101 Facts About The Olympics

The big games are here, and I don't mean a massive set of Cluedo - I mean the OLYMPICS. But this ancient tradition is full of wonderful trivia and strange beginnings, and here are some of those in easily digestible, tasty facts. This is 101 Facts About the Olympics!

[OnlyNoodle]

It's funny that you mention London hosting the most games and mentioning Paris and Los Angeles. Because both Paris and Los Angeles are hosting the 2024 and 2028 Summer Games respectively.

[stephenr.wattsauthor]

Fact 102: the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt lake City, Utah, United States of America, cost the least amount of money to put on, and even became the first time the olympics actually made money. This was due to Olympic organizers utilizing existing facilities instead of building completely new ones, such as converting the student dorms at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City into the Olympic Village for athletes to board at, and using the university's football stadium to host the opening and closing ceremonies. While some amenities like the Olympic Oval in nearby Kerns, Utah, and a the Olympic Park in neighboring Park City, Utah, were constructed to host several sporting events for the Olympics, they have remained in use by Team USA as official training facilities for certain winter sports like speed skating and ski jumping, and they continue to raise millions of dollars of revenue from locals paying for the opportunity to ski and ice skate at these places. One thing that is also worth noting about the 2002 Winter Olympic Games is that Utah's largest religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, called upon hundreds of thousand of members living in the state to volunteer time and resources to the games in hopes of fostering good will between the church and the global community. The Church even offered up their missionaries to serve as translators for athletes and dignitaries from many of the countries that participated in the games that year, which ultimately saved said countries a tone of money they would have normally had to pay for such services.

[DrEvil]

Another interesting fact - Ice Hockey was originally a Summer Olympic sport. Fanny Blankers-Koen won 4 gold medals in 1948, but was also world record holder in 2 other events that she couldn't compete in because of time restrictions.

[GamerFromJump]

The IOC is in a continuous dead heat with FIFA in the race for “most corrupt international sports organization.”

[OkieOtaku]

"16 years old or over" Tell that to the Japanese gold, and Brazilian silver medalists for street skateboarding who are both 13!

[orchidrose]

Gymnastics has always been my favorite of the summer games and ice skating has always been my favorite for the winter games! Anyone else?

[TheKiyokoTek]

I liked the part where you talked about the Olympics

[francisp]

san marino is now the smallest country with a medal

[markophobe]

18:28 your telling me that all gold medals are actually silver x:(

[OreoThePooch]

I would love to see another “101 Facts About Anything and Everything”

[LittleBobbyBabyTeeth]

I remember when the Olympic flame came through my little city in Northern Ontario for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics

[kingscrub]

As a citizen of the Salt Lake Valley, I remember the 2002 Olympics, I was 9. I didn't know it was a huge scandal however. That's kinda crazy but rich mormons are sleezy and it doesn't surprise me much.

[SJRenkola]

Love the Summer Olympics, but Winter are my favorite by far.

[PremierCCGuyMMXVI]

I’m not good at sports but I love watching the Winter and Summer Olympics!

[taelorwatson]

TCM had a video from the 48 Olympics. I could only imagine how awkward it must have been to have an Olympic event soon after world war II.

[BigDexMedia]

Surprisingly other than MMA and Boxing, the Olympics are my favorite sports event to watch or listen

[laneyschoeppner]

Can you make a 101 facts about the 1950s?

[ARIXANDRE]

Love the athletes. Hate the corruption.

[ezrapetty]

22:38 is this true? Under 16s compete in the olimpics all the time. Both team gb olimpic skateboarders will be under 16, being 13 and 14 at the time of the upcoming tokyo games

[kpopnation]

Some other fun facts:
1. There's a kid's version of the Olympics called Youth Olympics. The summer edition first debuted in 2010 in Singapore while the winter edition debuted in 2012 in Innsbruck, Austria.
2. Dakar will host the 2026 (originally 2022) YOG, making it the first time Africa will host an Olympic event.
3. The 2022 Winter Olympics will mark the first time a city will host both Summer and Winter Olympics.
4. A small town in Finland made a serious bid to host the Olympics to raise awareness on Climate Change.
5. The upcoming 2028 Olympics logo is rather unique in the fact that the letter A in the logo changes design and the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Billie Eilish, and Lili Singh made contributions to it.
6. Because of the pandemic, the time gap between the Tokyo Olympics and the Beijing Winter Olympics Olympics is now only 6 months.
7. Excluding The Youth Olympics, attempts to host the Olympics in Africa and Southeast Asia have all failed. Cities like Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jakarta, and Cape Town tried their luck to host the games to no avail.