Talk:Olympic Games

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Former featured article Olympic Games is a former featured article. Please see the links under Article milestones below for its original nomination page (for older articles, check the nomination archive) and why it was removed.
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WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia There is a request, submitted by (unknown), for an audio version of this article to be created.

See WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia for further information.

The rationale behind the request is: "Previously requested".

See also: Category:Spoken Wikipedia requests and Wikipedia:Spoken articles.
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Contents

[edit] IRAQ

Iraq also choose to Boycott the 1976 Olympics along with Guyana these were the only TWO non-African state.

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.107.170.211 (talk) 08:54, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fixing up the page: suggestions

OK, so we've got a Featured Article Review here. It doesn't have much, but it's a start. I've started doing stuff to the page, but it needs a lot of work. Here's just a list of ideas/suggestions:

  1. CITATIONS!!! Just find some if you can!
  2. More useful, fair use/uncopyrighted images.
  3. Re-organization of the sections/subsections. This might require some finagling.
    1. Olympic Games#Disruption of the Olympics and its subheadings should be moved to a section called Olympic problems or something of the like, and add in doping, etc, so that there are no subheadings for that section anymore.
    2. Opening/Closing ceremonies sections moved into one single section Ceremonies and taken out from under the Symbols section.
    3. Maybe do something with the Amateurism/Professionalism section.
    4. Olympic Games#Olympic Games host cities - this needs an explanation of how nations bid for the games and how they're chosen. Maybe some stats....
  4. Change "de Coubertin" to just "Coubertin" if used alone, per this
  5. Re-write the introduction again. I tried it, but I don't think it works. Maybe a different approach would be helpful....
In general, the article is in good shape, it just needs some re-organization.

→ JARED (t)  21:00, 27 December 2006 (UTC); 20:27, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] USA Olympics

Am I wrong there's no US Olympics article? Seriously? I would think the UK and other European countries, China, Russia, and the USA would all have articles dedicated to their Olympic history and important coaches like Bela Karolyi. Right now it's a bunch of disparate loose information tied together by nothing. It's like articles on all the players of a sports league but no team articles. Why don't we just have articles on every Chicago Bear or Manchester United player but no Chicago Bears or Manchester United franchise/team articles? Quadzilla99 15:39, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

I think this is what you're asking for: All nations (should) have a "Nation at the Season Olympics" article where nation is the nation's name and season is either Summer or Winter (e.g. United States at the Summer Olympics, Australia at the Winter Olympics, Australia at the Summer Olympics). Now under discussion is whether these should be merged into one article, "Nation at the Olympics." There are already some of them (United States at the Olympics, Great Britain at the Olympics) but we really don't know if they are necessary. You can join the discussion here on WP:OLYMPICS. → JARED (t)  15:48, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
Ok I redirected USA Olympics, U.S.A. Olympics, US Olympic Team, and U.S. Olympic Team (previously non-existent pages) to United States at the Olympics. Quadzilla99 16:01, 15 January 2007 (UTC). there's to much work for us

[edit] Re: Opinions on the success of the revival of the Olympic Games in 1859, 1870, 1875

Opinions about the success or a failure of any revival have no place in an encyclopaedia. Besides how can anybody consider the Olympic Games that were held in Athens in 1859, and 1870 as a failure.

Firstly, the 1859 Olympic Games was the first modern international Olympic Games. It had Greek athletes. It had athletes from the Ottoman Empire. It had athletic events comparable to those held in ancient times. It had medals. It had Olympians. It was a success.

Secondly, the 1870 Olympic Games was the first modern international Olympic Games to be held in a stadium. The only country in the world to have an athletics stadium in the 19th Century was Greece. I'll say that again for the hard of hearing. The only country in the world to have a bonafide, refurbished ancient Olympic Games stadium in the 19th Century was Greece. Greece was the first country in the world to host a bonafide Olympic Games in a stadium in the 19th Century. And guess what? Greece was also the second and the third country in the world to host a bonafide Olympic Games in a stadium.

