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Summer Olympics Trivia

olympics flameThis fact filled site is full of Olympic trivia. Below are some of the highlights. For more trivia, see also Olympic Firsts and Oldest and Youngest, plus heaps more sections.

  • London is the only city to host the summer Games three times: 1908, 1948 and 2012. The Games have been held in the USA four times (1904, 1932, 1984, 1996) but in three different cities)
  • Did you know that all athletes competed in the nude at the ancient Olympics?
  • In the ancient Olympics, the philosopher Plato (427-347 BC) was a double winner of the Pankration. (see more about the Ancient Olympics).
  • Five countries have been represented at all Summer Olympic Games – Greece, Great Britain, France, Switzerland, and Australia, though not always all as part of official teams. Switzerland is on this list even though they boycotted the 1956 Olympics - they had competed in the equestrian events several months earlier in Stockholm. France did did not send a team to the 1904 Games but a lone Frenchman did compete for the US and a mixed team. Also in 1896 Great Britain competed as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, while Australia participated in 1908 and 1912 as part of a combined Australasia team with New Zealand. Therefore, Greece is the only nation to have participated under its own flag in all modern summer Olympic Games.
  • The only Olympian ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize was Philip Noel-Baker of Great Britain. He won the silver in the 1500-meter run in 1920, and was awarded the Nobel prize for Peace in 1959 for his support of multilateral nuclear disarmament.
  • The first black athlete to compete at the Olympics was Constantin Henriquez de Zubiera, competing for France in 1900. (more Olympic Firsts)

  • At the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, silver medals were awarded to the winners and bronze to the second place getters. (see more about Olympic Medals)
  • No women competed in 1896, as de Coubertin felt that their inclusion would be "impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and incorrect." (see more about Women at the Olympics)
  • More athletes than spectators attended the 1900 Paris Olympic Games.
  • The oldest man to compete in the Summer Olympic Games was Oscar Swahn of Sweden in shooting (1908, 1912, and 1920). Oscar Swahn became the oldest gold medalist when he won gold at 64 years and 280 days old in 1912, and the oldest medallist when he won silver in 1920 aged 72 years, 281 days old. The oldest woman to compete in the Olympics was British rider Lorna Johnstone, who participated in Equestrian at the 1972 Olympic Games at 70 years old and 5 days. (see more on the oldest and youngest)
  • The country of India has the lowest number of total Olympic medals per capita.
  • 12-year-old Inge Sorensen from Denmark won a bronze medal in the 200-meter breaststroke in 1936, making her the youngest medalist ever in an individual event.
  • Pigeon shooting was one of the sports on the program in Paris in 1900. Fortunately this shooting event was short lived. It was the only time animals were killed on purpose during an Olympic event. (see more about Discontinued Olympic Events).
  • East German Christa Luding-Rothenburger is the only person to win medals at the Winter and Summer Games in the same year (1988), winning gold in speed skating at Calgary and a silver in track cycling in Seoul. (This feat is no longer possible due to the staggering of the Winter and Summer Olympic years)
  • American Eddie Eagan is the only person to have won gold medals in both the Summer and Winter Games. He was a boxing champion in the 1920 Antwerp Games, and also won gold at the 1932 Lake Placid Games in the team bobsled event.
  • Great Britain is the only nation to have won at least one gold medal at every Summer Games.
  • Two athletes have won gold medals competing for two different nations: Australian Rugby player Daniel Carroll won gold representing Australia in 1908, then repeated this feat competing for USA in 1920. The other is Georgian weight lifter Akakide Kakhiashvili who won his first gold medal at Barcelona 1992 competing with the Unified Team, and later as a citizen of Greece at Atlanta 1996 and in Sydney 2000.
  • The only female competitor not to have to submit to a sex test at the 1976 Summer Olympics was Princess Anne of the UK, who was competing as a member of the UK equestrian team. As the daughter Queen Elizabeth II, such a test was seen as inappropriate. (see more about Olympic Royalty)
  • US athlete Sheila Taormina competed in the Modern Pentathlon in 2008, making her the first woman to qualify for the Olympics in three different sports (swimming, triathlon and modern pentathlon).
  • The record for the longest name for an Olympic champion is by female Thai weightlifter Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon, with a name comprising 31 letters. She won the gold medal in the 53 kilograms category at Beijing 2008. Her name was so long that it did not fit onto the scoreboard, which listed her as "J".

olympic throwerMuch Much More Trivia

The above selection of trivia is just a sample of what you can find on this site. All of the Olympic Trivia has been sorted into the categories below. Visit these links to discover all you need to know about the facts and figures of the Olympic Games.

Reader's Trivia Questions - anyone?

  • Who is the youngest person to win a gold medal and die before they reached fourteen? (from a liggins, Jan 2013)
  • Does the US have a team in every summer Olympic event in 2012? (from Rhonda, 10 Aug 2012)
  • 2012 Olympics. Where can I find out the nation's number of entrants per capita (per population)? Who has highest ratio of entrants to population? (from Denno Rich, July 2012)

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