The Olympic Games are a series of sport events occurring every two years, alternating between summer and winter sports. The Summer Olympics are one of the most watched sporting events in the world, rivalled only by the FIFA World Cup.
The ancient Olympic Games are traditionally said to have first been held in Ancient Greece in 776 BC. They were held in the city of Olympia in honor of the Greek god Zeus, and were a series of athletic competitions, with the winner of each event receiving an olive wreath. Some of the traditions of the modern games were revived from those of the ancient games: like the modern games, the ancient games were held every four years (a period of time which came to be known as an "Olympiad"), and the symbolism of peace in the modern games was inspired by ancient games, as a truce would be enacted between all the Greek city-states during the games to allow athletes to travel safely between their homes and Olympia.
Unlike the modern games, the ancient games were only open to Greek men who were free (not slaves), and anyone who wished to participate had to prove Greek ancestry. Women were not allowed to participate, and married women were not even allowed to attend as spectators, though women who owned horses or chariots could enter them in the equestrian events (albeit ridden by male jockeys), and would also be declared Olympic champions should their horse or chariot win events. Competitors were also nude (γυμνός, gimnós in Greek, from which we get "gymnasium" and "gymnastics").
For their first 50 years or so, the ancient games only had a single athletic event, the stade or stadion, a sprint of just . Over their history, 23 different events would be held, although no more than 20 at any one Olympiad. Main events included chariot racing, wrestling, boxing, pankration ("total power", a fierce and sometimes deadly anything-goes fight, conceptually like modern mixed martial arts), stadion and other foot races, and the original pentathlon (made up of wrestling, stadion, long jump, javelin throw, and discus throw).
However, the ancient games were more than just an athletic event; they were also a religious festival and artistic display. Sculptors, poets, and other artisans would exhibit their works (a tradition which continues today in the form of the Opening Ceremonies). While victors only officially won a garland, they would be showered with riches and social honors upon returning home, and during some periods would be commemorated in poems and victory songs, some of which are still known today more than 2,500 years later.
The Olympic Games were only one of the four Panhellenic Games, the others being the Pythian Games (in Delphi), the Nemean Games (in Nemea, Corinthia), and the Isthmian Games (in Isthmia, Sicyon, also near modern Corinth). A rotating schedule ensured that at least one was held every year. However, the Olympic Games were both the oldest and the most important of the four.
The Olympic Games would continue to be held even after Greece came under Roman rule, and from the 1st century BC a few Roman competitors were allowed (including Emperor Nero, who failed to finish after being thrown from his chariot, but was declared the winner on the basis that he would have won if he finished the race!). Eventually the Olympic Games were banned by Emperor Theodosius I in AD 393 (having run for more than 1,000 years) after he declared Christianity the state religion of Rome and mandatory for all Roman subjects, as he viewed the games as a pagan tradition that undermined Christianity.
The first talks of reviving the games began in 1821, after Greece gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. A donation from Evangelos Zappas, a wealthy Greek-Romanian philanthropist, led to games being held in Athens in 1859, 1870 and 1875, with athletes coming from Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, a British educationalist known as William Penny Brooks would start an Olympian Class in 1850; this competition was and continues to be held every year at Much Wenlock, England. Inspired by both these events, French baron Pierre de Coubertin would go on to found the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1890. Under the auspices of the IOC, the first modern Olympic Games would be held in Athens in 1896, with the Panathenaic Stadium, which had been renovated for the games in 1870, serving as the main stadium for the games. The first games in 1896 would also be a male-only event, with women only allowed to compete starting from the 1900 edition in Paris.
For much of its history, the modern Olympics required all participants to be amateurs, or in other words to never have received any monetary compensation whatsoever for sports-related activities, a rule inspired by the ideals of the traditional English gentleman in the 19th century. However, with the start of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and its communist allies would get around this rule by nominally hiring their athletes in other occupations, but in practice allowing them to be on perpetual paid leave to train full-time. As a result, the rules on amateurism were gradually relaxed, and were eventually completely abolished in 1992, though the sports of boxing and wrestling continue to use amateur rather than professional fight rules. Another vestige of the amateurism rule can be seen in men's association football (soccer), where participants are required to be aged 23 or younger (except for three over-aged players allowed per team) — in part because FIFA does not want to "devalue" their World Cup and European Championships.