What is even more interesting is that there was no stadium at the Paris 1900 side-show that was called an Olympic Games. To be be perfectly honest, if the International Olympic Committee did not recognise them as Olympic Games they would not be worthy of the name by anybody elses standards.

Then ofcourse they build a temporary stadium for St Louis in 1904.

And guess what? The first Olympic Games to have a proper bonafide Olympic stadium in the 20th Century once again was Greece at Athens in 1906.

Is that so hard to accept. Does it hurt the pride of the rest of the world to accept that. That small country called Greece had the first modern international Olympic Games and it had the first bonafide purpose-built Olympic stadium.

Please elaborate what success or failure means when you use those words. When David C. Young uses them he is referring to the fact that the Olympiad was not maintained. He is not saying that the Games themselves were not a success. Don't take quotations out of context. Don't quote opinions. Surely, that

[edit] Headline text

Also, take a closer look at this: 1859, 1870, 1875, 1896, 1906, 2004

Years in which the Olympic Games were hosted in Athens. Does that make every other city that has hosted the Olympic Games a failure?

Evangelos Zappas firmly planted the foundations, the roots, of the modern Olympic Games and those that say otherwise are in denial. That's not an opinion. That is a fact. Nipsonanomhmata 20:42, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism In the Revival Section (or Who Really Revived the Olympic Games in Modern Times?)

I stumbled across vandalism within the revival section on this page. Data has been erased and i am not sure what to replace it with. If anyone could correct the problem, please do so ASAP! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Homsar727 (talk • contribs) 22:36, 13 February 2007 (UTC).

The vandalism was yours sir. By deleting the historical facts you have perpetuated the false version of modern Olympic history that is told to us by the International Olympic Committee. The additions are all referenced. David C. Young's book: "The Modern Olympics - A Struggle for Revival" is very clear on all the facts.

The first modern Olympic Games to be held in a stadium was held in Athens at the Panathenian stadium in 1870. This was not a minor event. This was not a national event. It was a major event that involved the refurbishment of an ancient Olympic stadium. It was an international event that involved participants from Greece and from the separate Ottoman Empire.

Anybody that denies the above facts is in cahoots with the fake version of modern Olympic history touted by the International Olympic Committee.

The Athens 1896 Olympic Games could not have happened without the Panathenian Stadium. It was the experience of the Greeks in arranging three earlier Olympic Games in 1859, 1870, and 1875 together with the experiences of Dr William Penny Brookes who organised a national Olympic Games in the United Kingdom at Crystal Palace in 1866 that made Athens 1896 possible.

If you want to criticize the revival initiated by Evangelis Zappas then I suggest that you take a good look at Paris 1900 which had no stadium. If you are looking for chaos then take a good look at St Louis 1904.

Take a good look at the side-shows hosted at the 1900 Exposition, the 1904 World's Fair and the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition before criticising or reducing the importance of the dedicated athletics Games held in Athens in 1859, 1870, and 1875. The Games in Athens were not side-shows. These Games were dedicated athletic Olympic Games and a true revival of the ancient Olympic Games.

What were you expecting to happen in 1859, 1870, 1875 in any case? These were the first modern international Olympic Games to be held since the ancient Olympic Games.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin did not pay for the building of the Panathenian stadium. Nor did he pay for the building of the Zappeion (named after Evangelis Zappas) that was used for the fencing events in 1896, and as the first Olympic Village (for the Hungarian team) in 1906.

