International Olympic Day is celebrated every year on 23rd June. Olympics is not just about games, its main aim is to maintain harmony and peace between the people of different nations through various sports on an international platform.
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International Olympic Day
The Olympic games are considered as the world’s largest event of games. In this, around 200 nations participate. The Olympic games are held after every four years. Since 1994 the Olympics are conducting events of Olympic alternately between the summer and winter Olympics every two years. The summer Olympics consist of 33 sports whereas the winter Olympics consist of & sports. In the Olympic Games winner receives Gold, silver, and Bronze medals according to their merits.
History of Olympics games.
The Olympics games originated in Greece around 3000 years ago i.e from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. The first Olympics game was conducted in Athens, Greece in 1896. In 1894, Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee(IOC). The IOC governs the event of the Olympics and it also decides the venue, duration, and a total number of sports. Up to 1994, Olympics was conducted every 4 years but since 1994, it is divided into two events i.e Summer Olympics & Winter Olympics, and both events were conducted over a gap of 2 years.
As time changed, some evolution also happened in Olympics like the inclusion of the Paralympic Games for athletes having some disabilities and the youth Olympic games for athletes aged 15 to 18 years. Due to the world war Olympics being Cancelled in the years 1916, 1940, and 1944. Olympics also suffered a lot in 1980 & 1984 due to large-scale boycotts during the Cold War. The 2020 Olympics was postponed until 2021 due to Covid -19 pandemic. The 2020 Olympics was rescheduled & organized in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.
Olympic Flag
The first Olympic Flag was Unveiled in 1920. The flag consists of five interconnected rings. These rings possess colors i.e Blue, yellow, Black, Green, and Red. These five rings represent five continents i.e America, Africa, Australia, Europe, and Asia.
Olympic Motto
The original motto in Latin is expressed as Citius, Altius, Fortius
- Citius means Faster
- Altius means higher
- Fortius means Stronger
Types of Olympic Games
- Summer Olympics
- Winter Olympics
- Youth Olympics
- Paralympic Games
Summer Olympics
Summer Olympics or the game of Olympiad is an international event of multi-sports held every four years by International Olympics Committee. Summer Olympics basically organized during the summer season. In the summer Olympics, there are around 35 Games and about 400 events. It includes games like Swimming, Basket Ball, Foot Ball, Volley Ball, Tennis, Boxing, Diving, Weight Lifting, Rowing, Hand Ball, Golf, Badminton, Table Tennis, archery, Swimming, Hockey, Javelin, Base Ball, track Cycling, Fencing, Gymnastics, etc.
Winter Olympics
Winter Olympics is an event of games that is held once in four years. It consists of sports-related to ice. This Olympic event is held during Winter. This includes sports like Ice hockey, Alpine Skiing, figure Skating, Bobsleigh, Cross-Country skiing, Freestyle Skiing, and Biathlon. The first winter Olympics were held at Chamonix, France in 1924. The 2022 winter Olympics were held in Beijing, China.
Youth Olympics
Youth Olympics is an international multi-sport event for Athletes between 15 and 18 years of age. The first Summer Version of Youth Olympics was held in Singapore from 14 to 26 August 2010. The First Winter version of the Youth Olympics was held in Innsbruck, Austria from 13 to 22 January 2012.
- Summer Youth Olympic Games 2026 will occur in Dakar, Senegal.
- Winter Youth Olympic Games 2024 will occur in Gangwon, Republic of Korea.
Paralympic Games
Paralympic is an international Olympic event related to physically disabled athletes. First Paralympic Games were held in Rome, Italy in 1960. This event is also held at every four years. The next winter Paralympic will be organized in Beijing, China in 2022. The 2024 Paralympic games will be hosted in Paris, France. The Paralympic sports include archery, athletics, Cycling, wheelchair Rugby, Sailing, Judo, Rowing, Sitting Volly ball, etc.
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee(IOC) is just like a guardian of the Olympic events. IOC is established on 23 June 1894. The headquarter of the International Olympic Committee is in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IOC has the onus to promote Olympic Games worldwide & to maintain integrity and peace among the athletes as well as the nation.
IOC uses its 90% of funds in the development of the infrastructure of sports institutions, growth, and well-being of athletes at all levels. The administration of the IOC is under the Director-General who under the authority of the president runs it with the assistance of other directors.
The higher authorities of IOC are –
- President – Thomas Bach
- Director-General – Christophe De Kepper
- Vice Presidents – John Coates, Juan Antonio, Samaranch, Ng ser Miang, Nicole Hoevertsz.
India’s Achievement in Olympics
- India First participated in Olympics in 1900 & won 2 silver. Till now, India in athletics has won a total of 35 medals at the Olympics (Gold-10, Silver-9, Bronze-16)
- Indian Men’s Hockey team was quite dominant in Olympics, winning eleven medals in the twelve Olympics between 1928 & 1980.
- Indian Men’s hockey team has won 8 Olympic medals among which 6 medals came consecutively. Two more gold medals came in Tokyo(1964) and Moscow(1980).
- The First Individual Gold medal was won by Abhinav Bindra in the event of shooting at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.
- India’s first Olympic medal winner was Norman Pritchard who won 2 silver in athletics at the 1900 Olympics and became the first Asian nation to win an Olympic medal.
- KD Jhadav was the first athlete from Independent India to win an individual medal at Olympics. He won a Bronze medal in wrestling.
- Karnam Malleswari became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She was a weight lifter.
- Murlikant Petkar, a veteran of 1965 Indo -Pak war, is the first Paralympic medalist of India. He won a Gold medal in swimming in the 1974 games.
- Devendra Jhagharia is the only player who has won 2 gold medals in the Paralympic.
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