Olympics

With origins dating back to ancient Greece, the Olympic Games are steeped in history and have grown to become one of the world’s most revered sporting tournaments. The Olympic Games are now divided into two separate competitions – the Winter Olympics and the Summer Olympics. Each of these games takes place every four years, with two years between them.

Olympics Origin

Between the 8th Century BC and 4th Century AD, the games were hosted every four years in Olympia in honour of the god, Zeus. The first modern Olympic Games were hosted in Athens in 1896, featuring 241 participants from 14 countries competing in 43 events. Since 1994, the Summer and Winter Olympic Games have been hosted separately.

Evolution of Olympics

The games have obviously grown tremendously since 1896, attracting audiences of almost half the world’s population. The last Summer Olympics, hosted in Brazil in 2016, welcomed more than 11 000 athletes from almost every nation, competing in 306 events over 28 sports. Since its inception, only athletics, swimming and gymnastics have featured at every game, with many sports introduced or removed over time.

The governing body of the Olympic Games – the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – is responsible for deciding which sports feature. They established the Olympic Programme Commission in 2004 to handle this, setting seven criteria by which to judge the eligibility of a sport. These criteria include the history and tradition of a sport, popularity, and image.

Upcoming Olympics

This year, Tokyo (Japan) will play host to the Summer Olympic Games from Friday, 24 July until Sunday, 9 August. For the first time, the Olympic Games will include karate, skateboarding, and surfing as official events alongside 30 other sports, among them swimming, archery, baseball, canoeing and equestrian sports. The next Winter Olympic Games will take place in Beijing (China) from 4 to 20 February, 2022.

Olympic Betting

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