Stop ignoring Evangelis Zappas. He was the true founder of the modern Olympic Games. And Dr William Penny Brookes was the true founder of the modern Olympic Movement. Give credit to the Baron where it is due. The Baron founded the International Olympic Committee, he did not found the modern Olympic Games, he did not organize the first international Olympic Games, and since he borrowed most of Dr Brookes ideas he did not found the modern Olympic Movement either since Dr Brookes organised the first major Olympic Games to be held outside of Greece in 1866. It may have been a national Olympic Games but so what. The event was a prototype for all future Olympic Games that were held outside of Greece. --Nipsonanomhmata 19:10, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, I did take a look a book titled "A Brief History of the Olympic Games" written by the same author, David Young. And in the preface he states "The modern revival was a slow process wherein a few Greeks and Dr. Brookes advocated the idea of an Olympic revival for decades, but never fully succeeded. A sporadic series of modern revivals in each country attracted little interest or support. Yet after the aging Brookes told the young Frenchman of their efforts, Coubertin achieved what they had not." Those are the authors own words. The same author that wrote the book you are using as a source.
Should Zappas, Brookes, Wenlock, and the rest be ignored? No, I don't think so. But first you must hold back from wholesale deletions and editing and discuss BEFOREHAND at the Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Olympics page. We can hash this out there and put in the appropriate edits. Perakhantu 19:31, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
"A Brief History of the Olympic Games" has some content pertaining to the modern revival but it is a brief and generic overview. The book is about half the size of "The Modern Olympics - A Struggle for Revival".
What exactly does "never fully succeeded" mean? Besides that is an opinion and not a fact. The fact is that the first modern international Olympic Games took place in 1859. The first modern international Olympic Games to be held in a stadium took place at the Panathenian stadium in 1870. That so called "failed revival" was a step that was used by the IOC's revival. That doesn't give the IOC any right to ignore that the first modern international Olympic Games took place in Athens in 1859.
Greece was still recovering from a war with the Ottoman Empire, and there was always the danger of more war, and it was difficult to sustain a revival but that doesn't mean that the revival failed or did not happen. It does not mean that it can be ignored and swept under the carpet. The IOC used the Panathenian stadium in 1896. A stadium that they could not have used if Zappas had not refurbished it the first time around. And if they had refurbished it the way that Zappas had asked them to and given them the money to do then a second refurbishment would not have been necessary.
So ... what do we call Evangelos Zappas ... the man who was the first to revive the Olympic Games from ancient times ... the man who paid for the revival out of his own pocket ... a man who paid for the organisation ... the medals, the prizes... except for the prize donated by Dr Brookes ... do we ignore him because he died before his dream could be realized despite all the money he left to make it happen.
Do we just say "Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the modern Olympic Games" but we've never heard of Evangelos Zappas?
That is not fair or right or just.
Zappas made the first modern international Olympic Games happen. Give him recognition for it. Mention his name.Nipsonanomhmata 19:49, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
Moreover, not only do you guys ignore Zappas but you then add insult to injury by talking about the Cotswold Olympicks which have never been Olympic-like and have no connection whatsoever with the Olympic Games. Then you add further insult to injury in promoting the false history promoted by the Wenlock Olympian Society about how Dr William Penny Brookes founded the modern Olympic Games in 1850. Get real! These Games were sports days with very few Olympic-like events before the 1860s. Most of the Olympic-like events were adopted after the revival of the Olympic Games in Greece. The first serious effort by Dr Brookes to make an Olympic Games happen was what he organised for Crystal Palace in London in 1866. You never talk about 1866 which was a national Olympic Games. Instead you talk about the local events sports days that involved typical sports day events and were neither Olympic in name or in nature. They were called "Olympian Class" between 1850 and 1858 then "Wenlock Olympian Games" from 1859. Don't believe what the Wenlock Olympian Society says ... instead read what Dr Brookes himself wrote in their archives. Dr Brookes founded the Wenlock Olympian Society in 1860.
Oh yes ... and the first person on the honor roll of that society was Petros Velissariou (or Velissarios) who happened to be from Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire (which was outside Greece). So the first person on the honor roll was one of the first international Olympians. Nipsonanomhmata 19:58, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
For every "Coubertin achieved what they had not" there is a "Zappas achieved what they had not" and a "Brookes achieved what they had not". Using quotes of opinions of who achieved what is a waste of time. What exactly did Coubertin achieve that they had not? Did he maintain the Olympiad without interruption? No he didn't. So Young must mean that the Olympic Games that the IOC presides over is still going today. But the Olympic Games that the IOC presides over used the stadium that Zappas refurbished, and used twice for Olympic Games before the IOC, for its first Games. So "Zappas achieved what Coubertin and Brookes had not". But Brookes held the first national Olympic Games outside of Greece with events adopted from the Athens 1859 Games. So "Brookes achieved what Coubertin and Zappas had not". Sorry Prof. Young. I do love your books. But that particular opinion about "achieved what they had not" is pointless. Who are you trying to appease? Nipsonanomhmata 03:10, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Place Names

