Talk:Summer Olympic Games

Olympic achievements

This article does a really good job of highlighting the organizational history of the games. I was tempted to add information about some of the athletic achievements that highlighted some of the games (e.g., Mark Spitz's 7 gold medals in 1972, Nadia Comaneci's perfect 10 gymnastic performance in 1976), but it doesn't really seem to fit the general tone and purpose of this article. So I let it pass, but I am wondering if these achievements do belong in this article or in a different article.

Well, as the author of the bulk of the original article, I think adding the greatest athletic feats, such as Spitz and Comaneci, is a good idea. I mentioned some, (Redgrave and Zatopek), and any omissions were due to ignorance, rather than planning -- GWO

Another option would be to create a separate article called Achievements of the Olympic Games, or something similar. --Stephen Gilbert

Thats an option, but I don't think it will be the right one unless the present article gets much bigger (which I don't think it will, for now). Sometimes the sport and politics are difficult to untangle, anyway (Ali, Tommy Smith) --GWO

Good idea. A start: all-time medal winner's Ray Eli (US), with 10. Trekphiler 19:36, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Autochthony writes.

One more point - if the good lady makes it, and lives another three years, the Queen of Australia, Queen of Canada and Queen of the United Kingdom (alphabetically) - Elizabeth II - will in 2012, preside over her fourth (Summer) Olympic Games as Head of State. I do hope she does - and note that her mother was a centenarian. Our Sovereign Lady was, of course, Heiress Presumptive at the 1948 Games, too.

Not an easy record to break. Autochthony wrote. 1920z 19 September 2009. 86.158.246.151 (talk) 19:21, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Stylistic concern

The modern Olympic Games were founded in 1894 when Pierre Fredi, Baron de Coubertin, who sought to promote international understanding through the sporting competition.

When Pierre Fredi did what? This is merely one example of a stylistic error: the introductory section of the article is full of them. To make things worse, they were copied without correction to the main page when this article was 'featured'. Is good style not a criterion for becoming a featured article? Victor Gijsbers 14:52, 24 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Popularity

For those who may doubt it, the 1994 soccer/football World Cup had an estimated 32 billion "cumulative viewers" while the 1996 Summer Olympics figures 19.6 billion "cumulative viewers". Rmhermen 15:14, Mar 24, 2004 (UTC)

Winter torch

It se

It was the only PD image I could find. I made my own logo (with the 5 rings), but that ended up on the copyright infringments listing so fast it was scary. If you can find a public domain image to replace it, you have my blessing and my support (not that yo need it). →Raul654 00:23, Mar 25, 2004 (UTC)

Can we find images about the first few games. One would expect some of those should be in the Public Domain by now. Aliter 01:38, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)

all time medal count

We need an all time medal count for the summer gamesAndyL 04:57, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)

this link has breakdown by medal type. AndyL 05:33, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I have now updated the table with the 2004 medals, though I'd appreciate if someone would double-check. Eritrea, Paraguay and the UAE appear for the first time. Matthewmayer 17:38, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Another thought, I was going to add some flags to the medal count table, but looking at the other medal count tables you need an awful lot of repetitive markup like [[Image:china_flag_large.png|20px|<nowiki>]]</nowiki> which makes the table hard to edit. Maybe we should have templates like Template:flagFRA, Template:flagGER, Template:flagAUS etc, so a mini-flag would be inserted with a simple {{flagFRA}}, {{flagGER}} etc in the markup. The abbreviations would be the IOC ones. Matthewmayer 17:54, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Good job completing the list! --Cantus 23:39, Sep 3, 2004 (UTC)

What is Wales doing on this list? The Welsh do not have their own NOC, as far as I know. Aliter 01:38, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Wales won some medals separately at a few of the early Games I believe. Matthewmayer 18:46, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)

It makes absolutely no sense of splitting up Germany‘s medals into Germany (post Unification); West Germany and East Germany. There should be one Germany with all medals. After all do we split up say France into Third Republic, Forth Republic, Fifth Republic ? Makes no sense. — Preceding unsigned comment added by BoNiLi (talk • contribs) 05:58, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

Absolutely right. It's wrong, unfair and insulting. It practically denies many German athletes their nationality. It should be handled in the same way as on the German version of this page: for the respective Olympic Games, when the Germans competed with 2 teams, they must be listed as such, but in the overall total the medals must be added up. 2003:F4:3F4C:1B00:28D2:AE92:75D:3F03 (talk) 17:14, 13 August 2024 (UTC)

1906 Intercalated Games

The following fragment of the article:

