101 Facts About The Olympics

good evenings and welcome to this week's gold edition of 101 facts my name is sam and today we're here to talk about the most prestigious sporting event in the world it's been around for centuries and continues to enthrall spectators no not my competitive beyblade league i'm talking about the olympics but why were the olympics originally a naked event what olympic symbol is carried by camel canoes and even by satellites and did anyone believe that those gold medals were actually those big chocolate coins and you could eat them upon winning no me neither lol two anto through those christians are going to be answered so get training to become the very best like no one ever was oh no that's something else get ready to train for many sports so you end up on dem podiums with 101 facts about the olympics number one when and how exactly did the olympics begin well it's a long story indeed in fact the first written record of the olympic games dates back to 776 bc in greece a cook named kurobus became the first olympic champion by winning a 192 meter foot race called the stade the only event in the competition at the time number two the first olympics were actually part of what were known as classical games greek sporting festivals across the country among the most important were the pythian games at delphi the nemean games and the mia and the isthmian games at corinth number three originally the games all took place in one day but as the amount of sports grew it ended up being impossible without you know time travel or whatever and so it grew to four days a fifth day was also added to hold the closing ceremony presentation of prizes and a banquet for the champions number four by 724 bce the games included the dial loss a two length race roughly similar to the 400 meter race in 720 bce they added the deletejos a long distance race think of an ancient 1 500 5000 meter event number five wrestling in the pentathlon would make their big debut in 708 bce at which point the games consisted of five events the long jump the javelin throw the discus throw a foot race and wrestling number six over the next decade chariot racing and even boxing joined the olympics but if you think boxing's rough it was actually a piece of cake compared to back then when the brutal sport was actually pancration added to the competition in 648 bce number seven in fact the contest which combined wrestling boxing and street fighting allowed kicking and hitting a downed opponent i mean it feels like there's no rules but there was one rule though they weren't allowed to bite and they weren't allowed to thrust fingers into eyes number eight anywho the ancient greeks created the games in honor of the godzeus the king of olympus the games were held every four years in olympia in the western peloponnese peninsula number nine though the first documented olympics were in 776 bc it's believed that the games have taken place on many years before this according to one legend it was heracles yep that's him hunkily's son of zeus and alkamine that founded the games number 10 the ancient games lasted from the 8th century bc to the 4th century a.d and their influence became so huge that some ancient historians used to measure time by the four-year increments between the olympic games number 11 back then athletes actually competed while um stark ball naked apparently this was because competing men believed that being naked and not um being visibly excited demonstrated incredible self-control number 12 which brings us to an extremely outdated fact that back in the olden days of your women were not allowed to compete in the olympics yep even the open-minded ancient grecians told the ladies to jog on just you know not on a track number 13 that being said at various points women were allowed to compete in local athletic competitions but they weren't allowed to compete in the big games sexist in it number 14 women were not the only ones banned from participating in the games the olympics were strictly limited to greek born competitors so no foreigners allowed maybe those forward-thinking greeks weren't as forward-thinking as we thought number 15. but anyway back to the nude men which is the sentence i've never thought saying a one-on-one video all my life actually whilst for some the nudity was a demonstration of self-control for others it marked a rite of passage left over from the olden days of hunting and gathering number 16 apparently to them nudity had a magical power to ward off harm sure guys sure it was also considered a costume of the upper class so it was probably a statement in that respect too to be fair greece is also just really hot so the less clothes the better number 17 but anyway statement or not when rome conquered greece in the 2nd century bce the olympics changed drastically for one thing they the romans considered nudity in public to be extremely degrading so athletes had to start wearing pants number 18 as for the games themselves they kind of fell off within the next century greece had lost its independence and rome looked on athletes with contempt it was inevitable really that they were just going to fall off the face of the earth number 19. it took literally ages to bring back the olympics in fact the idea of creating a modern version of the games only came into the second half of the 19th century pierre baron de cubonta and dr william penny brooks are among its pioneers number 20. the two men who both had