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7/31/2019 Olympic Fun Facts - Information (Reading)
1/3
Martin Sketchley ELT Experiences (www.eltexperiences.com)
Fact Monster 2012 - http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0771580.html
The early Olympic Games were celebrated as a religious festival from 776 B.C.
until 393 A.D., when the games were banned for being a pagan festival (the
Olympics celebrated the Greek god Zeus). In 1894, a French educator Baron
Pierre de Coubertin, proposed a revival of the ancient tradition, and thus the
modern-day Olympic Summer Games were born.
Host Greece won the most medals (47) at the first Olympic Summer Games in
1896.
The first Winter Olympic Games were held in Chamonix, France in 1924.
Norway has won the most medals (263) at the Winter Games.
The United States has won more medals (2,189) at the Summer Games than
any other country.
The five Olympic rings represent the five major regions of the world Africa,
the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceana, and every national flag in the world
includes one of the five colours, which are (from left to right) blue, yellow,
black, green, and red.
Up until 1994 the Olympics were held every four years. Since then, the Winter
and Summer games have alternated every two years.
The first Olympics covered by U.S. television was the 1960 Summer Games in
Rome by CBS.
7/31/2019 Olympic Fun Facts - Information (Reading)
2/3
Martin Sketchley ELT Experiences (www.eltexperiences.com)
Fact Monster 2012 - http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0771580.html
No country in the Southern Hemisphere has ever hosted a Winter Games.
Three continents Africa, South America, and Antarctica have never hosted
an Olympics.
A record 202 countries participated in the 2004 Olympic Summer Games in
Athens.
Only four athletes have ever won medals at both the Winter and Summer
Olympic Games: Eddie Eagan (United States), Jacob Tullin Thams (Norway),
Christa Luding-Rothenburger (East Germany), and Clara Hughes (Canada).
Speed skater Bonnie Blair has won six medals at the Olympic Winter Games.
That's more than any other American athlete.
Nobody has won more medals at the Winter Games than cross-country skier
Bjorn Dhlie of Norway, who has 12.
Larrisa Latynina, a gymnast from the former Soviet Union, finished her Summer
Olympic Games career with 18 total medalsthe most in history.
The United States Olympic Committee established the U.S. Olympic Hall ofFame in 1983 to recognize outstanding American Olympic athletes, however, a
plan to build a hall has been suspended due to lack of funding.
7/31/2019 Olympic Fun Facts - Information (Reading)
3/3
Martin Sketchley ELT Experiences (www.eltexperiences.com)
Fact Monster 2012 - http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0771580.html
The Summer Olympic sports are archery, badminton, basketball, beach
volleyball, boxing, canoe / kayak, cycling, diving, equestrian, fencing, field
hockey, gymnastics, handball, judo, modern pentathlon (shooting, fencing,
swimming, show jumping, and running), mountain biking, rowing, sailing,
shooting, soccer, swimming, synchronized swimming, table tennis, taekwondo,tennis, track and field, triathlon (swimming, biking, running), volleyball, water
polo, weightlifting, and wrestling.
The Winter Olympic sports are alpine skiing, biathlon (cross-country skiing and
target shooting), bobsled, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle
skiing, ice hockey, luge, Nordic combined (ski jumping and cross-country skiing),
skeleton, ski jumping, snowboarding, and speed skating.