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Period: to
Timeline
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is founded
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Athens Games- the first modern Olympics Games
14 countries are represented by about 245 men, competing in 43 events.No women competed. James B. Connolly wins triple jump (the first medal in modern Olympic history); American flag is raised and Star Spangled Banner played, beginning tradition of honoring victor and his/her country. -
Paris Games
1,319 men from 26 countries compete in 75 events. Games opened to women. First female winner: Charlotte Cooper of Great Britain in singles tennis. Margaret Abbot of Chicago wins a gold medal in golf. Alvin Kraenzlein of U.S becomes first to win 4 gold medals. -
St. Louis Olympics
Staged as part of St. Louis World's Fair, Games are reduced to exhibition because many European athletes refuse to travel to American Midwest. Boxing staged for time, U. S. wins all 7 weight classes. Only 13 countries show up.
Fred Lorz rides in a car for eleven miles during the marathon, but is briefly taken as being the winner anyway. -
Intercalated Games
Intercalated Games InfoThe first, last, and only Intercalated Games are held in Athens, as the Greeks plan to hold interim Games between Olympics every four years. While these bolster the Olympics' flagging reputation, medals won here are considered unofficial by the IOC. -
London Games
For the first time, athletes march into the stadium behind their nations' flags. There are more than 2,000 competitors in more than 100 events. -
Stockholm Games
First use of electronic timing devices and a public address system. Jim Thorpe, an American Indian, wins both pentathlon and decathlon -- a feat that remains unmatched. Women compete in swimming events for the first time, but none of them are from America, which bars its female athletes from competing in events without long skirts. -
Games are cancled due to World War 1
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Antwerp Games
Defeated in WWI, Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary and Turkey are not allowed to participate. Olympic flag unfurled for first time; its five colored rings (black, blue, yellow, green and red) incorporate at least one color found in flag of every nation on earth. -
Paris Games/ Winter Games
44 nations send 3,000 competitors. The "International Winter Sports Week" takes place in Chamonix, and is dominated by the Scandanavians. Two years later, this is retroactively given the status of the first Olympic Winter Games. Germany is still banned, but the other four nations banned in 1920 are back. -
Amsterdam Games
The Winter Games are plagued with warm weather, slowing some events and cancelling the 10,000-meter speed-skating race. Slow-motion film techniques used to judge close finishes; women's track and field competitions held for first time. -
Lake Placid Winter Games/ Los Angeles Summer Games
Canada continues to be undefeated in hockey, taking home the gold for the fourth time. 16 world records and 33 Olympic records set -- 105,000 attend opening opening ceremonies, 65,000 go per day. -
Garmish-Partenkirchen Winter Games/ Berlin Games
Canada finally loses an ice hockey match, as Great Britain takes the gold. Only a complete stickler would point out that almost all of the British players lived in Canada. The first-ever relay of the Olympic torch. The Games are the first to be televised, being shown on large screens around Berlin. Basketball is admitted as an Olympic sport for the first time. In the final—played on a dirt court in the rain, making dribbling impossible—the United States team beats Canada 19–8. -
Olympics Cancled due to World War 2
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Olympics Cancled due to World War 2
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St. Moritz Winter Games/ Longon Games
The first Games to be shown on home television. Germany and Japan aren't invited, but a record 59 other countries attend. Held for a second time in St. Moritz, Switzerland, as that city was untouched by the war. -
Oslo Winter Games/ Helsinki Summer Games
Soviet Union rejoins Games after 40-year absence. The Olympic torch is lit in the fireplace of skiing pioneer Sondre Norheim, and relayed by 94 skiers to the Games in Oslo.
The Canadian ice hockey team wins their seventh gold medal in eight Olympics; it will be fifty years before they win another. -
Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Games/Melbourne Summer Games
The Soviets break Canada's gold-medal monopoly in ice hockey, and win more medals than anybody else. As quarantine laws don't allow the entry of foreign horses, equestrian events are held in Stockholm in June. The rest of the Games start in late November, when it's summer in the Southern Hemisphere. East and West Germany are represented by one combined team. In the Closing Ceremonies, for the first time, athletes from all nations enter the stadium in unity, rather than marching in by nation. -
Squaw Valley Winter Games/ Rome Summer Games
Walt Disney is in charge of pageantry, including the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. The first Summer Games covered by television worldwide. A record 5,348 athletes from 83 countries compete. Cassius Clay 18-year-old boxer —later to be known as Muhammad Ali—is the light heavyweight boxing champion. Soviets again lead the pack, with 103 medals (43 gold) to the Americans' 71 (34 gold). -
Innsbruck Winter Games/ Tokyo Summer Games
Unfavorable weather conditions require the Austrian army to carry ice and snow from higher elevations. The U.S. and U.S.S.R. end up neck-and-neck, with the Soviets winning more medals overall, but the Americans winning more gold medals.
