Olympic Games Firsts and Superlatives

These 25 Olympic Games firsts and superlatives will be fascinating to know.

25 Olympic Games Firsts and Superlatives

1. The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens/ Greece in the summer of 1896.

2. Fourteen countries participated in the first Olympic Games in Greece in 1896: Austria, Australia, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain & Ireland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA.

3. The first Winter Olympics were held in 1924 in Chamonix/ France and these Olympics concentrated on the winter sports including snow and ice sports.

4. Pierre de Coubertin is revered as the ‘Father of Olympics’ as he tried to bridge differences between countries and cultures with the first modern Olympic Games.

5. The first time, women were allowed to participate in the Summer Olympics was in the Paris Games in 1900, However, they only could take part in the tennis, croquet, sailing and golf competitions.

6. Women were allowed to compete in the track and field events only from the Amsterdam Olympics 1928 onwards.

7. Medals were introduced in 1904 for the first, second and third placed athlete of any event in the Olympics.

8. The Olympic flame is a symbol since 1928 and the torch relay was first introduced in the 1936 Berlin Games.

9. The first official Olympic mascot was Waldi, the dachshund and the mascot was introduced in 1972 at the Munich Summer Olympics. The Beijing Olympics in 2008 had with five mascots the most mascots of any Olympic Games.

10. Olympic Games Firsts: In 2021, for the first time humanoid robots will be used at the Olympic events. Mascot-type robots will greet athletes and visitors at the Olympic Games venues in Japan.

11. The most Summer and Winter Olympic Games were hosted by the USA.

12. London is the first and only city to have held three Olympic Games: in 1908, in 1948 and in 2012. London also holds the record to completely sell out all tickets to the Opening Ceremony and the 100 m Sprint Final of the Men in 1912.

13. Tokyo will be the first city in Asia to host the Olympic Games twice. Tokyo held the 1964 Olympics which were the first games which were broadcasted to TV viewers around the world.

14. The People’s Republic of China participated in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1984 in Los Angeles/USA while the Russian teams, then still part of the Soviet Union states or USSR, competed for the first time in the Olympic Games in Helsinki/Finland in 1952.

15. Olympic Games Firsts: The first Olympics held in the Southern Hemisphere were the 1956 Melbourne Olympics in Australia. Only three times the Olympic Games have been held in the Southern Hemisphere: 1956 in Melbourne/ Australia, 2000 in Sydney/ Australia and 2016 in Rio de Janeiro/ Brazil.

16. In 1912 sportsmen from all five inhabited continents (as in: Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania) took part in the Olympic Games in Stockholm/ Sweden.

17. The first Olympic marathon over the standard distance of 42 km/ 26 miles was held in 1908 London Olympics.

18. Usain Bolt is the first man to win and set world records of the 100m and 200m sprint finals.

19. Michael Phelps, swimmer from the USA, is the most decorated Olympian. He won a total of 28 Olympic medals in the olympic games from 2004 to 2016.

20. The first marathon swimming event over 10 km/ 6.2 miles was held in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

21. The first Youth Olympic Games (YOG) were held in Singapore in the summer of 2010. The next Summer YOGs will be held in Dakar in 2022. In the next YOG, about 4500 young athletes aged 14 - 18 years are expected to compete in 35 sports.

22. In 1928, commercial sponsorships were introduced to the Olympics which Coca-Cola signing the first sponsorship contract.

23. The USA lead the all-time medal table with 1022 gold medals, 795 silver medals and 705 bronze medals. The USA lead the all-time medal table already 17 times.

24. The Olympic Games in Brazil 2016 were the games with the most participating athletes - 11,238 athletes took part.

25. The oldest Olympian and Olympic medalist was 72 year old Swedish athlete Oscar Swahn, who competed in the Summer Olympics 1920 in Belgium. His team won in running deer shooting event, which is a discontinued discipline.

26. The youngest Olympian ever was a ten-year old athlete in the first modern Olympics in Greece.

27. The youngest participant in the 2016 Rio Olympics was 13-year old Gaurika Singh from Nepal.

28. The first time a perfect 10 points in gymnastics was achieved by 14-year old Nadia Comăneci from Romania in the Montreal Olympics in 1976.

29. The youngest Olympian in the 2020 Olympics will be eleven-year-old Syrian Hend Zaza. Her sport is table-tennis.

30. At the Brazil Olympics in 2016 a total of 306 Olympic sports events were held. The Tokyo Olympics is set to break this record of the most events held at an Olympics - with 339 scheduled events for the Olympic Games in 2021.

More about the Olympic Games

Japan Facts

Olympic Games Firsts | Resources

The International Olympic Committee. "Olympic Games." Olympic.org. Last accessed 29 November 2022
The International Olympic Committee. "Tokyo 2020." Olympic.org. Last accessed 29 November 2022
Olympic Museum. "Participating Countries in the Olympics 1896." OlympicMuseum.de. Last accessed 29 November 2022
Guinness World Records. "Most participants at a Summer Olympics." GuinessWorldRecords. Last accessed 29 November 2022

Images on the Olympic Games Firsts page: Tokyo Olympics Header Image: Chaay_Tee/ shutterstock.com; torch: KirillS/ shutterstock.comMascots: Octavio Acosta Carlock/ shutterstock.com; Logo: Krovop58/ shutterstock.com