Olympic Games: Difference between revisions

* 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.

* XXII -- 2014: Sochi, Russia

 

=== The Paralympic Games ===

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

* ''[[Rainbow Six]]'' involves a plot to start a global plague via the air conditioning at the Sydney opening ceremony. Clancy failed to realise the games actually took place in the Australian winter.

* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "Fear Her" is set around the 2012 Opening Ceremony.

* ''[[Cool Runnings]]''

* ''[[Asterix|Asterix at the Olympic Games]]''

* ''Going For The Gold'' by [[Emma Lathen]] is set at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics.

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

* ''[[Animalypics]]'' a 1980 animation originally broadcast it's Winter Games segment on NBC TV, but the summer edition was canceled after the boycott. Latter reorganized into a film, but the summer half still suffered from the lack of completed animation.

* An episode of ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' has him invent the Greek Olympics, with the usual [[Anachronism Stew]] including a modern Olympic torch.

 

* [[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.

* [[Determinator]]/[[Refuge in Audacity]]:

* [[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..."]]

* [[Executive Meddling]]: Everyone thought the Centennial Games would be where the games originated, Athens. While Greece was lacking infrastructure at the time, the Atlanta bidding comittee won mostly from being... "[[Money, Dear Boy|helpful]]".

** [[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.

* [[Handicapped Badass]]: The Paraolympians, epecially medal winners, ''especially'' in combat sports like Judo and Fencing.

* [[He-Man Woman Hater]]: Kinda... Pierre de Coubertin left the IOC because he thought female athletes were a betrayal to the Olympic ideal (the [[Ancient Greece]] games had only men).

** [[Take That]]: In Sydney 2000, the Olympic Torch [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T28v3DA2LlE ran its last stage by seven of Australia's most successful female athletes] (also a tribute to a hundred years of women's participation in the Games)... four-time gold-medalist runner Betty Cuthbert (in a wheelchair pushed by fellow runner, three-time silver-medalist runner Raelene Boyle), eight-medal swimmer Dawn Fraser, seven-medal runner Shirley Strickland, 1972 five-time medalist swimmer Shane Gould and 1988 gold-winning hurdler Debbie Flintoff-King... before handing it off to 1996 silver-medal runner Cathy Freeman as a women's chorus sang. If there is such a thing as a Crowning Moment of Goddessness, this was it. Freeman herself would win her gold during these Games.

* [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged]]: The Paralympics, though some commentators are aware of this and try to avert it.

* [[Misplaced Nationalism]]: Nationalism is quite a serious matter when it comes to the Olympics. Rooting for your countrymen can be subject to you being trolled [[Internet Backdraft|on the internet]], especially if you root for a high medal nation like the United States or China.

* [[Just for Pun]]: In the opening ceremonies, the Bermuda team traditionally wears Bermuda ''shorts''.

** 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.

*** Similarly, the Brazilian Olympic comittee is sponsored by local brand Olympikus ([[Hilarious in Hindsight|yes]]), but the soccer confederation by Nike. Every time the soccer team needs deals to be able to use Nike apparel.

** 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".

* [[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).