the desire of recreating the ancient games met in 1890 and eventually managed to develop the british olympiad number 21 the first edition of the british games was held in london in 1866 and apparently it was a success lots of athletes and probably more importantly lots of spectators too number 22 however the following additions didn't go as well the public got bored and the attendance dropped not to mention rival sporting groups which opposed the event strongly number 23 at that point an idea started to develop like a little seed in brooks's mind how about an international olympics held in athens in the country where everything started brooks knew already that greek olympiads were working in fact he took inspiration from them when developing the british ones number 24. you see the greek olympics were first held in athens in 1859 where they were founded by evangelist zappos who in turn got the idea from the greek poet i'm going to ruin this i'm sorry panagiotis salt sauce number 25. salt sauce have been promoting the idea of a modern olympiad since 1833 but the idea got picked up by a frenchman named pierre baron de cubartar who after meeting dr brooks decided to launch his own olympic revival campaign whilst conveniently forgetting about his research with brooks and other competitions can happen number 26 so in 1892 cobarton claimed the idea of reviving the olympic games at the union to sports athletic in paris asking for their help in getting the plans off the ground number 27 kubantan's proposal was eventually accepted by the union but under one condition the games would be held in paris not athens this was agreed in 1894 with the game scheduled to take place in 1900 six years in the future number 28 well here's where we have a bit of a plot twist because someone decided to move things around and hold the first modern olympic games four years prior in 1896 in athens home of the olympics to this day we still don't know who orchestrated this absolutely baller move number 29 before the games could open though they needed some structure and organization which came in the form of the international olympic committee the committee had 14 members plus kubota and together they essentially oversaw the events and came up with the regulations and such you know all the fun stuff number 30 in the 1896 olympics 13 nations competed in 43 events including gymnastics swimming wrestling cycling tennis weightlifting shooting fencing and track and field oh no track and field i mean only 13 nations competed with a total of 280 athletes all of whom were male and amateurs number 31 yep you heard that right amateurs until almost a century later in 1984 professional athletes were not allowed to compete in the olympics the games only allowed amateur athletes to take part number 32 you might be wondering where the cut-off is between an amateur and a professional well basically if athletes wanted to compete in the olympics they wouldn't be allowed to get compensation also known as paid for being an athlete number 33 in 1984 this rule effectively came to an end when the olympic committee allowed professional football and tennis players to compete in the 1984 los angeles olympics and it's been pro pro pro ever since since number 34. as for women they couldn't compete in the 1896 athens olympics but in the 1900 paris games 22 women were amongst the 997 athletes look it's not equal but it was a start they competed in tennis sailing croquet not to be confused with the potato snack equestrianism and golf number 35 the first few olympic games were not successful though they struggled to get support especially against the far more popular world fairs it wasn't until the 1924 paris olympics that they'd see success this olympics saw 3 000 athletes from 44 nations competing number 36 1924 was also the first year of the winter olympics held in germany also in france the events included in this first winter games were bobsleigh curling ice hockey nordic skiing which includes cross-country and jumping and skating both figure and speed number 37 before we get ahead of ourselves though it's worth mentioning that in the 1912 stockholm games there were also events for artists these were paintings sculpture architecture literature and music and there was only one rule present original artworks inspired by athletic endeavors number 38 they also had to be amateurs like their athletic counterparts american sharpshooter walter wernanz was one of the more diverse competitors from these games he previously won the gold medal in the 1908 london olympics and the silver in 1912. number 39. but during the 1912 games he told he'd also try his hand at art creating a 20-inch bronze horse pulling a chariot with this piece called an american trotter winnings became the first ever gold medalist for sculpture number fourteen the only other competitor to have won medals in both sports and art is hungarian alfred jejos who won two gold medals in the 1896 athens olympics and swimming events and 28 years later in 1924 would win a silver medal in architecture for his stadium design alongside deso number 41 another art legend who hit the olympic record books is john copley who in 1948 won a silver medal for his engraving called polo players mr copley was 73 years old at the time of his win making him the oldest olympic medal winner in history the meaning of life art olympics would continue for four decades eventually coming to an end in 1952. a total of 151 medals were