Summer Olympics
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) organizes the Summer Olympic Games or the Games of the Olympiad every four years. It is an International event consisting of competitions in multiple sports. A tradition that started in the 1904 Summer Olympics; that Gold medal will be awarded for the first place, silver for the second and bronze for the third continues till today. Each Summer Olympics commence with an Opening Ceremony, the biggest chance to speak to a global audience. Each Ceremony includes speeches, cultural component, and parade of nations and the lighting of the cauldron. The Opening Ceremony of 1996 sticks out from the rest. After a series of competitive athletic competitions, the Summer Olympics ends with an elaborate Closing Ceremony. Closing Ceremony is a large scale celebration to salute the athletes of the whole world.
The first summer Olympics were held in 1896 so they are officially known as the Games of the First Olympiad. It was celebrated in Athens in Greece from 6th April to 15th April and it was the first international Olympic Games of the modern era. The Crown Prince Constantine officially opened it by saying “I declare the opening of the first international Olympic Games in Athens. Long Live the Nation. Long Live the Greek people.” The Panathineiko Stadium, the only Olympic stadium in 19th century, overflowed with huge spectators. A total of 14 nations and 245 athletes (all men) participated. 42 events took place in 9 sports in the First Olympiad. These events were cycling, fencing, gymnastics, swimming, shooting, track, weightlifting, wrestling and tennis. Greece stood first and won 10 first place medals and 47 in total. United States stood second with 19 medals, followed by Germany with 15 medals. Herman Weingartner of Germany won 6 medals and became the individual medal leader. Carl Schuhmann won all four of his events in wrestling and gymnastics and became the first- place medal leader. The 1896 Olympics were recorded as a great success in history despite of the setbacks and hurdles it faced. The Summer Olympics did not return to Greece until 2004.
The IOC planned to move the Games all over the world. Thus next Summer Olympics were held in 1900 at Paris. They are known as the Games of the Second Olympiad. The venue of the Games was Velodrome De Vincennes Stadium and field events were held at a racing club of France. The Paris Olympics are considered as a milestone in the history of Summer Olympics because of the participation and competition of women for the first time. Eleven women competed in lawn tennis, croquet, sailing and golf and Charlotte Cooper became the first women Olympic champion.
The 1916 Olympics were cancelled because of World War 1 and the Olympics of 1940 and 1944 were cancelled because of World War 2. The evolution of the Olympic Games forced to adapt new seasonal Games in 20th century. Aquatics, archery, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, boxing, canoeing, equestrian, football, badminton, sailing, handball, hockey, judo, modern pentathlon, triathlon, diving, volleyball, softball and rowing have been added. Sports like motor boating, polo croquet, tug of war, plunge for distance, cricket, underwater swimming, lacrosse and obstacle race for swimming have been excluded. The summer Olympics have expanded from 42 to 300 sporting events since its inception and the number of participating athletes has increased from 245 to 10,000 from 205 Nations.
Eligibility rules are set by International Sports Federation for the participation in every summer Olympic game. The National Olympic Committee provides the limited list of eligible candidates for each event. The host country is usually automatically eligible for the Games.
A host city for Summer Olympics is usually selected seven years ahead of celebration by the National Olympic Committee. Till today, Olympics have been hosted by 21 countries and most of them are European. The hosts include France, Greece, UK, US, Germany etc. The upcoming Olympics are in 2012 in London. People are anxiously looking forward to it.
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