Over the years, many different places have held either the summer or the winter Olympics. Though the Winter Olympics did not begin until 1924 when they were held in Chamonix, the Summer Olympics began in Athens in 1896. Counting that Summer Olympics, these games have been held in Athens three times! Following the original games, Paris held the Summer Olympics in 1900, than St. Louis in 1904, and finally Athens again in 1906. Oddly, in 1904, 1906, and 1908, the Olympics were held every other year instead of every fourth. After the 1908 Olympics in London, the intervals went back to four. That 6-year period was the only exception to the rule—ever. The only time the Olympics has not been held every four years since than was when they had to be canceled, for whatever reason, and than they would be again held in 4 years, no rain check. The first place at which the Olympics were canceled was in Berlin, 1916. Eight years later, when the Summer Olympics were being held in Paris for the second time, is when the Winter Olympics began. They too persist once every four years, with one exception. Winter of 1994, the Winter Olympics was held in Norway even though it had been held two years before in Albertville. This is when the Winter and Summer Olympics began happening on different years. Up until this point, they occurred on the same years. Now, there will be the Summer Olympics one year, the Winter Olympics two years later, than the Summer Olympics two years after that. The most current locations of the Summer Olympics are Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004, and this year, 2008, which is going to be held in Beijing, China. For the Winter Olympics, the most current locations have been Salt Lake City in 2002, Turin in 2006, and they are going to happen in Vancouver in 2010!

As you can see, there have been many different locations for the Olympic Games. The IOC, the acronym for International Olympic Committee, has specifically chosen each one of these. The host city is completely responsible for providing food, housing, and transportation for all of the athletes as well as supplying the media with housing. The chosen city must also have the correct finances cover the preparation and all facilities that are to be used by the Olympians, design and produce the prizes, meeting the accommodations of the ICO’s and IF’s as well as any referees judges attending the Games, and having an electronic signal for televisions world wide. Those are the minimum requirements of any city chosen to host the Olympics, so, as you can probably guess, not many can meet them. Imagine having to accommodate that many people as well as prepare for the actual games, hosting the Olympics is not an easy task!

Sources

Infoplease. "Olympic Locations Throughout The Years." Teachervision. 2000. Pearson Education Inc.. 8 Feb 2008 <http://www.teachervision.fen.com/olympic-games/history/2259.html>.

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“After the 1936 'Nazi Games', nearly 90 percent of the (Summer) Olympics have been held in capitals or big cities of similar size and used to boost the prestige of the host countries. This trend deviates from the true principle of the Olympics.”

Arata Isozaki

Last modified: 04/02/08