From 1912 to 1948, the Olympics actually included art competitions for architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture. This was part of Coubertin's vision of replicating the ancient Olympics. (As it happens, he entered in 1912 under a pseudonym and won the gold medal for literature for his poem Ode to Sport.) The art competitions were eventually removed, although you may be surprised to learn why: artists were considered to be professionals, which conflicted with the "amateurs only" rule. Instead, today's Olympics are accompanied by Cultural Olympiads, which encourage many kinds of artistic events. The lavish London 2012 Games included hundred of projects and events including the World Shakespeare Festival, while the budget-conscious Rio 2016 Games used an unpublished program of street theater and flash mobs.
A separate movement to include disabled athletes began shortly after World War II. Ludwig Guttmann, a neurologist who fled Germany for Britain in 1939, established a center for treating spinal injuries at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in 1944. Believing in sports as a method of therapy for injured military personnel, he organized the first Stoke Mandeville Games in 1948, to coincide with the 1948 Olympics in London. In 1960, Rome hosted the first official Paralympic Games (although that name wouldn't come into use until later, with events from 1960 onward being retroactively renamed). While the Paralympics were originally open only to athletes in wheelchairs, in 1976 rules were relaxed to accommodate other disabilities. Since 1988, the Paralympic Games have been held in the same city and using the same facilities as the Olympic Games, and this was made a formal policy in 2001.
Originally formed from the words "paraplegic" and "Olympics", the name is now explained as coming from the Greek παρά (pará) as in "parallel", suggesting that the Paralympic Games are the equal of the Olympic Games. (In London 2012, the Paralympics were advertised after the Olympics with cheeky billboards that read "Thanks for the warm-up"!) Paralympic Games typically take place 2–4 weeks after the conclusion of the Olympic Games, and broadcasters who get their country's exclusive contract to show the Olympic Games are becoming required to broadcast an increasing amount of the Paralympic Games as well. Tickets to the Paralympics generally cost around half as much as the Olympics, and demand is substantially lower, making Paralympic tickets much easier to get. A few sports — namely boccia and goalball — are unique sports solely for disabled players, some like wheelchair basketball and vision-impaired judo are versions of regular sports adapted for particular disabilities, and others like athletics and swimming have only minor adaptations but are broken into categories to account for varying types and levels of disability. As a result of the additional categories, the Paralympics awards 50% more medals than the Olympics despite having only half as many sports.
The IOC (International Olympic Committee; French: CIO or Comité international olympique) is the independent organization that organizes the Olympic Games. They work with international sports federations to set the rules for the Games, and elect which city will host the Games. Beneath the IOC, National Olympic Committees (NOCs) organize their nation's participation in the Games, and work with city's committees to submit bids to host the Olympics. Since 1996, membership in the IOC has been restricted to independent countries recognised by the international community, though a grandfather clause allows dependent territories recognised before that date, such as Hong Kong, Bermuda and Puerto Rico, to continue sending teams to the Olympics. In the past there have been controversies and problems regarding countries which claim to be the "sole legal representative" of some territory, for example China (PRC) and Taiwan (ROC) which has been resolved by letting Taiwanese athletes participate under the "Chinese Taipei" designation, East and West Germany (which became moot with reunification) and North and South Korea, which have sometimes attempted to send "unified teams", while Catalonia continues to campaign for the right to send a separate team from Spain.
The Paralympic Games have a similar structure, being led by the IPC (International Paralympic Committee) and National Paralympic Committees (NPCs). Host cities, however, have mostly shifted to having a single committee to jointly organize the Olympics and Paralympics. Interestingly, the Paralympics are contested by more national teams than the Olympics, as Macau and the Faroe Islands send their own teams to the Paralympics, but are required to compete as part of China and Denmark respectively at the Olympics.