Japan spends about $3 billion to rebuild Tokyo for the Olympics, revitalizing a city that had been devastated by earthquakes and World War II bombings. 25 Olympic and world records are broken in the course of the Games, and Japan's worldwide image gets a boost. -
Grenoble Winter Games/ Mexico City Summer Games
East and West Germany compete on separate teams for the first time. Sex tests and drug tests are introduced. On the winning podium after the 200-meter race, Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists in a Black Power salute; the two are immediately suspended from the Games and deported from the country. Athletes compete in 122 men's events, 39 women's events, and 11 mixed events, and the U.S. pulls ahead of the U.S.S.R., winning 107 medals (45 gold) to 91 (29 gold). -
Sapporo Winter Games/ Munich Summer Games
The Soviets have been paying their athletes for jobs they never actually perform, while the Americans have handed out athletic scholarships to thousands of athletes. The Olympic Oath is taken by a referee for the first time. Mark Spitz sets seven world records and wins seven gold medals in swimming events. Worldwide TV audience:1 billion. Soviet Union defeates U.S. in basketball. But stunning tragedy overshadows games: Arab terrorists assassinate 9 athletes from Israeli team. -
Innsbruck Winter Games/ Montreal Summer Games
These were originally planned for Denver, but Colorado residents voted against spending money on them. Ice dancing makes its debut. 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci scores seven perfect 10s on the way to three gold medals, plus a silver and a bronze. Nobody had achieved even one 10 before. The Soviet Union leads the medal count, followed by the U.S. and East Germany. -
Lake Placid Winter Games/ Moscow Summer Games
The first to use artificial snow. American Eric Heiden wins all five speed skating events, the first time that's ever been done. The U.S. wins only one more gold medal, and the U.S.S.R. and the East Germans once again dominate the field. The first Games to be held in a communist country. 80 nations participate in the Games, down from 122 at Munich. -
Sarajevo Winter Games/ Los Angeles Summer Games
The first to be held in a socialist country. 49 nations attend, 12 more than the previous record for the Winter Games. As usual, the Soviets and East Germans end up on top; the U.S.S.R. has more medals overall (25-24), but the East Germans have more gold medals (9-6). The Soviets regain top honors in hockey, while the U.S. fails to qualify for the medal round. U.S. leads 50-nation boycott to protest Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. -
Calgary Winter Games/Seoul Summer Games
The Winter Games are spread over 16 days for the first time. Jamaica enters its first bobsled team, finishing last. The last American basketball team without NBA players comes in third. Tennis returns after a 64-year absence, and Steffi Graf gets the gold. In the overall medal count, the rankings are U.S.S.R. (132), East Germany (102), U.S.A. (94). 159 nations send 9,465 athletes, including 2,186 women. -
Albertville Winter Games/ Barcelona Summer Games
For the first time in decades, every single nation with an Olympic Committee shows up, even Cuba, North Korea, and South Africa. A record 172 nations participate, represented by 10,563 athletes. With the door open to professional athletes, the U.S. sends a Dream Team including Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Karl Malone. As expected, they go undefeated. World Cup athletes are now allowed to compete in soccer, but only three players over the age of 23 are allowed. -
Lillehammer Winter Games
info pleaseThese are the only Winter Games to take place two years after the preceding ones. It's the Tonya and Nancy show in figure-skating. Nancy Kerrigan gets the silver; Tonya Harding gets the notoriety. Ukraine's Oksana Baiul gets the gold. Norway, Germany, and Russia are at the top of the final standings -
Atlanta Games
Muhammad Ali lights the cauldron at the start of the Centennial Games. 179 nations participate; 79 win medals. A pipe bomb in Centennial Olympic Park kills one person and injures 111, but the Games go on. The American women's teams win the first-ever softball and women's soccer events. They also win gymnastics, with the help of Kerri Strug, who nails her second vault despite a sprained ankle. The United States returns to the top of the standings, followed by Russia and Germany. -
Sydney Games
10,651 athletes (4,069 of them women) from 199 nations participate; the only nation excluded is Afghanistan. North and South Korea enter the stadium under one flag. There are 165 events for men, 135 for women, and 12 mixed events. Women are excluded from boxing and baseball; men are excluded from synchronized swimming, rhythmic gymnastics, and softball. The United States, the Russian Federation, and the People's Republic of China lead the medal-winners. -
Salt Lake City Winter Games
These Games are controversial starting about three years before they begin, as it is revealed that several IOC members accepted inappropriately large gifts in exchange for voting to hold the Games in Salt Lake City. At least four IOC members resign, as do top Salt Lake City committee officials, in the midst of several investigations, and the IOC pledges to change the way host cities are chosen. Germany, the United States, and Norway end up with the most medals, with Norway taking home more golds -
Athens Summer Games
Games return to Athens Greece -
Baseball and Softball Elimination
At the 2005 Singapore meeting the IOC decided to eliminate baseball and softball from the 2012 Olympics, the first sports to be dropped since polo in 1936. -
Bejing Summer Games
The 2008 Summer Games ended on Aug. 24 with the United Concern about Beijing hosting the summer Olympics resurfaced in March 2008 after Chinese police violently cracked down on protests by ethnic Tibetans and Buddhist monks in Lhasa, Tibet. Air pollution in Beijing is at least two to three times higher than levels considered safe by the World Health Organization. States, China, and Russia taking home the most medals. Despite skepticism, the Beijing Games were widely praised as a success. -
Vancouver Winter Games
While the United States was the winner in the total medal count with 37, Canada's "Own the Podium" initiative proved successful, as Canada shattered its gold ceiling (in two previous Olympics, host Canada failed to win gold), winning 14 gold medals on home soil--a new record for a host country. American Shaun White delighted snowboard fans with an unnecessary (he had already clinched the gold), but totally spectacular trick, the "Double McTwist 1260,"
