Olympic Games: Difference between revisions

{{Useful Notes}}

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Originally from [[Ancient Greece]], the games were revived as a concept in 1896.

 

 

Held from 776 BC to AD 393 in (appropriately enough) Olympia, Greece. As with the modern Olympic Games, they were held every four years or ''Olympiad''.

The Games were ultimately banned by Emperor Theodosius I, who established Christianity as the state religion of [[The Roman Empire]] and viewed the Olympics as a pagan festival.

 

 

 

Originally a strictly amateur affair in the truest sense of the word, some early winners literally were just in town and decided to have a go and Jim Thorpe, who won two medals at the 1912 Stockholm Games, was actually stripped of them when it emerged he'd earlier played baseball semi-professionally. He got them back in 1983, thirty years after his death.

The host city for any given Summer Olympics is chosen about seven years in advance by the International Olympic Committee with cities submitting detailed bids, which are voted on in a fairly complex process. Hosting the Olympics is a very expensive thing, although it does give you a nice stadium or three and some vastly improved city infrastructure when you're done.

 

All Games are numbered as the "Games of the [Roman numeral] Olympiad", an Olympiad being a four-year cycle.

 

* IX -- 1928: Amsterdam, Netherlands: First appearance of the Olympic flame.

* X -- 1932: Los Angeles, California: First use of the victory podium.

* XII -- 1940: Tokyo, Japan: Taken from Tokyo when the Second Sino-Japanese War began, then moved to Helsinki, Finland, then definitely cancelled after the [[Second World War]] began. An unofficial POW games was held in Stalag XIII-A though.

* XIII -- 1944: London, England: Cancelled. However, an unofficial POW games was held in Oflag II-C by the Polish prisoners with German permission.

* XXII -- 1980: Moscow, USSR (now Russia): The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan saw a large-scale (65 nations) Western boycott of these games, with some nations only parading under the Olympic Flag, so these Games were dominated by the USSR and [[East Germany]]. A lot of world records got broken, though. These were also the first games in which the opening and closing ceremonies became the expensive, full-blown, almost theatrical events we know today.

* XXIII -- 1984: Los Angeles, California: A smaller Eastern boycott for this one, allowing America to earn its most medals since Saint Louis 1904. Also had a theme by [[John Williams]] that is still played by NBC to this day and a guy fly a jet-pack during the opening ceremonies, and the appearance of a fake UFO during the closing ceremonies. Widely considered the most financially successful Games, according to [[The Other Wiki]].

* XXV -- 1992: Barcelona, Spain: Twelve of the states of the recently defunct USSR competed as a unified team and Yugoslav athletes compete as individuals. This marks the advent of USA Basketball's "Dream Team". Also best-known for having probably the most memorable lighting of the Olympic Flame in history, featuring Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo firing a flaming arrow into the cauldron.

* XXVI -- 1996: Atlanta, Georgia: Touted as a commemoration of the centennial of the Games, though overshadowed by a bomb attack in the Olympic Park. [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|Ruined the career and ultimately prematurely ended the life of the security guard who called in the threat.]] On the brighter side, the Games featured the lighting of the Flame by one of Atlanta's most famous locals: Muhammad Ali, then a 54-year-old with Parkinson's disease.

* XXVIII -- 2004: Athens, Greece: Touted as the "Homecoming Games", this marks Greece's best performance ''since the inception of the games.'' However, these games were notable by the low number of attendance at the events.

* XXIX -- 2008: Beijing, China: A controversial Games, with more than one Torch runner getting attacked by pro-Tibet protesters and the Flame actually being deliberately put out ''three times'' in Paris by security. (Torch relay teams carry a backup lamp, also lit in Athens, for incidents like these.) The main event, though, passed without incident. The record for most medals in one Games was set by Michael Phelps, who won eight golds. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xDhGY-ehYg Usain Bolt set a 100m sprint record] while showboating for the last 20 meters. [[Live but Delayed]]. The dazzling ceremonies of these Games will possibly not be beaten for a long, long time. The opening culminated with Li Ning, 1984 six-time medal-winning gymnast (3 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze) and China's most successful Olympian, literally [[Wire Fu|running through the sky]] with the Torch in hand across a giant scroll which unrolled to reveal the stylized cauldron as he lit the Flame.

 

 

The Winter Olympic Games consist of multiple winter sport events and are held every four years, also excepting 1940 and 1944. The first winter games were held in 1924. Varying sports have been added since, but cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and speed skating have been in every Olympics since 1924. Today's games also feature snowboarding and luge.

