The PyeongChang Olympic Games

PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games

The XXIII Olympic Winter Games—the 2018 Winter Olympics—was held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. South Korea had never hosted the Winter Olympics before! The opening ceremony was on February 9, 2018, and the closing ceremony was on February 25, 2018. Shortly afterward, from March 9 to 18, 2018, were the Paralympic Games.

The athletes in the 2018 Winter Olympics participated in 102 gold medal events, the most there ever were! Six new events were added, including an Alpine skiing team event and big air snowboarding. The motto of the PyeongChang Olympics was: “Passion. Connection.”—or, in Korean, “Hanadoen Yeolijeong.” The 2018 Games’ mascot was Soohorang, a white tiger.

The Ancient Olympics

The ancient Greeks dedicated the Olympic Games to the god Zeus. The original games were held on the plain of Olympia in Peloponnesos, Greece.

The Greeks held the first Olympic games in the year 776 BC (over 2700 years ago), and had only one event, a sprint (a short run that was called the “stade”). The race was run by men who competed in the nude. A wreath of olive branches was placed on the winner’s head (in Greek, this is called a kotinos). The olive tree was the sacred tree of Athens, Greece.

Women were neither allowed to compete in the games nor to watch them, because the games were dedicated to Zeus and were therefore meant for men.

The four-year period between the Olympic games was called an olympiad. Every four years, for 1,170 years, the Greeks held an Olympics, which continued to grow and change. Many other sports were added, including other races, wrestling, boxing, pentathlon (five events, including the long jump, javelin throw, discus throw, foot race, and wrestling), and equestrian events (events with horses and people, like chariot races and horse races) The Olympic games were banned by the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II in the year AD 394.

The Modern Olympics

Over a fifteen hundred years later, Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (1863-1937) (a French educator and sportsman) revived the Olympic Games. An all-male Olympic games were held in 1896, in Athens, Greece. The first winter Olympics were held in 1924, in Chamonix, France.

The Flag of the Olympic Games

The flag of the Olympic Games has five interlocking rings (blue, yellow, black, green, and red) on a white ground. The rings represent the five parts of the world that were joined together in the Olympic movement: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe. Baron de Coubertin designed the flag of the Olympics in 1913-1914.

The Olympic flag was first used in the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium. The Olympic flag is paraded during the opening ceremony of each Olympic Games. At the end of an Olympics, the mayor of the host-city presents the flag to the mayor of the next host-city. The flag will remain in the town hall of the next host-city until the next Olympic Games, four years later.

History of the Olympic Flame

The tradition of the Olympic flame began during the ancient Olympic Games, over 2700 years ago in Greece. A flame was lit for each Olympics, every four years, and it burned throughout the games. The flame symbolized the death and rebirth of Greek heroes. There was no torch relay in the ancient Olympics. The first torch relay took place at the 1936 games in Berlin, Germany.

The Torches of the Olympics

For each Olympics, a new flame is started in the ancient Olympic stadium in Olympia, Elis, Greece, using a parabolic mirror to focus the rays of the Sun. This flame begins its Olympic Torch Relay by touring Greece. The flame is normally taken to the country where the games will be held (usually by airplane). Following that, the flame is then carried around the country where the games are to be held, using a series of torches carried by people running, walking, riding horses and camels, scuba diving, and using other means of human conveyance. The last runner uses a torch to light the large Olympic torch which burns throughout the games. The flame is extinguished during the closing ceremony. A new Olympic torch is designed for each of the games.

The Olympic Motto

The Olympic motto is, “Citius, Altius, Fortius,” which means “Swifter, Higher, Stronger.”

Olympic Events

The events in the Winter Olympics include: ice hockey, figure skating, speed skating, snowboarding, luge, bobsleigh, skeleton (a type of sledding), curling, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, slalom, downhill (Alpine) skiing, freestyle skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined (skiing plus ski jumping), and biathlon (skiing and shooting).

The events in the Summer Olympics include: archery, badminton, baseball, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, diving, equestrian, fencing, football (soccer), gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, kayaking, marathon, pentathlon, ping pong, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, taekwando, tennis, track and field (many running, jumping, and throwing events), triathlon, volleyball, water polo, weightlifting, and wrestling (freestyle and Greco-Roman).

Olympic Medals

At the Ancient Olympics, a wreath of olive branches was placed on the winner’s head (in Greek, this is called a kotinos).

At the modern Olympics, each first-place winner receives a gold medal, each second-place winner receives a silver medal, and each third-place winner receives a bronze medal (the bronze medal was introduced in 1904). Different medals are designed for each new Olympics. Certificates called victory diplomas are also given to many top winners in each sport.