given out for artistic works during this time though they no longer count towards country's total medal counts awkward number 43 in case you were wondering it was germany who held the most arty medals with a total of 23 including seven golds italy hell taken place in france third with 14 total medals and five golds each but italy had more silvers number 44 whilst art would no longer be a part of the competitive side of the games the ioc did decide to replace the events with a non-competitive art exhibition that would coincide with the games which would be called the cultural olympiad number 45. honestly i can't see when or why the cultural olympiads kind of fizzled out but it did until us brits brought it back with a vengeance in the 2012 olympics with a theme of sport and olympic values of excellence friendship and respect number 46 cash prizes were awarded for submitted artworks and some of the best pieces were displayed in london during the games at the london 2012 festival which cost more than 97 million pounds to put on number 47. but anyway we're skipping ahead again since the revival of the olympics in 1896 each olympiad has been numbered even when the games didn't go ahead number 48 yep sometimes the olympics had to be cancelled the first was bull in 1916 due to the first world war and again for tokyo and helsinki in 1940 and london in 1944 due to the second world war i hear world wars kind of put a dampener on things number 49. you might be confused by tokyo and helsinki being host for the 1940 games and that would be fair because they're not exactly next door to each other tokyo was the original winner of the olympic bid that year but the war meant they had to forfeit with the ioc awarding the games to helsinki until once again the threat of war suspended it indefinitely number 50. before that though the 1936 olympics held in berlin during the rise of the nazi party was used as a political opportunity for that well-known roman rights chancellor adolf hitler to promote his ideals of racial supremacy and anti-semitism honestly what a dick number 51 originally hitler wanted the game to be populated by aryans only because he was a butt but after a number of countries threatened to boycott the games if he went ahead with this he did a sharp u-turn on that decision number 52 four years later in 1940 prisoners in a camp near nuremberg germany held their own olympics these were held in secret from their captors the prisoners created a flag using a polish prisoner's shirt and used crayons to draw on the olympic rings number 53 the sportsmen from belgium france great britain norway poland russia and yugoslavia swore an oath during the opening of their games that said in the name of all the sportsmen who stadiums are fenced with barbed wire number 54. in 1944 with the cancellation of the london games a group of prisoners of war in waldenberg also decided to hold the road olympics in prison but with permission from the guards this time they made an olympic flag using spare bed sheets and had around 369 competitors out of roughly 7 000 prisoners number 55 because of some obvious security issues some events like javelin archery and fencing were banned but lots of games like soccer basketball volleyball running events and even chess were included number 56 in 1972 the olympic games returned to germany but sadly the games aren't what's remembered about this olympiad in the final week of the games a group of palestinians called black september kidnapped and killed 11 israeli coaches and athletes number 57 the purpose of the attack was an attempt to free 234 palestinian prisoners held in israeli jails of course the olympic games were put on hold while this went on but ioc president avery brundich declared that the games must go on and so after a memorial ceremony for those who lost their lives they did exactly that number 58 the 1980 olympics in moscow would see the usa and a number of their allies boycotting the games after the soviet invasion of afghanistan they were joined by canada west germany and japan but president carter didn't manage to convince great britain france greece or australia though france didn't participate in the opening ceremony number 59 a total of 65 invited countries did not attend the 1980 olympics though not all out of support for the boycott china for example boycotted the games because the ioc refused to enter taiwan as chinese taipei number 60. four years later at the los angeles olympics in 1984 the soviets retaliated by boycotting those games alongside 15 other countries including afghanistan czechoslovakia east germany hungary poland north korea and vietnam number 61 for those of you who haven't kept up to date with the news lately and believe me you're in bliss we were supposed to have an olympic games last year in 2020 the tokyo games were postponed due to the covert 19 pandemic but our schedule to take place this month which by the way for those in the future is july of 2021 number 62 whilst the games are seemingly back on originally they wanted to include a limited capacity of spectators but an increasing rate of infection meant that japanese prime minister yoshihide sugar decided to ban all spectators number 63 but back to some more cheery facts eh remember our pal kobata well it's commonly believed that in 1913 he created the rings of the olympic symbol who can tell if you nicked that idea as well though but i shan't speculate nintendo 64. according to the man himself the