There followed a smaller "tenth birthday" games in Athens in 1906. This celebration is not commonly accepted as being Olympic Games, but they certainly positively contributed to the success of future games after the less successful 1900 and 1904 Games.

was replaced by:

There followed a smaller games in Athens in 1906, the first of an alternating series of games to be held in Athens. As it also turned out to be the last, the reason for the games is now sought in the "tenth birthday" of the games. These gamesare not currently recognised as being Olympic Games by the IOC, though most hisotirans do see them as such. Anyway, they certainly positively contributed to the success of future games after the less successful 1900 and 1904 Games.

on 02:14, 26 Sep 2004, without any concretization of those "most historians". Could it be done now? And sources, please! Cmapm 02:52, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Request for references

Hi, I am working to encourage implementation of the goals of the Wikipedia:Verifiability policy. Part of that is to make sure articles cite their sources. This is particularly important for featured articles, since they are a prominent part of Wikipedia. The Fact and Reference Check Project has more information. Thank you, and please leave me a message when a few references have been added to the article. - Taxman 19:05, Apr 22, 2005 (UTC)

This should not be a featured article

Or at least under this heading. I came here to find out what the 26 Summer olympic Sports are, surely a pretty basic point, and it doesn't tell me. This is just a History of the Summer Olympics. It also needs something on the facilities required for a Summer Olympics and the costs of staging them, and probably other things that don't spring to mind right now. It is nowhere close to being a complete article.

Olympic medals?

(I also posted this on Talk:Winter Olympic Games. You can respond at either of these pages, or on my talk page.)

With the unveiling of the new Turin, Italy Olympic medals (see this link from Sports Illustrated), I thought it might be interesting to make a Wikipedia page about the history of the Olympic medals, which could obviously be a full length article with a lot of good history (i.e.- more than just a collection of pictures). Is anyone up for a collaboration to create this kind of page? And where should it be located? Olympic medal or Olympic Games medal, perhaps? EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 04:26, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

Trivial

Dunno if it's worth including, but, according to tradition, Summer Olympics' last event is the M marathon. Trekphiler 01:44, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

What is the correct name of the UK's Olympic team?

Is the UK's Olympic team "Great Britain" or "Great Britain and Northern Ireland"?

see Cfd discussion: Great Britain at the Olympics --Mais oui! 22:19, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Why call it summer?

Why is olympics referred to as 'summer olympics'? Brittanica doesn't even have a 'summer olympics article and to the best of my knowledge the official name is 'olympics' and not 'summer olympics' as reffered everywhere in wikipedia.

More incorect usage On this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_the_Olympic_Winter_Games there is link to the "1912 summer olympics" which is obviously incorrect because in 1912 there was no such thing as winter games. Doesn't this represent a biased western view instead of the correct one??

The IOC itself refers to the games as "summer" ones (specifically, Olympic Summer Games) on its website, [1]. Stockholm 1912 is definitely in the "summer" section. The official names are "Games of the A Olympiad" for summer games and "B Winter Olympic Games" for winter ones. -- Jonel | Speak 21:03, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

The IOC site always uses the official name (Games of the A Olympiad) for the "summer" editions. The term "Summer Games" is only used when dealing with both editions (summer and winter), specially on the list of all games linked above. The Wikipedia page itself informs the official name Games of the Olympiad, so the this should be the page title, being redirected by "Summer Olympic Games" (and not the opposite, as it is today). After all, the term "Summer Olympic Games" seems to be used mostly by countries where winter sports are common, so its usage may not be culturally neutral. -- rsnetto74 00:28, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

In fact, the Games of the Olympiad have not always been held in the summer. For instance, the Games of the XXIV Olympiad (Seoul 1988) continued into October (autumn), and the Games of the XVI Olympiad (Melbourne 1956) began in November (southern spring) and ended in early December. The name "Summer Olympic Games" is a misnomer, it's not the official name of the event, and in some cases it's just plain incorrect. The title is wholly innapropriate, which may be strangely appropriate for Wikipedia. An example of the persistence of bogus information in the 'pedia.

How true. Most of the sports (all the indoor sports) are non-seasonal, and many of the outdoor sports could be contested in any season other than cold winter conditions. And they are not always conducted in summer. So Wikipedia perpetuates the crap terminology of the idiot sports press, and the moronic pop press, ignoring both reality and official terminology. There is no such thing as the "Summer Games" or "Summer Olympics" so that's what Wikipedia calls them. Yet another in a long (yea, endless) list of why Wikipedia cannot be taken seriously or considered reliable as a source of information.

