Birds of a Writer: Interesting Facts- The Olympics.

So in honor of the Olympics, I've decided to do an Olympic themed post tonight (and probably one every day this week except for Thursday and Saturday).

At the first Olympic Summer Games in 1896, Greece, the host country, won the most medals with 47.
The country to win the most medals at the Winter Games is Norway with 263.
At the Summer Games, the U.S.A has won more medals then any other country (with a total of 2, 189).
The five Olympic rings represent the five major regions in the world- Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Ocaeana.
The Olympic founder, Baron Pierre de Coubertin claimed that at least one of the ring's colors are in every flag in the world (blue, yellow, black, green, red, and including the white background).
London will be the only city to have hosted the Games three times- in 1908, 1948, and 2012.
Only three continents have never hosted the Olympics (Africa, South America, and Antarctica).
The Summer Olympic sports are archery, badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, canoe / kayak, cycling, diving, equestrian, fencing, field hockey, gymnastics, handball, judo, modern pentathlon (shooting, fencing, swimming, show jumping, and running), mountain biking, rowing, sailing, shooting, soccer, swimming, synchronized swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, track and field, triathlon (swimming, biking, running), volleyball, water polo, weightlifting, and wrestling.
The Winter Olympic sports are alpine skiing, biathlon (cross-country skiing and target shooting), bobsled, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hocky, luge, Nordic combined (ski jumping and cross-country skiing), skeleton, ski jumping, snowboarding, and speed skating.
The Olympic torch happened in ancient Olympia (Greece) too. There, the flame was ignited by the sun and kept burning until the Games ended. In our modern day, the torch is lit at Olympia by women wearing ancient-stlye robes and they use a curved mirror and the sun. Then its passed from runner to runner until it reaches the host city. After that, its kept alight until the games have ended.
The last Olympic gold medals to be made entirely out of hold, were given in 1912.
During the opening ceremony, the procession of athletes is led by teh Greek team, the followed by all the other teams in alphabetical order (in the language of the host country) and then the last team is always the host country.
When the Olympic commitee chooses locations, they always give the honor to a city rather then a country.
At the 1904 Paris Games, the winners were given paintings instead of medals because the French believed that they would be worth more.
A ten year old gymnast from Greece, Dimitrios Loundras, is said to be the youngest participant in the Olympic Games, but there's also said the be a French boy who was recuited at seven by the Dutch team who won the Coxed Rairs Rowing Race at the 1900 Games. But he got bored and went off before anyone got his name.
Over 117 years, only three Olympic Games have been cancelled. Each time was because of a World War (1916, 1940, and 1944).
Over the years, some of the events dropped from the Games inlcude, tug-of-war, Pelote Bisque, Cricket, Polo, and shooting live pigeons.
In the first Olympic Games, only nine events were given: athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, swimming, tennis, weightlifting, and wrestling. All of these except tennis have been freatured at every subsequent Games. Tennis was dropped in 1928 but came back in 1988.