I changed the link from "Turin" to "Turin|Turin (Torino)" for the benefit of those who only know the city from the publicity of those games. Are there any other host cities which might also cause confusion between the name they were internationally known by for the Games and those they are usually referred to by in English? -Nentuaby 19:14, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Amateurism and gentlemen

I removed a sentence from the following text:

In Coubertin's vision, athletes should be gentlemen. Initially, only amateurs were considered such; professional athletes were not allowed to compete in the Olympic Games. The exception to this were the fencing instructors, who were indeed expected to be gentlemen.

Although the sentence about the fencing instructors has been in the article for about two and a half years [1], it doesn't seem meaningful. As I read the paragraph, it said that Coubertin expected athletes to be gentlemen, with the exception of fencing instructors, who were expected to be gentlemen -- which is not an "exception". If this was supposed to mean something like "The only exception to the requirement of amateurism was that athletes were allowed to compete in fencing even if they had received payment for working as fencing instructors", then that would need to be sourced and rewritten as such. --Metropolitan90 05:36, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that the sentence *meant* to say what you rephrased it as, since there were events for professionals in fencing even while all other sports were strictly limited to amateurs. As for a source for that, there should be plenty out there and someone would just have to dig to find the most authoritative one. For instance, the Australian Olympic Committee says here that
“ An interesting aside is that there were events for professionals in the early Olympics. Pierre de Coubertin, the champion of amateur sport, made a concession for professors of military fencing. The professional events had disappeared by London 1908. ”
-- Jonel | Speak 14:40, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Thanks. That is an interesting fact and probably should be included in the article as rewritten and sourced. --Metropolitan90 15:57, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
I've put a clearer edition of the sentence back in, with the AOC source. Feel free to hack at the wording and such. -- Jonel | Speak 23:25, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Typos in "Amateurism" section.

"in the development many team sports". Please insert missing "of".

"he was made a Member". Capitalize "He" (it starts a sentence), uncapitalize "Member".

-- 85.183.215.251 20:40, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I've done so. Thanks for the heads-up! -- Jonel | Speak 23:19, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] el

El is NOT FA! plz change it 89.139.248.253 10:01, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Please try to be a bit more descriptive (it took me a while to figure out what you were saying). If you mean that el:Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες is not a featured article (which I think is what you're saying), then I've fixed our link. -- Jonel (Speak to me) 13:26, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A smallish error...

At the bottom of the Politics section, there's a phrase which reads, "a heroes welcome." I believe that should be "hero's." If anyone can fix that (or correct me; I'm hardly infallible when it comes to grammar.) I would appreciate it. :)

[edit] Mistake

"Most Olympic Games have been held in European and North American cities; only a few games have been held in other places, which were still limited to eastern Asian cities."

Since when have Melbourne and Sydney been "eastern Asian" cities? Am removing the last part of the sentence and connecting the remainder with the next sentence, which basically says the same thing (That South America and Africa have never hosted), only more clearly and less... wrongly. --Lode Runner 08:53, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Olympic Ceremonies / Opening / formula

This section states that "Since Adolf Hitler at both the Garmisch Partenkirchen Winter Olympics and at the Berlin Summer Olympics – both in 1936 – the Openers have unswervingly stuck to this formula".

