About the Olympics

• In Antiquity, the Olympic Games were celebrated as a religious festival from 776 B.C. until 393 A.D., when Theodosius I banned them because they were associated with paganism (the games celebrated the Greek god Zeus). The first modern Olympic Games (summer) were held in 1896 (again in Greece) after the French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin proposed the revival of the ancient tradition. The first winter Olympic Games were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France.

• The Olympics were held every four years until 1994. Since then, the winter and summer games have alternated every two years.

• Three continents — Africa, Antarctica, and South America — have never hosted an Olympics, but South America is on its way out of this list with Rio de Janeiro hosting the Summer Olympics in 2016.

• The five Olympic rings represent the five major regions of the world — Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceana, and every national flag in the world includes one of the five colors, which are (from left to right) blue, yellow, black, green, and red.

• Here are the Summer Olympic sports: aquatics (diving, swimming, synchronized swimming, water polo), archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, canoe/kayak (slalom, sprint), cycling (cycling BMX, cycling road, cycling track, mountain bike), equestrian (dressage, evening, jumping), fencing, football, golf, gymnastics (artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline), handball, hockey, judo, modern pentathlon, rowing, rugby, sailing, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, volleyball (beach volleyball, volleyball), weightlifting, wrestling (Greco-Roman, freestyle).

• The winter Olympic sports are: biathlon, bobsleigh (bobsleigh, bobsleigh skeleton), curling, ice hockey, luge, skating (figure skating, short track speed skating, speed skating), skiing (alpine skiing, cross country skiing, freestyle skiing, Nordic skiing, ski jumping, snowboard).