The Olympic Games Free Bets
Olympic Games History
The Modern Day Olympics have been thrilling sports fans since 1896 when the International Olympic Committee staged the Games. Considering the history of the Olympic Games, it was fitting that those games took place in Athens, Greece where the event had been staged from the 8th century BC and the 4th century AD.
Since 1896 the Olympics have been held every four years apart from when the two World Wars made it impossible for them to be staged. As well as the Summer Olympics, there are also the Winter Olympics that were first held in 1924. Initially they were held in the winter before the summer Olympics were due to take place but are now held two years after the previous Summer Olympics.. Another recent addition is the Paralympics take place after the Winter and Summer Olympics in the same host country.
2020 Summer Olympic Games Taking Place in 2021
The next Summer Olympic Games will be held between 23 July and 8 August. The decision to give the games to Tokyo was taken in 2013 and will be the first time the city has staged the Summer Olympics since 1964 and will be the fourth Olympic Games to be held in the country of Japan as they also held the Winter Olympics in 1972 and 1988.
Several new sports being introduced into the Summer Olympic Games. 3x3 Basketball, Freestyle BMX and Madison Cycling will be making their debuts and more mixed events will be held. There will also be Karate, Sport Climbing, Surfing, Skateboarding (yes, really), Baseball and Softball. There was even a campaign to introduce Bingo as an Olympic sport but thankfully that hasn't been approved.
Recent Summer Olympics
2016 -Rio
The Games of the XXXI Olympiad were held in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. It was a controversial choice as the Games would be held just two years after the country had hosted the Football World Cup putting a lot of financial pressure on Brazil. More than 11,000 competitors took part in the Games in 28 sports. The leading gold medal winners were;
- 46 United States
- 27 Great Britain
- 26 China
- 25 Russia
- 17 Germany
- 12 Japan
Overall, The USA won more medals than any other team with 121 followed by China with 70 and Great Britain on 67. The UK's total was their best medal haul in an overseas Summer Olympics. They became the first nation to increase their medal tally in the games after hosting it and the first to increase the number of medals won in five consecutive Summer Olympics.
2012 - London
2012 saw London host the Olympic Games for the third time and the first since 1948. The games were awarded to London in 2005 and the games took place between July 25 when the women's football tournament began, not in London but Cardiff and continued until August 12.
A new Olympic stadium and several other sports arenas were built in the east part of London and have been used since the games, with the now London Stadium the home of West Ham United FC and hosting the World Athletics Championships in 2017.
The event began with an opening ceremony that included everything from Mr Bean to James Bond and 'the Queen' jumping out of a helicopter. Around 10,700 competitors took part in what was the largest multi-sport event ever held in the country. 79 countries won at least one medal of some sort and the leading gold medal winners were
- 46 United States
- 38 China
- 29 Great Britain
- 20 Russia
- 13 South Korea
- 11 Germany and France
Overall it was the USA who won the most medals with 103, just 12 ahead of China. Russia won a dubious total of 69 medals and Great Britain 65 winning medals in 17 sports.