The Winter Games were initially held during the same year as the Summer Olympics -- and before [[World War Two]], in the same country. Even now fewer countries tend to participate than do in the Summer Games. However, as the Winter Olympics have grown in popularity the International Olympic Committee decided in 1986 to off-set the Winter Games from the Summer ones. In 1992, both Summer and Winter Olympics were held, but in different nations. The next Winter Olympics were held in 1994, and the next Summer Olympics in 1996.

 

Unlike the Summer Olympics, which count the Olympiad whether the games occurred in them or not, the Roman numerals of the Winter Olympics count only the games.

 

* X -- 1968: Grenoble, France

* XI -- 1972: Sapporo, Japan: Sapporo won rights to the 1940 Winter Games but initially resigned after the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. The Games were later canceled altogether due to the war. These games were the first time Japan had ever won gold in any Winter Games.

* XIII -- 1980: Lake Placid, New York: Famous for the "Miracle on Ice", in which the motley American ice hockey team [[We Do the Impossible|defeated the heavily favored USSR team]] (which had beaten them 10-3 two weeks prior) en route to a gold medal.

* XIV -- 1984: Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina): British ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean skated to ''Bolero'' and promptly earned the only perfect set of marks ever given to anyone in any discipline of figure skating ever. They are now British national heroes.

* XX -- 2006: Turin, Italy: When you are about to win a gold medal, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quQODOvrWMs&feature=related don't be showy].<ref>Unless you're Usain Bolt, of course</ref> This also marks the last public performance of legendary Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who performed "Nessun Dorma" at the end of the opening ceremony -- a year before he died of pancreatic cancer.

* XXI -- 2010: Vancouver, British Columbia: The Winter Games that ended Canada's dry spell when it comes to gold medals on home games, starting with Alexandre Bilodeau in men's moguls, followed by thirteen others, culminating in winning gold for two of Canada's most beloved sports -- men's curling and ice hockey. This broke the record for most golds at a single games, which had been previously shared by Norway and the Soviet Union.

 

 

Like the regular Olympics, but for blind and physically disabled athletes. Held after the main Olympics. The name means that they run ''parallel'' to the regular Games, not that it's for the paralysed. Do not confuse them with the Special Olympics, which is a competition for mentally handicapped athletes that's styled after the Olympics but unaffiliated.

 

* ''[[Million Dollar Legs]]'', a largely forgotten W.C. Fields classic, is all about getting [[Ruritania|Ruritanian]] citizens to participate in the 1932 Olympics.

* ''[[Chariots of Fire]]'' (technically not fiction, but they did take a few liberties ...)

* Miranda Frost in ''[[Die Another Day]]'' won a gold medal at Sydney by default when her opponent died of a steroids overdose arranged by Gustav Graves.

* ''[[Cool Runnings]]''

* ''Pierre et Isa'', a [[Western Animation|French animated series]] about Winter Olympics.

* A ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' storyline was set at the "[[Bland-Name Product|Sydney World Games]]". The story involved the former Arrowette entering the archery competition, and Zandia (an island nation whose population consists entirely of supervillains taking advantage of its lack of extradition laws) entering, so Cassie was competing against [[Green Arrow|Merlyn]] and [[Justice Society of America|Artemis]].

 

* [[Accidental Athlete]]: In 1900, the Dutch rowers brought a French boy to replace their too-heavy coxswain. They won the gold medal, but to this day no one knows who the kid was.

* [[All-Star Cast]]

* [[Continuity Nod]]: The Marathon event in the Athens 2004 Summer Games followed the same route as the 1896 event (starting at... [[wikipedia:Marathon, Greece|Marathon]], in reference to the legendary origin of said race).

* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] / [[Executive Meddling]]: The IOC frequently finds itself at the center of scandals. Most recently, the IOC has [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/sports/olympics/22skijump.html repeatedly barred women from competing in ski jumping], for reasons that seem more and more ridiculous the closer they are examined. (This fact is used as a key plotline in the manga [[Nononono]], for instance.) However recent decisions have allowed women to do so in the next Winter Games.

* [[Crack Defeat]]: The 1988 games provided a former [[Trope Namer]] from boxing: Roy Jones, Jr. was controversially beaten by Si-Hun Park by decision in a gold medal bout that saw Jones dominate his South Korean opponent.

** The Japanese wanting ''[[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|Hiroshima and Nagasaki]]'' as co-host cities, even though it's not allowed. I believe they've reduced it to just Nagasaki.

*** However, Hiroshima ''did'' host the 1994 Asian Games.

* [[Dark Horse Victory]]: Plenty to choose from, but the 1992 Olympics provided the former [[Trope Namer]] in Robert Zmelik of Czechoslovakia, who won the decathlon...after American audiences had been treated to an ad campaign hyping "Dan (O'Brien, who eventually didn't qualify) vs. Dave (Johnson, who took the bronze)."

