The Olympic Games is an international sports festival. There are summer and winter Olympics, each held at four-yearly intervals, staggered two years apart. The Games' beginnings were in ancient Greece, but the modern event dates from 1896. It is organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which also decides to add or remove sports and chooses the cities to host future events. The Summer Olympics programme features 35 different sports, while the Winter Olympics has just 8. Linked events are the Paralympics, for athletes with disabilities, and a mini Olympics, called the Youth Games. The Olympic motto is “Faster, higher, stronger”.

Ancient Games

The original Olympic Games was the most famous of a number of ancient Greek sporting and religious festivals. It was held near the sacred area of Olympia every four years, with the earliest record of it from 776 BC. At this time Greece was made up of several warring city-states, who declared a truce for the duration of the Games, and sent their best athletes to compete. To begin with, the only event was a 192-metre (630-feet) race for up to 21 runners. Later Games included fight contests and chariot racing as well as early versions of modern track and field events. The Olympics were stopped in around AD 400 by the Romans, recent converts to Christianity, for whom the Games were too closely linked with pagan activities.

Ceremonies
and medals

Spectacular ceremonies traditionally begin and end Olympic Games, including massive firework displays and parades of the competitors from every participating country. In the first modern Olympics in 1896, winners received silver medals and every competitor got a bronze medal. Today, all participants are handed a commemorative medal, while the top three finishers in each event receive gold for first place, silver for second and bronze for third.

Winter Olympics

Figure skating and ice hockey had already featured in previous summer Games when the Winter programme of snow and ice sports began in 1924 in Chamonix, France. The programme now includes: biathlon (combining cross-country skiing and rifle shooting), bobsleigh (in which teams compete in sleds down a twisting track), curling (in which players slide stones over ice), ice hockey, ice skating, luge, skiing and ski mountaineering.

Paralympic Games

The first Paralympics for athletes with disabilities took place in Rome in 1960. The Paralympics are now split into Winter and Summer Games and are held in the same city that hosts the Olympic Games. Athletes are divided in six groups according to their disabilities, with further sub-groupings for each event. The 2024 Paris Paralympics saw 4463 athletes from 170 nations competing in 549 events over 22 sports.