five rings and their colors along with the white background represented the colors of the competing nations at the time number 65 of course the games are now significantly bigger and the olympic rings now signify the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from across the world number 66 from unity to corruption oh yes the olympic committee are no strangers to scandal in their history one of the first was in 1998 when the ioc was charged with bribery after members accepted a number of bribes including cash gifts travel expenses medical expenses and even college tuition for members children number 67 members were also bribed by the salt lake organising committee which advanced and won their bid for the 2002 winter olympic games this scandal caused the ioc to expel six of their members as well as the resignation of several others number 68 this scandal caused a huge 50-point reform of the ioc in 1999 which covered the selection and conduct of ioc members the bid process financial dealings and drug regulation and established an independent ioc ethics commission number 69 i'll scratch my back you scratch yours no what in 1999 reform also set the maximum ioc membership to 115 members made up of 70 individuals 15 current olympic athletes 15 national olympic committee presidents and 15 international sports federation presidents number 17 the president of the ioc is elected and serves for eight years after this they can run again but will only serve in terms of four years all olympic committee members must retire at the age of 70 as well because old people famously suddenly forget how sports work when they hit 70. number 71 back to drunks now because one of the most famous olympic scandals was caused by exactly this back in the 1960s when athletes were untested danish coach olaf jorgensen gave his entire cycling team amphetamines which alongside heat stroke allegedly caused the death of 23 year old cyclist nude jensen number 72 despite this it wasn't until 1968 that the ioc made drug testing mandatory and swedish pentathlete hans gunner legend became the first olympian to fail the drunk test after gusting two beers before his event to calm his nerves he was disqualified and his teammates were even forced to return their medals number 73 doping would continue to be a hot topic throughout olympic history another one of the biggest scandals was the canadian 100 meter sprinter ben johnson who after smashing the 100 meter world record in 9.79 seconds tested positive for stanislaus a synthetic steroid that got him disqualified number 74 with all these scandals that 1999 reform saw the ioc create the world anti-doping agency which have been in charge of the testing process and regulation of banned substances for the olympic games number 75 then have a busy year in 2016 after the entire russian track and field team tested positive for banned substances getting them banned from the rio de janeiro olympics and uncovering a state-supported doping ring there's a netflix documentary about it and everything number 76 anyway back some cheerio facts although hopefully i mean it this time did you know that the olympic gold medals aren't actually gold they haven't been since 1912. probably after realizing how ludicrous the expensive that'd be nowadays they're made up of 93 silver 6 copper and the remaining 6 grams is gold gold believe in your soul etc number 77 speaking of gold medals they didn't even exist in the first two modern olympic games in the 1896 and 1900 games they only awarded silver medals and the gold silver bronze tears were only established in 1904 crazy number 78 the tradition of lighting the olympic flame has been around since the ancient greek games in olympia and has been carried forward into the modern games keeping a lot of the original rituals intact the flame starts its journey in olympia before making its way to the host city number 79 this tradition wasn't brought back until the controversial 1936 berlin olympics though we saw the flame carried through greece bulgaria yugoslavia hungary austria and czechoslovakia before reaching germany all of those countries would fall to a certain regime within the next decade i said cheerio fact number 80 but anyway the olympic flame itself represents the story of prometheus who stole fire from zeus and the gods on behalf of humankind it also serves as a symbol of life and competitive spirit number 81 the fire is lit using a parabolic mirror which intensifies the sun's rays and lights the silver torch it's done this way to show purity and they even have a backup safety lamp in case the clowns roll in on the day number 82 this lit torch is actually not the same one they use in the relays this solid silver torch is inspired by the design of the pillars in the temple of the goddess hera it's lit by the performer who plays the role of the high priestess who calls upon the god apollo for sacred silence and clear skies number 83 the high priestess is joined by 35 other priestesses and 12 young men called curies they perform a traditional dance inspired by ancient greece the first torchbearer takes off with a torch and an olive branch and a dove is released to symbolize peace number 84. some of the host cities can be a bit of a trek from greece so over the years there have been some pretty inventive ways of transporting the olympic flame including by canoe camel and even underwater through the great barrier reef for the 2000 sydney olympics number 85 one of the