Blog
The ancient Greeks measured time in Olympiads, four year spans between festivals at Olympia, so Pierre de Coubertin kept the rhythm when he revived th...
How Medal Tables Work and Why They DisagreeThe IOC does not officially rank nations, yet media tables sort by golds first, while others count total medals, and the results can differ dramatical...
The Boycotts That Reshaped the OlympicsPolitical fights have repeatedly emptied the field. In 1976 more than twenty African nations stayed home from Montreal over a New Zealand rugby tour o...
A Century of Women at the Olympic GamesAbout 22 women appeared in Paris 1900, limited to a handful of sports such as tennis, golf and sailing. Athletics opened to women in 1928, the women m...
How Olympic Host Cities Are ChosenFor most of Olympic history cities competed in open votes, courting IOC members with bid books and, too often in the 1990s, with gifts that ended in t...
How the Winter Games Differ From the Summer GamesThe Winter Olympics run at about a third the scale of the summer edition, roughly 3,000 athletes against more than 11,000, with around one hundred eve...