The International Olympic Committee is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IOC is the authority responsible for organizing the Summer, Winter, and Youth Olympics. The IOC also is the governing body of the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and of the worldwide Olympic Movement, the IOC's term for all entities and individuals involved in the Olympic Games. As of 2020, 206 NOCs officially were recognized by the IOC. The IOC president has been Thomas Bach since 2013.
Nawal El Moutawakel is a Moroccan former hurdler, who won the inaugural women's 400 metres hurdles event at the 1984 Summer Olympics, and is the first Moroccan, Arab, African, and Muslim woman to win an Olympic gold. In 2007, El Moutawakel was named the Minister of Sports in the upcoming cabinet of Morocco.
The modern Olympic Games are the world's leading international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost sports competition, with more than 200 teams, representing sovereign states and territories, participating. By default, the Games generally substitute for any world championships during the year in which they take place. The Olympics are staged every four years. Since 1994, they have alternated between the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years during the four-year Olympiad.
Charles Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin, also known as Pierre de Coubertin and Baron de Coubertin, was a French educator and historian, co-founder of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and its second president. He is known as the father of the modern Olympic Games. He was particularly active in promoting the introduction of sport in French schools.
The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, Greece, and the most recent was held in 2024 in Paris, France. This was the first international multi-sport event of its kind, organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) founded by Pierre de Coubertin. The tradition of awarding medals began in 1904; in each Olympic event, gold medals are awarded for first place, silver medals for second place, and bronze medals for third place. The Winter Olympic Games were created out of the success of the Summer Olympic Games, which are regarded as the largest and most prestigious multi-sport international event in the world.
The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad and officially branded as Montreal 1976, were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam on May 12, 1970, over the bids of Moscow and Los Angeles. It was the first and, so far, only Summer Olympic Games to be held in Canada. Toronto hosted the 1976 Summer Paralympics the same year as the Montreal Olympics, which still remains the only Summer Paralympics to be held in Canada. Calgary and Vancouver later hosted the Winter Olympic Games in 1988 and 2010, respectively. This was the first of two consecutive Olympic games held in North America, followed by the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.
Nine cities submitting bids to host the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics[a] were recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Committee shortlisted five of them—London, Madrid, Moscow, New York City, and Paris—from which London eventually prevailed; thus becoming the first city to host the Olympic Games for a third time. The bidding process for the 2012 Olympics was considered one of the most hotly contested in the history of the IOC. Paris was seen by some as the front-runner for much of the campaign, but skillful lobbying by London's supporters and an inspirational final presentation by Sebastian Coe led to the success of its bid.
At the 1900 Summer Olympics, twenty-three athletics events were contested. Altogether, 117 athletes from 15 nations competed. A total of 68 medals were awarded. In many countries, due in part to the conflation of the Olympic Games and the World's Fair in Paris, the media discussed only the athletics events under the "Olympic" name while ignoring the incredible variety of other sports featured at the time.
Ten cities submitted bids to host the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics that were recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), five of which made the IOC Executive Committee's shortlist. The games were awarded to Beijing, China on July 13, 2001. The other shortlisted cities were Toronto, Paris, Istanbul and Osaka. Beijing won an absolute majority of votes after two rounds of voting, eliminating the need for subsequent rounds of voting. IOC delegates and the media identified a number of factors in its favor, including the size of the country, improvements in Chinese anti-doping enforcement, and its close loss to Sydney, Australia eight years earlier. In that bidding process, which chose the host city for the 2000 Summer Olympics, Beijing led every round of voting but lost in the final round to Sydney by two votes.
Ferdinand Reinhardt Bie was a Norwegian track and field athlete. At the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, he won the silver medal in pentathlon. On winner Jim Thorpe's subsequent disqualification for having played semi-professional baseball in 1913, Bie was declared Olympic champion, but refused to accept the gold medal from the IOC. In 1982 Thorpe was reinstated as champion by the IOC; however, Bie was still listed as co-champion until the IOC announced 15 July 2022 that Thorpe's gold medal had been reinstated and Bie became the silver medalist.
Richard William Duncan Pound, better known as Dick Pound, is a Canadian swimming champion, lawyer, and spokesman for ethics in sport. He was the first president of the World Anti-Doping Agency and vice-president of the International Olympic Committee. He is currently the longest-serving member of the IOC.
Thomas Bach is a German lawyer, former foil fencer, and Olympic gold medalist. He has served as the ninth and current president of the International Olympic Committee since 2013, the first ever Olympic champion to be elected to that position. Bach is also a former German individual foil champion, and former member of the German Olympic Sports Confederation's executive board.
Three cities applied with bids to host the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in October 2009. The International Olympic Committee, under the leadership of Jacques Rogge, received three bids on October 15, 2009. The cities of Annecy, France, in the French Alps, Munich, Germany, and Pyeongchang, South Korea, a two-time previous bidder, competed for the hosting rights to the event. This was the lowest number of bidding cities since the 1988 Summer Olympics, coincidentally also won by South Korea. The winning bid was announced on July 6, 2011, at the 123rd IOC Session in Durban, South Africa by IOC President Jacques Rogge at 5.22 pm local time Pyeongchang beat Munich and Annecy in the first round of votes with 63 of the 95 total votes.
The Men's 110 metres hurdles event at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal was held on July 26, 1976, and on July 28, 1976. Twenty-four athletes from 17 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress.
The men's 110 metres hurdles event at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich was held from 3–7 September. Thirty-nine athletes from 27 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Rod Milburn of the United States, the nation's ninth of nine consecutive victories and the 15th overall gold medal in the event for the Americans. Guy Drut's silver was France's first medal in the event and the best result by a non-American since 1936.
The Ottoz family is a sporting family consisting of many athletes, one of whom became a manager in the world of athletics.
Athletes have competed as independent Olympians at the Olympic Games for various reasons, including political transition, international sanctions, suspensions of National Olympic Committees, and compassion. Independent athletes have come from North Macedonia, East Timor, South Sudan and Curaçao following geopolitical changes in the years before the Olympics, from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a result of international sanctions, and from India and Kuwait due to the suspensions of their National Olympic Committees. Starting from 2018, athletes from Russia have competed under a neutral designation for various reasoms, mainly mass violations of anti-doping rules and since 2022, the Belarus-assisted invasion of Ukraine.
Karate was an event held in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. It was the debut appearance of karate at the Summer Olympics. Karate was one of four optional sports added to the Olympic program specifically for 2020, rather than as a permanent sport. After it was announced not to be included in 2024, in August 2022 it was announced that karate had made the shortlist for inclusion in the 2028 Games, although it was ultimately not selected.
The rate of participation of women in the Olympic Games has been increasing since their first participation in 1900. Some sports are uniquely for women, others are contested by both sexes, while some older sports remain for men only. Studies of media coverage of the Olympics consistently show differences in the ways in which women and men are described and the ways in which their performances are discussed. The representation of women on the International Olympic Committee has historically run well behind the rate of female participation, and long missed its target of a 20% minimum presence of women on their committee. As of 2023, 41.1% of members are women. The 2024 Paris Olympics were notable for being the first to have the goal of achieving gender parity between men and women.
Paris 2008 was an unsuccessful bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics by the city of Paris and the French Olympic Committee. Paris previously hosted the 1900 Summer Olympics and the 1924 Summer Olympics. The bid made it to the final IOC vote, with Osaka being eliminated in the first round, but gained only 18 votes to Istanbul's 9, Toronto's 22 and Beijing's 56.
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