This is not true. George W. Bush did not stick to it, but opened the Salt Lake City Games "on behalf of a proud, determined and grateful nation", which was criticized internationally. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tilman123 (talk • contribs) 14:15, August 30, 2007 (UTC)

[edit] IOC medal tallies

  • "The IOC does not publish lists of medals per country, but the media often does..."
  • "The IOC medal tally chart is based on the number of gold medals for country..."

Seems to be a contradiction here. Does the IOC publish medal tallies, or doesn't it? Mtford 03:09, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Style for referring to Olympic Games

Example:

I don't know if this has ever been discussed, but I prefer "of" over "in" because lots of events are not competed in the city in question, but in some relatively nearby cities/towns. This makes "he won gold at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona" factually wrong if the event was not actually held in Barcelona. Technically, "he" did not win gold in Barcelona, but in some other place at those Olympics. Using "of" instead does not make it factually wrong. Comments? wjmt 23:33, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

This is just to be on the record, because it looks like its about 6 months too late, but basically, both forms should probably be avoided, if possibly. It makes more sense to switch it around and say:
  • 1992 Barcelona Olympics; or
  • Barcelona Olympics of 1992; or
  • Barcelona Olympics in 1992
Perhaps that makes more sense? Jared (t)  22:49, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Tally of Host Cities

Just before the list of cities that have hosted the Olympics (near the bottom of the page) it states that "In 2012, London will become the first city to have hosted the Olympic Games three times." However, the list clearly indicates that Athens has already hosted the games 3 times. Someone might like to correct this error.

I tried to address it. The IOC doesn't include the 1906 games in their official statistics, so that's clearly what's going on here. -- Jao (talk) 09:05, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

The tally is not continuously: Kiel-Schilksee is mentioned in 1936 and 1972 as the hosting city of the sailing events, but what is with Meulan-sur-Seine/Le Havre (1900), Ryde/Hunter's Quay (1908), Nyhäshamn (1912), Ostende/Amsterdam (1920), Meulan-les-Mureaux/Le Havre (1924), Durgerdam/Zuidersee (1928), Bay of San Pedro (1932), Torquay (1948), Harmaja (1952), Port Philip Bay (1956), Santa Lucia [Bay of Napoli] (1960), Enoshima (1964), Acapulco (1968), Portsmouth Harbour [Kingston/Ontario] (1976), Tallinn (1980), Long Beach (1984), Pusan (1988), Savannah (1996) and finally Agios Kosmas (2004)?

Citius Altius Fortius (talk) 19:52, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Very good point – not to mention all the cities that have hosted the soccer competitions. Does Kiel have a more official host city status, for some reason? -- Jao (talk) 21:16, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
Not that I remember! Citius Altius Fortius (talk) 08:25, 1 March 2008 (UTC)
Then should we add in the Netherlands for 1920? After all, 2 sailing races were held in the Netherlands instead of Belgium in that year. —Preceding unsigned comment added by The dog2 (talk • contribs) 07:50, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

I think Hong Kong hosting the equestrian events should be included. To set a few things straight, I do not deny that Hong Kong is part of China. However, it is true that they are under different NOC's and send separate teams to the Olympics. Hong Kong also has a separate page for the equestrian events [2], which shows that the Hong Kong government and NOC does play some role in the event. While I agree that the NOC's of Hong Kong and China work much more closely than that of Australia and Sweden or Belgium and the Netherlands, they are still separate NOC's for now until at least 2047. -- The dog2 (talk) 12:11, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

