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 host city] celebrating the [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 host city]. [1]
However, this has not always been followed strictly;
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 Heinmann 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 with, following the 500th anniversary of the Alhambra Decree and exploration of the New World:
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, accompanied by the Adjutant to the President of the Hellenic Republic, Air Force Colonel Georgios Dritsakos, 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, declares the opening of the 2012 London Summer Olympics, following the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne, 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), following the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan earthquake, 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:
As of 2022, there have been 49 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. She is the first woman to open more than one Olympic Games, first woman to open any Summer Olympics, 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.
In 1952, Princess Ragnhild of Norway became the first woman to open any Olympic Games.
Chinese president and Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping became the first person to open both the Youth Olympics and regular Olympics, having opened the 2014 Summer Youth and 2022 Winter Games.
Notes:
Year | Games | Host city | Officially opened by | Office of opener | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | I Summer | Singapore | S.R. Nathan | President of the Republic of Singapore | |
2012 | I Winter | Innsbruck, Austria | Heinz Fischer | Federal President of the Republic of Austria | |
2014 | II Summer | Nanjing, China PR | Xi Jinping | President of the People's Republic of China [lower-alpha 1] | |
2016 | II Winter | Lillehammer, Norway | Harald V | King of Norway | |
2018 | III Summer | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Mauricio Macri | President of the Argentine Republic | |
2020 | III Winter | Lausanne, Switzerland | Simonetta Sommaruga | President of the Swiss Confederation [lower-alpha 2] | |
2024 | IV Winter | Gangwon Province, Republic of Korea | Yoon Suk Yeol | President of the Republic of Korea | |
2026 | IV Summer | Dakar, Senegal | TBD | President of the Republic of Senegal (expected) |
Notes:
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics are the leading international sporting events featuring 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 the year in which they take place. The Olympic Games are normally held every four years, and since 1994, have alternated between the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years during the four-year period.
The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years on leap years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, Greece, and the most recent Games were held in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is responsible for organising the Games and for overseeing the host city's preparations. 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 1948 Summer Olympics were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus caused by the outbreak of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics held since the 1936 Games in Berlin. The 1940 Olympic Games had been scheduled for Tokyo and then for Helsinki, while the 1944 Olympic Games had been provisionally planned for London. This was the second time London hosted the Olympic Games, having previously hosted them in 1908, forty years earlier. The Olympics would return again to London 64 years later in 2012, making London the first city to host the games three times, and the only such city until Paris and Los Angeles host their third games in 2024 and 2028, respectively. The 1948 Olympic Games were also the first of two summer Games held under the IOC presidency of Sigfrid Edström.
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The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad and commonly known 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.
The 1928 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad and commonly known as Amsterdam 1928, 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, but 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.
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The all-time medal table for all Olympic Games from 1896 to 2022, 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.
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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.
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