 | 6 | 3 | 12 |
| 9 |  Japan | 3 | 3 | 8 | 14 |
| 10 |  Netherlands | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| 11–25 | Remaining | 10 | 14 | 14 | 38 |
| Totals (25 entries) | 55 | 56 | 55 | 166 | |
TheQuietly Confident Quartet was the self-given name of the Australian men's 4 × 100 metresmedley relay swimming team that won the gold medal at the1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics in protest against theSoviet invasion of Afghanistan and, through the 2016 Olympics, the Australian victory remains the only occasion the United States has not wonthe event at Olympic level since its inception in 1960. The quartet consisted ofbackstrokerMark Kerry,breaststrokerPeter Evans,butterflyerMark Tonelli, andfreestylerNeil Brooks. The team was nominally led by its oldest member Tonelli, who was 23 and was also a spokesperson for the Australian athletes' campaign for their right to compete at the Olympics against the wishes of theFraser government. The team was seen as an unlikely prospect to win; all four of the swimmers had clashed with swimming authorities over disciplinary issues and three experienced suspension or expulsion from the Australian team during their careers.
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| Credit: Auguste Matisse |
The1924Winter Olympics, officially known as theI Olympic Winter Games, were held in 1924 inChamonix,France. Originally calledSemaine Internationale des Sports d'Hiver ("International Winter Sports Week") and held in association with the1924 Summer Olympics, the sports competitions held at the foot ofMont Blanc inChamonix,Haute-Savoie,France between 25 January and 5 February 1924, organised by the French Olympic Committee, were in retrospect designated by theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) as the I Olympic Winter Games.
| “ | I have always had a dream to take part in an Olympic Games, and losing my leg didn't change anything. | ” |
| — Natalie du Toit,South African swimmer, a Paralympian who competed at the2008 Summer Olympics | ||
Thompson-Herah is the first-ever female sprinter, and the second sprinter afterUsain Bolt, to win the "sprint double" at consecutive Olympics, capturing 100 m and 200 m gold at the2016 Rio Olympics, and defending both titles at the2020 Tokyo Olympics. A six-time Olympic medallist, she rose to prominence at the2015 World Athletics Championships, winning silver in the 200 m and, at the time, becoming the fifth-fastest woman in history over the distance. The next year at the Rio Olympics, she became the first woman sinceFlorence Griffith Joyner in 1988 to win 100 m and 200 m gold at the Olympics.
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The2026 Winter Olympics (Italian:Olimpiadi invernali del 2026), officially theXXV Winter Olympic Games and commonly known asMilano Cortina 2026, is an internationalmulti-sport event currently taking place from 6 to 22 February 2026 at multiple sites acrossLombardy andNortheast Italy, with competition in selected events beginning 4 February 2026.
A joint bid byMilan andCortina d'Ampezzo was awarded the 2026Winter Olympics at the134th IOC Session in June 2019, beating another joint bid made byStockholm andÅre, Sweden. Milano Cortina 2026 will be the firstOlympic Games to be officially co-hosted by two cities. Milan will primarily host the ice events, while the remaining events will be hosted in clusters around Cortina and theValtellina andFiemme valleys. These will mark the third Winter Olympics, and the fourth Olympics overall, to be hosted by Italy; Cortina d'Ampezzo previously hosted the1956 Winter Olympics.
The 2026 Games will feature the debut ofski mountaineering as a Winter Olympic event and are the first Olympic Games under theIOC presidency ofKirsty Coventry.
Separate current and precursor NOCs (records not combined):
| No. | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 1,219 | 1,000 | 876 | 3,095 |
| 2 |  Soviet Union | 473 | 376 | 355 | 1,204 |
| 3 |  China | 325 | 258 | 221 | 804 |
| 4 | Germany | 318 | 317 | 320 | 955 |
| 5 |  Great Britain | 310 | 344 | 360 | 1,014 |
| 6 | France | 281 | 319 | 354 | 954 |
| 7 | Italy | 271 | 244 | 284 | 799 |
| 8 | Sweden | 216 | 232 | 243 | 691 |
| 9 | Norway | 213 | 187 | 177 | 577 |
| 10 | Japan | 206 | 191 | 221 | 618 |
The2028 Summer Olympics, officially theGames of the XXXIV Olympiad and commonly known asLos Angeles 2028 orLA 28, is an upcoming internationalmulti-sport event scheduled to take place from July 14 to 30, 2028, in theUnited States.Los Angeles will be thehost city, with various events also scheduled to be held at other cities spread across theGreater Los Angeles area, plus two subsites inOklahoma City.
Los Angeles had originallybid for the2024 Summer Olympics. Following multiple withdrawals, theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) approved a process to concurrently award the 2024 and 2028 Games to Los Angeles andParis as the two remaining candidates; Paris was preferred as host for 2024, while Los Angeles agreed to host in 2028. Los Angeles was formally awarded the Games at the131st IOC Session inLima, Peru, on September 13, 2017. They will mark the fifth Summer Olympics, and ninth Olympics overall to be hosted by the United States; having previously hosted the Summer Olympics in1932 and1984, Los Angeles becomes the third three-time host city afterLondon (1908,1948,2012) and Paris (1900,1924,2024), and the first non-European city to do so. These will be the first Summer Olympics held under theIOC presidency ofKirsty Coventry.
After debuting in2020 as optional events,skateboarding,sport climbing, andsurfing have been promoted to the Summer Olympics' core event program. The Games will feature the debut offlag football andsquash as optional sports, joined by the return ofbaseball/softball,cricket (for the first time since 1900) andlacrosse (for the first time as a medal event since 1908).
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