Olympic games;
Olympic Games are an international event in which athletes from different countries participate in various competitions. It is one of the world's biggest competitions where sportsmen from around 225 countries assemble and participate. The games are arranged once in 4 years in a country chosen by IOC. Originally the ancient Olympic Games were held in Olympia Greece from 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de Coubert founded the international Olympic committee (IOC) in 1894.IOC since then has been governing body of the Olympic Games. The Games to be held in Olympics is decided by the committee. Over 14000 athletes participate in approximately 33 different sports and nearly 400 events. The first, second and third finishers in each event is awarded with gold, silver and bronze medals respectively.
The first Games were held under the supervision of IOC was hosted in Athens (Greece) in 1896.In the Games there were 14 nations and 241 athletes who competed in 43 events. It was great success and athletes participated in that Olympics requested to fix Athens to be the permanent venue for the Games but IOC disapproved their request and decided to arrange it different country after every 4 years and decided to fix the second Olympic Games in Paris (France).From 241 participants from 14 nations it increased to 11000 athletes from 204 countries in 2008 Olympics. Now Olympics is famous and all the nations try to send their maximum numbers of athletes in the Games though there are proper targets for them to qualify in the Games.
There are few compulsory things which have to be followed in every Olympic Games like opening and closing ceremonies. The ceremony starts with the hoisting of host nation's flag and playing of its national anthem. Then the host nation presents its cultural activities. After this the athletes parade in to the stadium with their groups of their nation. Greece is the first nation to enter as honor as the Games were started from it. Then nations enter the stadium alphabetically with the host's country athletes entering being the last to enter. Then the Olympic torch is brought in the stadium and passed on until it reaches the final torch carrier who lit the Olympic flame.
The closing ceremony takes place after the completion all the events. Flag bearers from each participating nation enter the stadium followed by the athletes of all nations together. Three national flags are hoisted while the corresponding national anthem is played the flag of Greece, flag of current host nation and the flag of the country which will host the Games next time.
Medal ceremony is held after every Olympic event and the winner, first and second runner up are given gold, silver and bronze medals respectively by the IOC officials. The national flags of all three nations are raised and the national anthem of the gold medalist is played.
There are many sports which are played in the Olympic Games like basketball, Volley ball, Hockey, Handball,swimming,Gymnastics,eightlifting,football,athletics,archery,shooting,softball,tennis,tablle tennis ,bad Minton, horse riding ,wrestling and many more games which are played in the Olympic Games.
In late 1990s the IOC formed WADA - World anti-doping agency to stop athletes using drugs to improve their performance. Several medalists are disqualified in every Olympic Games due to use of drugs.
The host city for and Olympic Games is chosen before 7 years. It’s not easy to get an approval for hosting the Games as they check everything about the city and the country.
India has never hosted Olympic Games till yet though we have hosted Asian Games in 1982 but still we are not prepared for these games to be hosted here but think in coming years we will have the privilege to host these Games in our country too. Our record too is also a concern in the Olympic Games as our few athletes have won Olympic medals in individual events though we have won several medals in Hockey. It needs lot of talent as well as hard work to get medal in these prestigious games. Hope so in next Olympic Games we will improve our record.
Like it on Facebook, Tweet it or share this article on other bookmarking websites.