* [[Diabolus Ex Machina]]/[[Downer Ending]]/[[Kill'Em All]]: [[wikipedia:Munich massacre|"They're all gone..."]]

* [[Everything's Better with Sparkles]]: Ice skating, gymnastics (at least the women's), synchronized swimming, opening and closing ceremonies.

** [[The Scapegoat]]: Coca-Cola, the IOC sponsor headquartered in Atlanta, denied helping the bid. The Greeks still retaliated by breaking bottles of Coke, draining it down the sewers, and stopping consumption in way it would take years to recover.

* [[Go-Karting with Bowser]]: When rival countries are on bad terms with one another, matches between the two fall under this. US vs. Soviets is the classic example.

* [[Opposing Sports Team]] / [[Designated Villain]]: Team USA. While some of America's athletes are still rooted on and gain a fandom from other countries, not many become too pleased when the US wins the Gold Medal Count...but rejoice if they reach second or less in the gold medal count. And then there's the overall vs gold debate like was mentioned above. It is not uncommon; and pretty ironic, to see this hatedom root for another "superpower" like China or Russia just to see the US lose.

** When [[Sidney Crosby]] scored the "Gold Medal Goal"...well let's just say that the cheers weren't just for Canada winning. Saying that [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|And The Hatedom Rejoiced]] was something of an understatement.

** The closing ceremony centers around a handoff from the host city to the next one. Sometimes it's something of an inversion, particularly in 2000 - Sydney was still a frontier when the modern Olympics started and its' [[Eiffel Tower Effect|most famous landmark]] was a construction site during the lifetimes' of many of that year's athletes <ref> The Sydney Opera House opened in 1974</ref>, while Athens was the birthplace of the Ancient Olympics and the Parthenon was already a ruin in the time of Christ.

* [[Product Placement]] / [[Product Displacement]]: While the Olympics themselves are an increasingly commercial affair, athletes are forbidden from wearing any logos other then their own country's and the equipment manufacturers' trademark. In fact, until fairly recently you couldn't show the trademark, either. Jean-Claude Killy raised considerable controversy in 1968 by failing to hide the Head mark on his skis in post-competition photos. Some people still believe he was paid.

** Several members of the USA Men's Basketball 1992 "Dream Team" (the first with all professional players) came out for the medal ceremony [[Wearing a Flag on Your Head|draped in American Flags]]. This was to cover up the Reebock sponsor's logo on their official Olympics warmup suits; they had exclusive contracts with Nike or Converse to only wear items with ''their'' logo on it, but couldn't not wear the official garments.

** It gets a little weird with the snowboarders since the logos on the undersides of their board are gigantic compared to tiny Nike swooshes and adidas "leaves".

* [[The Rival]]/[[Fandom Rivalry]]: Rivalries are huge in sports, and the Olympics are no exception. Some notables include USA vs. the Soviet Union, USA vs. Russia, USA vs. China, USA vs. Canada, Norway vs. Sweden, Nancy Kerrigan vs. Tonya Harding, Maria Riesch vs. Lindsey Vonn, any Korean Speedskater vs. Apolo Anton Ohno, etc...

* [[Turncoat]]: It's not rare to see someone abandoning its native country for an Olympic spot (e.g. the 2008 male beach volleyball bronze medal match was between a Brazilian team and a Georgian team... composed of Brazilians!<ref>using the names "Geor"/"Gia"</ref>).

* [[Unnecessary Roughness]]: To keep in two examples, in 1996 the Cuban female volleyball team got in a fight with the Brazilian one; and in 2008 a Cuban taekwondo fighter [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CecGsG_4yoc kicked the referee after losing]!

** It can become a bit uncomfortable if you accidentally put your headband on upside-down and your country isn't [http://www.flags.net/AUST.htm Austria], [http://www.flags.net/BNGL.htm Bangladesh], [http://www.flags.net/BOTS.htm Botswana], [http://www.flags.net/JAMA.htm Jamaica], [http://www.flags.net/JAPA.htm Japan], [http://www.flags.net/LAOS.htm Laos], [http://www.flags.net/LATV.htm Latvia], [http://www.flags.net/LBYA.htm Libya] (well, for now anyway), [http://www.flags.net/NGRA.htm Nigeria], or [http://www.flags.net/THAL.htm Thailand].

** Averted by Australia: Australian athletes wear mostly green and gold, Australia's national colours, but these colours appear nowhere on the Australian flag (which is red, white and blue).

 

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[[Category:Sporting Event]]