The Summer Olympics, or Olympic Games, is an international sports event held every four years featuring a wide range of sports, organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Although it does not attract as large an audience as the World Cup, it is considered the most prestigious sporting event in the world. Medals are awarded for each sport, with gold medals for first place, silver medals for second place, and bronze medals for third place.
From a tournament featuring only 42 sports with around 250 athletes, the Summer Olympics has expanded to over 10,000 athletes participating from 202 countries.
The Olympic Games are held every four years.
The organizers of the Beijing 2008 Olympics estimated that around 10,500 athletes participated in 302 events.
The 2004 Summer Olympics attracted a total of 11,099 athletes competing in 301 events, surpassing the initial estimate of 10,500 athletes.
Participating athletes are approved by their National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to represent their countries. The national anthem and flag are presented during the medal ceremony. Medal rankings are widely displayed. Generally, only recognized countries are introduced, with a few exceptions for countries with disputed sovereignty.
The United States has hosted the Summer Olympics the most times, with five occasions. The United Kingdom, France, and Australia follow in second, third, and fourth place, having hosted the Summer Olympics three times each. Countries that have hosted the Summer Olympics twice include Germany, Greece, and Japan. Countries that have hosted once include Belgium, Canada, Finland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, China, and Brazil. London, Paris, and Los Angeles are the three cities that have hosted the Olympics three times. Two cities that have hosted the Summer Olympics twice are Athens and Tokyo.
Five countries—Australia, France, the United Kingdom, Greece, and Switzerland—have participated in every Summer Olympics. Among these, the only country that has won at least one gold medal at every Olympic Games is the United Kingdom.
The 1916, 1940, and 1944 Games were not held due to the impacts of the World Wars.
This year, 2024, the Olympic Games will be held in Paris.
The 2024 Summer Olympics, officially known in English as the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad (French: Jeux de la XXXIIIe Olympiade) and commonly referred to as Paris 2024, is a multi-sport international event scheduled to take place from July 26 to August 11, 2024, in Paris, the main host city, along with 16 cities across mainland France and one city in Tahiti—an overseas territory of France.
The 2024 Olympic Games are scheduled to take place from July 26 to August 11 in Paris.
Paris was awarded the hosting rights for the Olympic Games during the 131st Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lima, Peru, on September 13, 2017. After several candidates withdrew, only Paris and Los Angeles remained, and the IOC decided to award the Summer Olympics to these two cities for consecutive years, 2024 and 2028.
With two previous hosting experiences in 1900 and 1924, Paris will become the second city to host the Summer Olympics three times, following London (1908, 1948, and 2012). Paris 2024 will mark the centenary of the 1924 Paris Olympics and will be the sixth time France has hosted the Olympics (three Summer Olympics—1900, 1924, 2024, and three Winter Olympics—1924, 1968, 1992), and it will also be the first Olympic Games held in France since the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville.
The event will return to the traditional four-year Olympiad cycle, after the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo had to be postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This will mark the beginning of three consecutive Summer Olympics held with only two official languages (English and French).
This Olympic Games will witness the debut of breaking (breakdancing) as an Olympic competition, and it will also be the last Olympic Games held during the presidency of IOC President Thomas Bach.