In the early years, Summer Olympics were often held over a course of several months and competitors were not clearly separate from the general population, meaning pretty much anybody could show up and participate. Similarly, venues were rarely purpose built and permanent. Several of the pre World War I games were held together with a World Exhibition and several of the Olympic traditions actually date back to "Intercalated Games" that were to be held between two regular games and always in Athens but abandoned after only one such event was held. In the late 20th and early 21st century, there was a great desire to host the games and the prestige that comes with it. Cities' interest to host the Games has declined for a number of reasons:
Because of this, the IOC has changed the way cities win the right to host the Olympics. 2032 in Brisbane was the first example of this with the Australian city winning the right to host without winning a vote against other cities.
The United States leads the all-time medal count in the Summer Olympics, having won over 1,000 gold medals, with the Soviet Union in a distant second clocking in at just under 400. However, third place Great Britain is the only team to have won gold at every edition of the Summer Olympics, because the Americans boycotted the 1980 games in Moscow.
Since the 1988 Summer Games, all Olympic Games have been followed immediately by the Paralympic Games for disability sports in the same city and using most if not all of the same venues. Joint hosting of the Olympics and Paralympics (both Summer and Winter) has been official policy since 2001.
Although the Games are usually said to be hosted in a particular city, in practice the football matches take place in various cities around the host country. Sailing events also often have to be held in alternative locations if the host city is not a coastal city. In rare cases, certain events may also take place outside the host country; some sailing races at the 1920 games took place in Dutch waters despite Belgium being the host, and the equestrian events at the 1956 games took place in Sweden despite Australia being the host. In addition, when China hosted in 2008, the equestrian events took place in Hong Kong, which while part of China sends its own team to the Olympics.
First held in 1924, the Winter Olympics were originally held in the same year as Summer Olympics and often in the same country. With the increasing size of the Olympic Games and the increasing financial commitment for hosts, it was decided to split Summer and Winter Games up, and the Winter Olympics were scheduled to be in the year of the FIFA World Cup to avoid the two biggest worldwide sports events going head to head. The "side benefit" for those making money off of sports (such as the IOC) is that the cash flow is now a bit more even year over year, so that certainly didn't hurt in taking the decision.
Norway leads the all-time Winter Olympics medal table, with the United States in second place, though the United States is the only country to have won gold at every edition of the Winter Olympics. For obvious reasons tropical countries rarely compete, and none have ever won a medal, but those that do compete are often fan and media darlings due to their unlikely underdog stories. The Jamaican bobsled team is perhaps the most famous example.
Similarly to the Summer Games, each Winter Olympics since 1992 has been immediately followed by the Winter Paralympics, also in the same host city and using the same venues.
Accessibility of tickets varies greatly. Opening and closing ceremonies are very desired, as are finals and medal ceremonies, while tickets to minor events can in some cases be obtained at entrance. The ability to acquire tickets also depends on the host: while tickets for handball events were easy to get in Rio, they'll likely be much more in demand in Paris.
While in the past each country had a designated ticket reseller, from Paris onwards tickets can only be bought through the official reseller On Location (dead link: January 2023). Tickets first go on sale 10–12 months before the respective Olympic and Paralympic Games. You should be prepared to purchase within a day or two of tickets going on sale, as popular events sell out quickly. The reseller may release additional tickets later, or may use waitlists.
(If you're in the host country, things will probably be more complicated. The host country is usually allocated more tickets, but also sees substantially higher demand. You can expect they'll have staggered releases of tickets over many months right up until the games start, and there may be long waitlists or large lotteries. Rules for permanent residents may be different.)
In the months leading up to sales opening, a ticket guide will be published which shows the complete schedule of which specific competitions and medal ceremonies take place during each session.
Tickets are for a specific session, meaning a particular day, time, and place. Some sports have 2 or 3 sessions per venue per day (such as morning and afternoon athletics sessions), while others have just a single session that spans the whole day. Each session has specific events being held; while a single football match might take up a whole session, usually there are multiple events at each session (such as various track races and field events) as well as medal ceremonies as the days go by. Typically there is no reentry, so plan your schedule accordingly. The unfortunate part for some sports is that competitors are not known in advance, as there will be months of qualifying rounds before a tournament bracket can be seeded. Thus, you'll only be able to purchase a football ticket to "men's first round", for example, and won't know who you'll be watching until a few weeks before the session.
