The Olympics

The first modern Olympic Games were in Athens, Greece, in 1896. The 1896 Olympics were small. There were only nine sports with 254 athletes from only 14 countries. 200 of those athletes were from Greece. In the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Brazil, there were 28 sports with 11,554 athletes from 207 countries. The Olympics are really huge now!

There weren’t any women in the Olympic Games in 1896, but in the 1900 Olympics, there were 14 women in croquet, golf, sailing and tennis. In the 2016 Olympics, 45% of all the athletes were women.

There were no Olympic Games in 1916 because of the First World War, but the games started again in 1920. In 1940 and 1944 there weren’t any games again, this time because of World War II. Now the Olympic Games happen every four years.