The Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event featuring both summer and winter sports, held every two years with Summer and Winter Olympic Games alternating. During Olympic Games opening ceremonies, the sitting president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will make a speech before inviting a representative from the host country to officially declare that particular Games open. The current Olympic Charter requires this person to be the head of state of the host country, [1] although this has not always been the case. This article lists the people who have had the ceremonial duty to declare each Olympic Games open.
The IOC factsheet on the opening ceremony states: "According to the Olympic Charter protocol, the duty of declaring the Games officially open falls to the head of state of the host country. Those who have performed this task are royalty and presidents, or their representatives, whether it was a vice-president, a member of the royal family, or a governor-general". [2] [3] Rule 56 of Chapter 5 of the Olympic Charter sets out the exact words that are to be declared by the person opening the Games. If at a Summer Olympic Games, the words to be said are:
I declare open the Games of [name of the host city], celebrating the [ordinal number of the Olympiad] Olympiad of the modern era. [1]
When at a Winter Olympic Games, the dignitary opening the Games is to proclaim:
I declare open the [number of the Olympic Winter Games] Olympic Winter Games of [name of the host city]. [1]
However, this has not always been followed strictly;
On 30 July 1932, U.S. vice president Charles Curtis opened the Los Angeles Summer Olympics with:
On 1 August 1936, Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany, opened the Games in Berlin in exact format in German:
On 29 July 1948, King George VI of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, opened the Olympic Games of London in exact format:
On 19 July 1952, Juho Kusti Paasikivi, President of Finland, opened the Olympic Games on Helsinki in exact format in English and Finnish:
On 22 November 1956, the Duke of Edinburgh opened the Games of Melbourne in exact format:
On 27 August 1960, Giovanni Gronchi, President of the Italian Republic, declares the Summer Olympics in Rome open by speaking in Italian:
On 10 October 1964, Emperor Hirohito of Japan, opened the Summer Olympics in Tokyo by speaking in Japanese:
On 12 October 1968, Mexican president Gustavo Diaz Ordaz opened the Games of Mexico City in Spanish:
On 26 August 1972, German president Gustav Heinemann opened the Games of Munich speaking in German:
On 17 July 1976, Elizabeth II, as Queen of Canada, opened the Montreal Olympics (first in French followed by the English) with:
On 19 July 1980, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev opened the Moscow Summer Olympics speaking in Russian:
On 28 July 1984, U.S. president Ronald Reagan opened the Los Angeles Summer Olympics with:
On 17 September 1988, President of the Republic of Korea, Roh Tae-woo opened the Summer Olympics in Seoul by speaking in Korean:
On 25 July 1992, King Juan Carlos I of Spain opened the Barcelona Summer Olympics by saying:
On 12 February 1994, King Harald V of Norway opened the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer by speaking in Norwegian:
On 19 July 1996, U.S. president Bill Clinton opened the Atlanta Summer Olympics with the exact format:
On 7 February 1998, Emperor Akihito of Japan opened the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano by speaking in Japanese:
On 15 September 2000, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia Sir William Deane opened the Sydney Summer Olympics with the exact format:
On 8 February 2002, U.S. president George W. Bush opened the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, which took place five months after the September 11 attacks using the format of the Summer Games declaration with:
On 13 August 2004, Konstantinos Stephanopoulos, President of the Hellenic Republic, opened the Athens Summer Olympics, by speaking in Greek:
On 10 February 2006, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, President of the Italian Republic, opened the Turin Olympic Winter Games using the format of the Summer Games declaration by speaking in Italian:
On 8 August 2008, Hu Jintao, the President of the People's Republic of China, opened the Beijing Summer Olympics by speaking in Mandarin:
On 12 February 2010, the Governor General of Canada, Michaëlle Jean, opened the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver using the format of the Summer Games declaration by saying in French and English:
On 27 July 2012, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, declared the opening of the 2012 London Summer Olympics with the exact format:
On 7 February 2014, Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, declares the opening of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics by speaking in Russian:
On 5 August 2016, Brazilian vice president Michel Temer, as acting president during the suspension of President Dilma Rousseff's powers and duties, opened the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro by speaking in Brazilian Portuguese:
On 9 February 2018, Moon Jae-in, President of the Republic of Korea, declares the opening of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics by speaking in Korean:
On 23 July 2021, Emperor Naruhito opened the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo (which was postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic), by speaking in Japanese:
On 4 February 2022, Xi Jinping, the President of the People's Republic of China, opened the Beijing Winter Olympics by speaking in Mandarin:
On 26 July 2024, Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, declares the opening of the Paris Summer Olympics by speaking in French:
As of 2024, there have been 50 different individuals who opened either the Summer or Winter Olympic Games. Four of them have done so more than once. German führer Adolf Hitler was the first person to open more than one Olympic Games; he opened the 1936 Winter and Summer Olympics, both of which were hosted in Germany. He remains the only one to open more than one Games in the same year.
Italian president Giovanni Gronchi opened the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo and the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. He was the first democratically elected head of state to open more than one Olympic Games.
Japanese emperor Hirohito opened the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo. He was the first non-European to open more than one Olympic Games.
Queen Elizabeth II opened the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada, and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Great Britain. The first and only head of state to open the Summer Games more than once, she was also the only woman to open any Summer Olympics as of 2024, and the only one to do so in different host countries. Aside from declaring open the Games by herself, she was represented during the declaration four times: in the 1956 and 2000 Summer Olympics – both were held in Australia – as well as the 1988 and 2010 Winter Olympics – both were held in Canada. The first woman to open any Olympic Games was Princess Ragnhild of Norway in 1952. Aged 21, she was also the youngest person to have opened the Olympic Games.
