SUMMER & WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES NEWS including PARALYMPICS

 

The first Olympic Games took place in Greece thousands of years ago.

The very first modern day Olympic Games also took place in Greece, in Athens in 1896 and they have been held every 4 years since then, the only interruption to the schedule being during World Wars I and II. Some of the world's top athletes compete against one another, hoping to be acclaimed as the best in the world by winning gold, silver or bronze medals.

The first separate Winter Olympics took place in 1924 in Chamonix, France. Originally these winter games were held every four years in the same year as the summer games. However, the decision was taken to split the games and to hold them every alternate two years. The first of the winter games in this new schedule was in Lillehammer, Norway in 1994.

ORGANISATION:

IOC
International Olympic Committee



The official languages are English and French.

HISTORY OF OLYMPIC GAMES HOST CITIES:

Cities throughout the world bid to host the Olympic Games and there is always keen competition, firstly between cities within each country who would like to be considered as potential hosts, and then internationally between the successful cities. Once bids have been accepted there is a process of elimination by the International Olympic Committee, over a period of years, with the number of bidding cities gradually being whittled down until a winner is declared - some seven years prior to the olympiad in question.

The Olympic Games Bid Procedure is quite a long, demanding and often nerve racking process.

Athens, birthplace of the original games was again chosen to host the 28th Olympic Summer Games, which took place in August 2004. Other contenders included Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Rome & Stockholm. There was some concern about whether Athens would have everything ready in time but these fears proved to be unnecessary as everything was in place and Athens produced a splendid XXVIII Olympiad and equally successful Paralympics.