Example: Tokyo 2020
To give you an idea of the prices for various sessions, here's what was available for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. (Prices have been roughly converted to U.S. dollars.)
The Opening Ceremony is by far the session with the most demand, so it commands the highest prices. The seating zones and prices were:
Tickets to sporting sessions are generally much cheaper, and significantly easier to get successfully. While some popular sessions like athletics and swimming have tickets for as much as $1,300, the cheapest tickets—even at popular sessions—were as little as $40-60. Less popular sessions with just one or two zones had tickets for as little as $25, with even the most expensive tickets at perhaps half of all sessions being around $50-100.
Prices generally increase from preliminary rounds to finals and at sessions with medal ceremonies, up to about twice the price of the cheapest sessions in that sport, although some like sailing increase little or not at all. Seeing a medal ceremony for $30-50 is possible for perhaps half the sports, and for $50-100 you can get a ticket to almost any session, provided it's available.
(The most expensive cheap ticket to a sporting session that year? Not athletics, aquatics, or gymnastics. Not baseball, either, as you might have guessed for Japan. It was the men's basketball gold medal game, at $188.)
Tickets to the 2020 Paralympic Games were similar, with typical prices around 25-50% lower, and substantially lower demand. Opening Ceremony tickets ran $80-1,500. The cheapest sessions were just $9-20, and even the priciest cheap ticket was only $32. Among all tickets, only a few popular sessions had tickets for $50 or more, and none were more than $70 (for swimming and wheelchair basketball).
The ticket guide will also explain the seating zones in the venue and the prices for each zone. The opening and closing ceremonies may be divided into 5 zones, other popular sessions like athletics and swimming into 2 to 3 zones, and some small venues will only have a single zone. You cannot choose individual seats, only zones; your seats will be assigned somewhere within your zone at a later date (except for general admission sessions), so if you want to sit together, you must purchase the tickets in one transaction.
Prior to sale, each country's reseller will have requested a number of tickets in various zones based on their forecasted demand. Tickets are then allocated among all countries based on their requests as well as a number of other factors. You can expect, for instance, that rich countries like the U.S. will not receive any of the cheapest tickets to the opening ceremonies, as these will be allocated to poorer countries as well as reserved for the host country.
Each ticket must be assigned to a person who must show matching ID to enter the venue, but you don't have to do this when purchasing. The name is entered later, and you can change it up until the day before the session.
Beginning a few months before the Games, an official resale service is available to buy/sell unused tickets. Tickets on this service are at exactly their original price, and the seller pays a handling charge when their ticket is sold.
The official languages of the Olympics, Paralympics, and the IOC are English and French. To some extent, ceremonies are conducted in both languages as well as a primary language of the host country. Realistically, English is the most widely used language, with much information, signage, and announcements only in English (as well as the host country's language, if different).
Sign language is not standardized, and may use the host nation's most common sign language, a sign language lingua franca, or International Sign (which is really just a pidgin form of communication rather than a full language).
Availability of travel accommodation has varied a lot between games. As a general rule: The smaller the city, the bigger the price-gouging.
There are some museums and training facilities related to the Olympics open for tour all year round.
The Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland, 46.508611°, 6.633889°. 2019-08-12
Lake Placid Olympic Museum, 44.2841°, -73.9847°. 2019-08-12
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center, Colorado Springs, 38.8409°, -104.796°. 2019-08-12
Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center, 2800 Olympic Parkway, Chula Vista, California, 32.630701°, -116.937241°, +1 619-656-1500. M-F 9AM-5PM (Sa hours vary by season). Training center for Olympic athletes. Tours available. Tours $5-35/ person ($35 tour includes buffet lunch) 2019-08-12
Besides the Olympic Games, there are also other multi-sport events that are organised loosely based on the format of the Olympics, albeit on a smaller scale. These typically only feature countries in specific regions, or in specific international groupings, and often feature non-Olympic sports that are popular among the participating nations.