The Olympic Games are the most prestigious sporting event in the world right now. The Olympic games have a long history. Ancient Olympic games started in 796 BC in Olympia, Greece, till the 4th century AD.
Coming to the modern-day Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee was formed in the year 1894, and the first modern-day Olympic was started in the year 1896 and is hosted in Athens. And it was participated by 14 nations and 243 athletes. Modern Olympics are also known as Summer Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee is the governing body of the Olympics Movement, which underwent several changes in the 20th and 21st centuries.
There are majorly four types of Olympic games
- Summer Olympics
- Winter Olympics
- Paralympics
- Youth Olympics
Summer Olympics: This is also known as the modern Olympics, is held once every four years which has participation from over 100 countries around the world.As we mentioned earlier Summer Olympics started in the year 1896 and got huge success and the next Olympics were held in the year 1900 in Paris
Winter Olympics: It was first held in the year 1924. The main intention of the winter Olympics is to encourage ice sports which cannot be done in Summer Olympics due to logistics issues. Winter Olympics are conducted every four years after two years of every summer Olympic games.
Paralympics: In the year 1948, after the second world war, Sir Ludwig Guttman decided to start rehabilitation for the second world war soldiers and organized a multi-sport event between hospitals which coincided with the 1948 London Olympics, and it became an annual sports event for the next 12 years and in the year 1960 Guttman took over 400 para-athletes to Rome and conducted Parallel Olympics along with 1960 Rome Olympics and this Parallel Olympics was considered as first Para Olympics. From then, it is conducted along with the summer Olympics once every four years.
Youth Olympics: First Youth Olympics were held in the year 2010, which was first approved in the year 2001 at the 119th congress of the International Olympic Committee. Youth Olympics gives a chance to athletes who are between the ages of 14 to 18. The First Youth Olympic Games were first held in Singapore.
What Is the Cost of the Olympics?
In 2016 Oxford University conducted a study on Olympic Games costs and expenses and found that from 1960 cost of summer Olympic games was around 5.2 billion U.S Dollars on average, and for the winter Olympic games, the average cost is around 3.1 billion U.S Dollars. These costs do not include infrastructure, accommodations, and athlete expenses. The most expensive Summer Olympics is the 2008 Beijing Olympics which cost around 40 to 44 billion U.S Dollars. When it comes to Winter Olympic Games, Sochi 2014 winter Olympic games is the costliest one which cost around 51 billion U.S dollars. The International Olympic Committee(IOC) invites bidding for Olympic games based on the bidding they finalize the host city for each Olympics.
The U.S hosted Olympic games most no. of the time, including the summer and winter Olympics, followed by France
Who Funds Olympics
International Olympic Committee Finances major portion of funding for conducting Olympic games. It also receives a good amount of money from corporate sponsorships and also broadcasting rights, which will be used for funding Olympic games.
However, these Olympic games did not help very much in the social-economic progress of the Olympic-hosted cities in the long run. They are less beneficial to the Olympic-hosted cities for their economic and social growth, according to many recent studies.
We hope you got some knowledge about the history of the Olympic games from this article. Do let us know your thoughts.
