Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, was where the year 2002 Winter Olympics were held. For information on Utah, click here. For a page on Utah's flag, click here.

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, ski jumping, Nordic combined (skiing plus ski jumping), and biathlon (skiing and shooting).

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. The motto of the Olympic Games is "Citius, altius, fortius" (meaning "Faster, higher, stronger" in Latin).

History of the Olympics Flag:
Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (1863-1937), a French educator and sportsman, revived the Olympic Games in 1896. He designed the flag of the Olympics in 1913-1914.

The 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.

Greece Geography, maps, the flag, and printouts on Greece.

The Ancient Olympics:
The ancient Greeks held the first Olympic games in the year 776 BC, and had only one event. Every four years, for 1,170 years, the Greeks held an Olympics, which continued to grow and change. The Olympic games were banned by the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II in the year AD 394.

The Torch 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 then taken to the country where the games will be held (usually by airplane). 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.

History of the Torch
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 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 occured at the 1936 games in Berlin, Germany.

The Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Torch Relay
The Olympic flame was lit by the sun's rays in Olympia, Greece (where the first Olympics were held). It arrived at Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday, December 4, 2001, aboard a plane from Athens, Greece. The flame was used to light a cauldron from which the first torch was lit.

The first torch of this Olympics was lit by boxing great Muhammad Ali (Ali was a 3-time heavyweight boxing champion of the world and also won the light heavyweight boxing gold medal at the Rome Olympics in 1960). After lighting the first torch, Ali handed it to Peggy Fleming (who won the Olympic gold medal in figure skating in Grenoble, France, in 1968) for the start of the Olympic Torch Relay, which began at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 4, 2001.

The Olympic Flame was carried 13,500 miles (21,600 km) across 46 US states to Salt Lake City, Utah (on February 8, 2002), by 11,500 Torchbearers. The flame was carried on foot, by plane, train, ship, dog sled, horse-drawn sled, and snowmobile. Each torchbearer wore an official white uniform - this is an Olympic practice.

The Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Torch
The 2002 Olympic Torches are made of glass, silver and copper. They are designed to look like a mountain icicle, with the flame emerging from a frosted glass top. The motto of this Olympics, "Light the Fire Within," is written on each torch, along with the Salt Lake City Olympic logo.

Each torch is 33 inches long, 3 inches wide at the top and 0.5 inches wide at the bottom; they weigh about 3 pounds each. No two torches are exactly the same.

Olympics-Related Printouts and Activities:

Jesse Owens One of the greatest track and field athletes of all time. Or go to the printable version.

The Olympic Flag - Color an Olympics flag and read about the man who revived the Olympics and designed its flag.

An Olympics Crossword Puzzle - see how many Olympics terms you know.

An Olympics Quiz to use with the Picture Dictionary Little Explorers. Print out the quiz, then find the answers online using Little Explorers. This is a fun scavenger hunt activity for students.

Jesse Owens, an Olympic athlete and one the greatest track and field athletes ever. Or go to a printable version.

Cloze Activity on Jesse Owens Do a fill-in-the-blanks activity on Jesse Owens. Or go to the answers.

The Sydney Olympic Torch

Invent A New Olympic Sport There are many unusual Olympic sports, like skeleton (running and then sledding), biathlon (skiing plus shooting), and curling (using brooms to propel an object over ice). Make up a new sport that would be fun to watch and play.

Olympics Online Coloring Pages:

The Olympic Flag

Medals to Print Out and Award to Kids:

Student Medals Medals you can print, decorate, and award to students for outstanding performances in sports, spelling, math, and other subjects. Black-and-white or color printouts.

Student Medals Medals you can print, decorate, and award to students for outstanding performances in sports, spelling, math, and other subjects. Black-and-white or color printouts.

Sites of the Modern-Day Olympics:

Locations of the Modern-Day Summer Olympics

Locations of the Modern-Day Winter Olympics

1896 - Athens, Greece 1900 - Paris, France 1904 - St. Louis, Missouri, USA 1906 - Athens, Greece 1908 - London, England 1912 - Stockholm, Sweden 1916 - Canceled 1920 - Antwerp, Belgium 1924 - Paris, France 1928 - Amsterdam, Holland 1932 - Los Angeles, California, USA 1936 - Berlin, Germany 1940 - Canceled 1944 - Canceled 1948 - London, England 1952 - Helsinki, Finland 1956 - Melbourne, Australia 1960 - Rome, Italy 1964 - Tokyo, Japan 1968 - Mexico City, Mexico 1972 - Munich, Germany 1976 - Montreal, Quebec, Canada 1980 - Moscow, USSR 1984 - Los Angeles, California, USA 1988 - Seoul, South Korea 1992 - Barcelona, Spain 1996 - Atlanta, Georgia, USA 2000 - Sydney, Australia 2004 - Athens, Greece 2008 - Beijing, China 2012 - London, United Kingdom 2016 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2020 - Tokyo, Japan

1924 - Chamonix, France 1928 - St. Moritz, Switzerland 1932 - Lake Placid, New York, USA 1936 - Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany 1940 - Canceled 1944 - Canceled 1948 - St. Moritz, Switzerland 1952 - Oslo, Norway 1956 - Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy 1960 - Squaw Valley, California, USA 1964 - Innsbruck, Austria 1968 - Grenoble, France 1972 - Sapporo, Japan 1976 - Innsbruck, Austria 1980 - Lake Placid, New York, USA 1984 - Sarajevo, Yugoslavia 1988 - Calgary, Alberta, Canada 1992 - Albertville, France 1994 - Lillehammer, Norway 1998 - Nagano, Japan 2002 - Salt Lake City, Utah, USA 2006 - Turin, Italy 2010 - Vancouver, Canada 2014 - Sochi, Russia 2018 - PyeongChang, South Korea

Links:

The 2000 Sydney Olympic Torch

The Olympic Medals - Sydney 2000 - see the Australian and Greek imagery in the medals awarded to the winners.