I think that's a given. In the Olympic context, it doesn't matter whether Hong Kong is under the jurisdiction of the government of the People's Republic of China or not. What matters is whether it is under the jurisdiction of the Chinese Olympic Committee or not, and clearly it is not. -- Jao (talk) 13:16, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Stockholm/Melbourne in 1956 was unique because there were two Games organizing committees, two sets of opening and closing ceremonies, two official reports, etc. Including venues outside the main host city for any other Games is misleading and leads to clutter and confusion in this table. It also happens almost every Games for football and sailing, so there isn't anything special about those instances. I also note that the contemporary IOC sources (like the medal database), show "Melbourne/Stockholm" for 1956 but do not show more than one city name for any other Games. If they show "Beijing/Hong Kong" once the 2008 medals start to get added to the website, then we should change this article to include Hong Kong, but otherwise, the current version most accurately represents the WP:reliable source for this article. — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 17:09, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

I stand corrected. I had assumed the Hong Kong NOC would be involved when events are carried out in their territory, but indeed there seems to be nothing to prove that. Same for 1920, by the way. On a side note, isn't there (now) a rule saying that the Games are to be held in one country? I remember this was recently mentioned as a problem for a possible joint Trondheim/Östersund bid for the Winter Olympics. -- Jao (talk) 18:36, 16 May 2008 (UTC)
There seems to be a separate web-site for the equestrian events[3] in HKG but not for the football events. I would think that the HKG NOC plays a part in organising despite not having a separate opening and closing ceremony or there wouldn't be an entirely separate web-site with a different domain. HKG is part of China but under the terms of the handover from the British, HKG is to send a separate team to the Olympics until at least 2047, though naturally, the NOC's of CHN and HKG would have much closer co-operation than of AUS and SWE. Of course, for political reasons, the PRC government won't allow the games to be called Beijing/Hong Kong 2008 for fear that it would lead to some sort of "Hong Kong Independence" movement. The dog2 (talk) 02:56, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] National Anthem?

"The flags are all raised while the national anthem of the gold medalist's country plays." The USA didn't have a national anthem until 1931. When did the playing of the anthem become part of the medal ceremonies, and what did they do before then? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.14.36.128 (talk) 00:33, 1 March 2008 (UTC) 13:23, 4 March 2008 (UTC)13:23, 4 March 2008 (UTC)~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.125.114.245 (talk)

[edit] Medals per country section

Includes this: "Since 1996, the only countries that have appeared in the top 10 medal tallies for summer Olympics have been the Russian Federation, United States, China, France, Germany, Australia and Italy."

  * The list of countries only includes 7 countries.  The list my definition would need at least 10.
  * In 2004, Japan (6), South Korea (9), and Great Britain (10) were in top 10 -- http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/athens2004
  * Netherlands and Cuba were in top 10 in 2000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Summer_Olympics_medal_count
  * Ukraine was in top 10 in 1996.

Thus, sentence I think should be, "Since 1996, the only countries that have appeared in the top 10 medal tallies for summer Olympics have been the Russian Federation, United States, China, France, Germany, Australia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Great Britain, Netherlands, Cuba, and Ukraine."

"Since 1994, the only countries that have appeared in the top 10 medal tallies for winter Olympics have been Norway, the Russian Federation, the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria, South Korea, Switzerland, France and Italy."

  * Switzerland, Netherlands were in top 10 in 2006 http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/torino2006/medals
  * Finland in 2002 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Winter_Olympics_medal_count
  * Japan, Netherlands in 1998 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Winter_Olympics_medal_count
  * Sweden in 1994 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Winter_Olympics_medal_count

Thus I think the sentence should be "Since 1994, the only countries that have appeared in the top 10 medal tallies for winter Olympics have been Norway, the Russian Federation, the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria, South Korea, Switzerland, France, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Finland, Japan, and Sweden."

