Welcome to the Modern Olympics page!! On this site you will be trained like the Olympians until you are an Olympics expert!

Okay. So here's the scoop. The modern Olympic Games started in 1896. They consisted of 13 nations and 311 competitors, all of which were males.

The first place winners of the events were all awarded with certificates, silver medals, and olive branch crowns. The second place winners received certificates and crowns of Laurel Leaves.

The 1896 games were funded by a Greek architect by the name of Georgios Averoff. Also, some extra money was brought in by the sale of Olympic stamps and medals.

The actual planning for the 1896 games started in 1894 by Barron Pierre de Coubertin, a member of the International Olympics Committee (IOC).

In the 1896 Olympics, there were about 42 events in 9 sports. That's an average of almost five events per sport!!!!!!!!

In the 2000 Olympic Games in Sidney, Australia, there will be over 30 main events, and some will have many sub-events (basically an event within an event or a variation. For example in swimming there is also synchronized swimming, freestyle swimming, and so forth).

For many years the Olympic Games were for amateur athletes only. Today, pros can compete too. Just think, if the rules had never been changed, famous athletes such as Grant Hill, Michael Jordan, and Wayne Gretzky might never have been in the Olympics!!!

Since 1994, the United States Olympic Committee awarded American gold medal winners $15,000, silver medalists $10,000, bronze medalists $7,500, and fourth place winners $5000. So if you won two gold medals, you'd get $30,000!!!!

O.K. So those are some tidbits on the modern Olympics. Now here's one more:

The Opening Ceremonies

The opening ceremony begins with the torch marathon. People from all over the world take turns carrying the torch to the next person until the last person gets it and takes it into the Olympic Stadium. Here's how the ceremony works. First, all of the teams (countries) parade into the stadium led by the Greek team. The home team is the "caboose" or the last team to enter. After all teams have entered, the Olympic hymn is played and then the flag is raised. Then the final torch carrier enters the stadium with the torch. And finally it closes with the ceremonial release of the doves.

Well that's basically the basics about the modern Olympics. Now compare and contrast it to our Ancient Olympics page and see all the differences. Pretty cool, huh?