Norwegian King Harald V became the first person to open both the regular Olympics and Youth Olympics, having opened the 1994 Winter and 2016 Winter Youth Games. He was followed by Chinese president and Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping, who opened the 2014 Summer Youth and 2022 Winter Games.
Canadian Governor General Michaëlle Jean became the first Black person to open any Olympic Games.
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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.
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 1996 Summer Olympics were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. These were the fourth Summer Olympics to be hosted by the United States, making it the first country to have three different cities host the Summer Olympics. It also marked the 100th anniversary of the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, the inaugural edition of the modern Olympic Games. These were also the first Summer Olympics to be held in a different year than the Winter Olympics since the Winter Olympics commenced in 1924, as part of a new IOC practice implemented in 1994 to hold the Summer and Winter Games in alternating, even-numbered years. The 1996 Games were the first of the two consecutive Summer Olympics to be held in a predominantly English-speaking country, preceding the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. These were also the last Summer Olympics to be held in North America until 2028, when Los Angeles will host the games for the third time.
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.
The 1928 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the IX Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated from 28 July to 12 August 1928 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The city of Amsterdam had previously bid for the 1920 and 1924 Olympic Games. Still, it was obliged to give way to war-torn Antwerp in Belgium for the 1920 Games and Pierre de Coubertin's Paris for the 1924 Games.
The 1920 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad and commonly known as Antwerp 1920, were an international multi-sport event held in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium.
The 1916 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the VI Olympiad, were scheduled to be held in Berlin, Germany. However, they were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War I, the first time in their twenty-year history of the games. Berlin was selected as the host city during the 14th IOC Session in Stockholm on 4 July 1912, defeating bids from Alexandria, Amsterdam, Brussels, Budapest and Cleveland. After the 1916 Games were cancelled, Berlin would eventually host the 1936 Summer Olympics, twenty years later.
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The opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics was held on August 13, 2004 starting at 20:45 EEST (UTC+3) at the Olympic Stadium in Marousi, Greece, a suburb of Athens. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings combined the formal and ceremonial opening of this international sporting event, including welcoming speeches, hoisting of the flags and the parade of athletes, with an artistic spectacle to showcase the host nation's culture and history. 72,000 spectators attended the event, with approximately 15,000 athletes from 202 countries participating in the ceremony as well. It marked the first-ever international broadcast of high-definition television, undertaken by the U.S. media conglomerate NBC Universal and the Japanese broadcaster NHK. The Games were officially opened by President of the Hellenic Republic Konstantinos Stephanopoulos at 23:46 EEST (UTC+3).
National Olympic Committees that wish to host an Olympic Games select cities within their territories to put forth bids for the Olympic Games. The staging of the Paralympic Games is automatically included in the bid. Since the creation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, which successfully appropriated the name of the Ancient Greek Olympics to create a modern sporting event, interested cities have rivaled for selection as host of the Summer or Winter Olympic Games. 51 different cities have been chosen to host the modern Olympics: three in Eastern Europe, five in East Asia, one in South America, three in Oceania, nine in North America and all the others in Western Europe. No Central American, African, Central Asian, Middle Eastern, South Asian, or Southeast Asian city has ever been chosen to host an Olympics.
The all-time medal table for all Olympic Games from 1896 to 2024, including Summer Olympic Games, Winter Olympic Games, and a combined total of both, is tabulated below. These Olympic medal counts do not include the 1906 Intercalated Games which are no longer recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as official Games. The IOC itself does not publish all-time tables, and publishes unofficial tables only per single Games. This table was thus compiled by adding up single entries from the IOC database.
The 2014 Summer Youth Olympics, officially known as the II Summer Youth Olympic Games Chinese: 第二届夏季青年奧林匹克运动会; pinyin: Dì'èrjiè Xiàjì Qīngnián Àolínpǐkè Yùndònghuì, and commonly known as Nanjing 2014, were the second Summer Youth Olympic Games, an international sports, education and cultural festival for teenagers, held from 16 to 28 August 2014 in Nanjing, China. These were the first Youth Olympic Games held in China, making it the first country to host both regular and Youth Olympics following the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
The Olympic Games ceremonies of the ancient Olympic Games were an integral part of the games; modern Olympic Games have opening, closing, and medal ceremonies. Some of the elements of the modern ceremonies date back to the ancient games from which the modern Olympics draw their ancestry. An example of this is the prominence of Greece in both the opening and closing ceremonies. During the 2004 Summer Olympics, the medal winners received a crown of olive branches, which was a direct reference to the ancient games, in which the victor's prize was an olive wreath. The various elements of ceremonies are mandated by the Olympic Charter, and cannot be changed by the host nation. Host nations are required to seek the approval of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for ceremony elements, including the artistic portions of the opening and closing ceremonies.
The president of the International Olympic Committee is head of the executive board that assumes the general overall responsibility for the administration of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the management of its affairs. The IOC Executive Board consists of the chairman president, four vice-presidents, and ten other IOC members; all of the board members are elected by the IOC Session, using a secret ballot, by a majority vote.
The 2022 Winter Olympics closing ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium in Beijing on 20 February 2022. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings are expected to combine the formal ceremonial closing of this international sporting event with an artistic spectacle to showcase the culture and history of the current and next host nation (Italy) for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.
The closing ceremony of the 1988 Summer Olympics took place at Seoul Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea, on 2 October 1988 at 19:00 -20:45 KDT (UTC+10).
The opening ceremony of the 1988 Summer Olympics took place at Seoul Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea, on 17 September 1988 at 10:30 KDT (UTC+10). The official song of this game was "Hand in Hand", which was performed by Koreana. The Games were officially opened by President of the Republic of Korea Roh Tae-woo.