- miles —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.145.49.5 (talk) 21:54, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Much more plausibly, the section attempts to list the countries that have appeared in all top 10 medal tallies – I think it managed to do this until an anonymous user added South Korea, Switzerland and France in January. Of course, it doesn't say this, but I think that's a typo, which could be easily addressed. I have greater trouble finding a reason for the seemingly arbitrary choices of 1996 and 1994 as start years for this exercise. -- Jao (talk) 22:12, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
My guess is that 1996 and 1994 represented the first Games at which the current set of NOCs "stabilized" (e.g. we had the Unified Team and Czechoslovakia in 1992, and two Germanys in 1988). It makes logical sense, but is perhaps original research. — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 22:40, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for the explanation, I'm pretty sure your guess is correct. -- Jao (talk) 17:43, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Olympic Symbols section

In an update on 7 April 2008, the author states: "On April 7, 2008, for the first time in history, the Olympic Flame was extinguished in Paris, due to protests against the host nation - China.[40]" This is not factual. The torch flame is routinely extinguished; often on purpose and sometimes accidentally. It is re-lit from a flame that is kept separate from the public relays. The cited news article does not make any reference to any "historical" snuffing of the flame, and in fact mentions the official flame. A good addition to this article would be a description of how the flame is transfered between cities and countries and how the torch relays are just the public "spectacle". Rand104 (talk) 01:59, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

A further example of just how untrue the "first time in history" statement is, refer to the wikipedia article on the Olympic flame at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Flame —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rand104 (talk • contribs) 19:45, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Doping Death

"The first and so far only Olympic death caused by doping occurred in 1960. At the cycling road race in Rome the Danish Knud Enemark Jensen fell from his bicycle and later died. A coroner's inquiry found that he was under the influence of amphetamines."

Surely this is POV? There had to have been other cause factors in this death. Cyclists fall all the time, and sometimes die from their injuries. I suggest the following.

"The first, and so far only, Olympic death in which doping was a cause factor occurred in 1960."

Ideally, that would be backed up by a reference.

--Tedd (talk) 15:01, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Section on drug use

Having 2 or 3 athletes singled out in this general article on the Olympics, when there are many instances of drug use, seems questionable under the BLP policy. IMO. Comments please. Wanderer57 (talk) 15:51, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Olive or Laurel

QUOTING ARTICLE: "the victor would have not only the prestige of being in first place but would also be presented with a crown of olive leaves."

The article Laurel wreath says that laurel leaves (bay leaves) were used as a symbol of victory.

Is there any way to decide this? Wanderer57 (talk) 19:39, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Nonsense assertion

The following statement makes no sense "Since 1996, the only countries that have appeared in the top 10 medal tallies for summer Olympics have been the Russian Federation, United States, China, France, Germany, Australia and Italy." At least ten countries must have appeared in the top ten list. This list only has seven. If it is intended to mean, these seven countries have appeared in the "top ten" list for each Olympic Games since 1996, then it should be reworded.Eregli bob (talk) 13:17, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

See #Medals per country section above. I had assumed this had been addressed by now, but apparently not. -- Jao (talk) 13:28, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] History

There is an article entitled History of the modern Olympics.

It is informal and whimsical. It doesn't have much more history than is in this article.

Do we need the history article?

Wanderer57 (talk) 15:26, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

We may at some point want a separate history article if this article gets too unwieldy, but that one certainly isn't it. My recommendation would be to redirect that one here (I don't see anything there that jumps out as worth merging, and there are no sources, but if you can find anything to bring over, feel free). -- Jonel (Speak to me) 16:30, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
Thank you. I have redirected it. Wanderer57 (talk) 17:29, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] 7 or 15 sports?

Quoting the article:

"At the most recent Winter Olympics, seven sports were conducted, or 15 if each sport such as skiing and skating is counted. "