coolest ways was in 1976 when the flame was turned into a radio signal which was sent from athens via satellite over to canada there it triggered a laser beam which re-lit the olympic flame and continued his journey to montreal number 86 the person with the most olympic appearances is canadian equestrian athlete ian miller who's competed in 10 different olympic games between 1972 and 2012. number 87 the title holder for the most olympic appearances for a female competitor will be the georgian shooter nino celekvatsi who is scheduled to make her ninth olympic appearance at tokyo 2020 one she's won a gold a silver and a bronze medal so far in her career number 88 while several athletes have competed in both the summer and winter olympics in different sports only five so far have won medals in both they are eddie egan jacob tullin tams christo luding rothenberger clara hughes and lauren williams number 89 american eddie egan is the only one of these athletes from the only one in olympic history to have won gold in both summer and winter olympic games in 1920 he won the gold for boxing and in 1932 he won his gold as part of the bobsled team number 90 remember when i said that artist john copley was the oldest olympic medalist ever well technically yes but also technically art medals don't count anymore making swedish shooter oscar swann the oldest olympic medalist earning a silver medal in 1920 aged 72 years and 281 days number 91 swan is also the oldest competitor of all time for that year but he even qualified four years later for the 1924 olympics age 76 however he withdrew without competing number 92 the oldest female medalist was leader peyton eliza pollock from the usa who won the gold as part of the u.s women's archery team in 1904 when she was 63 years and 333 days young number 93 the youngest ever competitor is said to be dimitrios londras who competed in the 1896 athens olympics aged 10 years and 218 days and won a bronze medal as part of the greek gymnastics team in 1997 a rule was introduced saying that all competitors must be 16 years old or over number 94 the paralympic games first took place in rome of 1960 and they were designed to allow war veterans a chance to compete and rehabilitate paralympians have competed in the standard olympics though with one of the most famous being george isa who won six medals in gymnastics whilst wearing his wooden leg number 95 the smallest country in the world to win an olympic medal is liechtenstein though their medals have all come from winter olympics the smallest summer olympic medalist is granada after karani james won the gold for the men's 400 meters at london 2012. number 96 if we're talking in terms of population though the smallest country to win a summer olympic medal is bermuda after clarence hill won a bronze medal in boxing at the 1976 olympics the smallest country to participate is monaco but they're yet to win any medals number 97 the country that's won the most olympic medal since the modern revival of the games is the usa today it's not including tokyo because they haven't happened yet in my timeline anyway they've won 2 828 medals across both the summer and winter games number 98 though the usa holds the record for the most summer medals they don't hold the record for the most winter olympic medals that honour goes to norway who have won 368. the usa does come in second with 305 medals though but they've competed in two more winter olympics than norway so what we can really take away from this is that i'm too engrossed in the data let's move on number 99 the athlete who's won the most medals in history is michael phelps who has taken home 28 olympic medals for swimming 23 of which were gold no one else even comes close to that the next best is larissa latinina who has the highest medal count for a woman with 18 total medals number 100 of there the most expensive olympic games ever held was the 2014 sochi winter olympics in russia it cost 55 billion us dollars to put on the games here which is higher than all the other previous winter olympics combined that's a lot of beans oh number 101 is it okay so far the city that's hosted the most olympic games is actually london us brits have had the honor three times in 1908 in 1948 and 2012. three other cities have come in a close second with two hosting credits athens paris and los angeles so those were 101 facts about the olympics which is your favorite sport in the games don't know why i said it like that let me know in the comments down below and hey thank you if you've already subscribed and helped us attain 600 000 subscribers oh my what a number so hey 600 000 people can't be wrong so why not hit subscribe and jump on board in the meantime though egad's two videos that you're really gonna enjoy that are on screen right now why not give one a click and i'll see you there goodbye

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Keywords: 101 facts, 101, 101facts, olympics, olympics 2021, olympics 2012, olympic games, gold medal, olympic ceremony, london, tokyo, beijing, sochi, highlights, olympic football, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics, winners, history of the olympics, best olympic moments, documentary, 100m, sprint, worst olympic, boxing, javelin, running, discus, BMX, basketball, rugby, handball, tennis, michael phelps, andy murray, hockey, world record

Id: CDxFTOYkSnQ

Length: 25min 29sec (1529 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 17 2021