Isn’t the Olympics season something that sparks interest in sports fans? It is time to see the rarest of games, watch your favorite sports personalities deliver their best. Another thing that makes Olympics games interesting is because you have to wait four years to watch your next Olympics. If they took place every year, they would be boring.
When Olympics games are approaching, we can’t keep our eyes off the count down. We want to see which countries are coming, make our predictions and anticipate the opening ceremony.
However, there are a lot of facts that sports lovers may not know about Olympics games. Read on.
Gold Medals Are Comprised Mostly of Silver
There is a popular belief that gold medals are made of gold. This is far from the truth; rather gold medals are made entirely of silver with about 6 grams of gold to meet the Olympic charter standard.
Gold medals since 1912 are just an impostor but in reality made of silver. The 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea featured the heaviest gold medals weighing 586 grams.
The Olympic Torch Relay Isn’t an Ancient Tradition
The Torch Relay has its traces its roots in the controversial 1936 Berlin Olympics. It is said the Olympic Games Chief Organizer, Carl Diem conceived of the relay as a Nazi Party propaganda tool to showcase the supremacy of the Aryan race.
It then passed through Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Austria who all succumbed to Nazi rule within a period of 10 years.
Only One Person Has Won Gold in Both Winter and Summer Olympics
It’s an American named Eddie Eagan that has made this record. Eagan took home a boxing gold in 1920 and later still earned a gold medal during the 1932 Lake Placid Games. He was playing in the team bobsled event.
At Least One Color of the Olympic Rings Colors Must Appear in Each National Flag
The Modern Olympic movement founder, Baron Pierre developed the five-ringed symbol. He specifically chose the various colors which make up the five-ringed symbol.
They are blue, green, yellow black and red. He came up with this selection of colors because all the national flags in the world contain at least one of these colors.
Only Five Countries Have Participated in Every Modern-era Summer Olympic Games
In the recent years, only five countries have participated in every summer Olympic Games. The countries are Switzerland, Great Britain, Greece, France and Australia.
Two Athletes Have Won Gold While Competing For two Different Nations
In 1908, Daniel Carrol won gold while playing rugby representing Australia. He then won gold the second time in 1920 while representing the United States.
The second player is Kakhi Kakhiashvilli who won his first gold in men’s weightlifting playing as part of the unified team in Barcelona Games that took place in 1992. He later won gold again as a Greek citizen during the 1996 and 2000 Olympics.
Ancient Athletes in Early Olympic Games Competed in the Nude
Did you know that the word ‘gymnasium’ originated in Greek and is related to the Greek word ‘gymnos’ meaning ‘nude’? Therefore, it means the actual translation of gymnasium is ‘school for naked exercise’. This implies that ancient athletes in the first Olympic Games competed nude.
The Youngest Olympian in the Modern Olympics was Aged 10
The youngest recorded Olympian to participate in the modern Olympics was aged 10. He is called Dimitrios Loundras, and he played in the Athens Olympics of 1896.
Other young Olympians are diver Marjorie Gestring who competed aged 13 and is the youngest female athlete in history. Kusuo Kitamura is another young swimmer who competed aged 14.
Bottom Line
There are lots of surprising facts about Olympics Games that most sports enthusiasts don’t know about. Did you know the ancient Olympic Games were played nude? What of the fact that each national flag contains at least one color of the Olympic symbol?