This doesn't make sense as written. Wanderer57 (talk) 20:26, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Yikes. I totally missed that the sentence was nonsensical while dealing with the insertion of "talking" as a sport. I think what the sentence was getting at is the sport/discipline distinction made by the IOC. The 15 comes from 15 disciplines. The IOC groups the disciplines into 7 sports--see Olympic sports for a better explanation. For example, skiing is one sport, but has 6 disciplines. I've tried to rewrite the sentence to make sense. -- Jonel (Speak to me) 21:00, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
Thanks. The terminology is very confusing. Let's see if I have this right.
As an example, within the sport of skating there are two disciplines, figure skating and "ice skating". (of course figure skating is done on ice so the terminology has already gone bad.)
Within the discipline of figure skating there are several events: women's singles, men's singles, pairs, ice dancing (as far as I know). (Within ice skating are a whole bunch of events.)
The sentence about 7 sports and 15 disciplines might be helped with an example to illustrate what "disciplines" mean. Maybe "The sport of skating includes two disciplines, figure skating and "ice skating".
Is the idea of a discipline important enough to bother with? I can't remember ever hearing the term used in connection with the Olympics. Wanderer57 (talk) 22:18, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
Yeah, that's about right. The sport of skating includes the disciplines of figure skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. (However, it does not include ice hockey, which does involve skating as well.) An example would probably be good. I think the main reason we would want to list the number of disciplines is to avoid the confusion of saying "7 sports" and then people looking at a list of disciplines and saying "hey, there are a lot more than 7!" This becomes important because often the terminology is used sloppily—anytime you hear someone make the statement that water polo is an Olympic sport, it's not an accurate use of the Olympic terminology. Water polo is a discipline within the Olympic sport of aquatics (along with swimming, synchronized swimming, and diving). Giving the number of disciplines allows us to use the technically correct terminology, while (at least hopefully) avoiding confusion engendered thereby. -- Jonel (Speak to me) 01:45, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
Just to clarify why this confusion exists: the IOC considers each single "sport" to be managed by individual international federations. In the case of skating, both figure skating and speed skating, though wildly disparate types of competition, are both governed by the International Skating Union (ISU). Therefore, "skating" is one sport. The FIS has governance over quite a few skiing disciplines (alpine, nordic combined, cross-country, freestyle, ski jumping and snowboarding), but interestingly, not biathlon (gov. by IBU), although it is obviously very similar to cross-country skiing. Another wierd anomoly is the winter sliding sports of bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton. At first glance, you'd consider all three related, or at least luge and skeleton together, but in fact, the FIBT governs bobsleigh and skeleton, but luge is governed by the FIL. Therefore, in the Olympic context, bobsleigh and skeleton are two disciplines of one sport and luge is a different sport altogether! — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 20:21, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Audio

hey i got a file of the native name of Olympic games. it goes after the Greek pronunciation. use it if you want.
([Olympiakoi Agones] (help·info))
CuteHappyBrute (talk) 21:26, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Eligibility/Nationality

Following a question on the Reference Desk I scanned this article but found no mention of how an individual qualifies for the Olympics or how their nationality is determined. Perhaps something should be added to the article? Rmhermen (talk) 03:06, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, it would probably be good to have something about that. I'm not sure how much detail we would be able to go into in this article, because qualification criteria vary widely by sport and discipline, and nationality is basically determined by each country's nationality laws. But it certainly should be addressed, if someone could do that. -- Jonel (Speak to me) 22:55, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
contrary to what is said in the article, the first boycott was against the 1936 Berlin games. I have seen this represented as Jewish support, but that wasn't the real issue. The real issue concerned the right of athletes from Northern Ireland to compete under the Irish Tricolour. Britain wanted them to compete under the Union Jack. Nazi Germany supported this view. The IOC agreed with the Nazis. So the Northern Irish athletes refused to travel (including some boxers with good medal prospects). De Valera then said that no Irish athlete would attend. This upset some people. the head of the army equation school resigned. Ireland would have won some show-jumping events. When the Olympics resumed after the war, the IOC were asked if they still accepted the "Nazi view". (putting it that way - they couldn't) So they decided that an athlete can complete for any country which grants him or her citizenship. So it is as you say "nationality is basically determined by each country's nationality laws". Which - in some instances - have proved to be very flexible ClemMcGann (talk) 00:54, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Ancient Olympics Link suggestion

Lost History-Ancient AthletesTokarski21 (talk) 15:32, 25 May 2008 (UTC)