Today, as the Games of the XXX Olympiad come to a close in London, the bogus "summer" designation is used on the main page. Pathetic, really. The header asks "Why call is summer?" The answer, apparently, is because people are idiots. 4.154.250.236 (talk) 00:00, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

Two years after my earlier comment, and with some more users' opinions about it (see below Summer/Winter) nothing was done about this issue. Will someone ever review these titles? Call the Games of the Olympiad "Summer Games" is not only not NPOV, but also essentially wrong. There is no such "summer" sports/games, the term only makes sense informally, and when opposed to "winter sports" which are in fact seasonal/climate-related sports. The term should be banned from Wikipedia titles. If I were an adminstrator, I would take this task myself. Rsnetto74 (talk) 03:35, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

"Call the Games of the Olympiad "Summer Games" is not only not NPOV, but also essentially wrong." - so you're saying that the IOC themselves are wrong: they refer to them as the "Olympic Summer Games" (see [2] if you don't believe me). DitzyNizzy (aka Jess) (talk) 15:44, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

As I said before, the term "summer" is only used on IOC page to differentiate from Winter Olympic Games and sports (which are indeed climate-related). The official designation is "Games of the Olympiad", there is no doubt about it, I have just heard Jacques Rogge announcing the host city of "the Games of the 31st Olympiad", not "the 2016 Summer Olympics". In other words there is no event called "Summer Olympics", there are the (regular, unqualified, no seasonal) Games of the Olympiad (or informally just "the" Olympic Games), and the Winter Olympic Games. "Summer olympics" is an informal term and therefore should be a redirection, not the main title of this page or any other related to the Olympic Games. Rsnetto74 (talk) 18:37, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

We use "Summer" per WP:COMMONNAME. It's the same reason why we have an article at Brazil and not at "Federative Republic of Brazil". The infobox and lede of pages like 2008 Summer Olympics prominently show the official names. — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 18:44, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Although I have previously called attention to other boreocentric biases within Wikipedia, I do not have a particular issue here. I concur with the above per Andrwsc; it is a common name. A short paragraph discussing the name and the actual timing of the Games may be appropriate within the article, but that's all. Another similar article is Summer Triangle, it is another boreocentric name but does discuss the southern hemisphere context. -- B.D.Mills  (T, C) 11:43, 4 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, but the Sydney Games occurred during the Southern Hemisphere's Winter.

Perhaps we should follow the careful usage on the BOA web site: "summer Olympic Games" (lowercase s) and "Olympic Winter Games".

Erroneous info in the FA

I reworded the following excerpt:"The Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci won the women's individual all around gold medal with a succession of perfect scores, thus giving birth to a gymnastics dynasty in Romania." She earned only two of four possible 10s in the all-around: see Gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Cmapm 19:55, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Changing Canoe to Canoe/Kayak

There has been an idea brought up to change pages such as Canoeing at the 2004 Summer Olympics to Canoeing/Kayaking at the 2004 Summer Olympics or something of the like. Please see this page for more on the proposal. → J@red  19:16, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Fencing Programme

The section that deals with the Bejing Olympic programme needs to be edited. Women are now allowed to compete in team competitions for both sabre and foil but NOT epee. Men are going to competing in team epee and sabre. This is applicable ONLY to the Bejing Olympics. Federation Internationale D'Escrime has decided to rotate the team competitions after each Olympic game giving each weapon a chance to compete after a certain interval. The individual events will not be affected. Please refer to this document for reference: http://www.fie.ch/download/letters/2006/urgent/09/en/decisions%20ANG.pdf

I noticed that, too, and it is also apparent in (the section that I wrote) the section on sports on the 2008 Summer games page. If someone could get around to adding a foot note to the bottom explaining this rotation process on both pages, or just fixing it up, that'd be great. Otherwise, I'll get to it eventually. → J@red  21:28, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Prisoners

I have modified this sentence:

The terrorists demanded that Israel release numerous prisoners.

to:

The terrorists demanded that Israel release numerous terrorists from prison.

While all 234 people who they demanded the release of may very well be terrorists, the label is always contentious and we need to have sufficient widespread consensus before applying it. I doubt we have that for all 234 people. As such, implying all the 234 people who they demanded the release of is against the NPOV. It's far better to just call them prisoners. It would equally be wrong to call them political prisoners for example. Just calling them prisoners is sufficiently neutral IMHO. Note that even the Munich massacre doesn't go as far as to call all the prisoners terrorists. Indeed it doesn't talk at all about the crimes of the prisoners which IMHO is the best thing. If you really feel the need to mention the crimes of the prisoners, it might be acceptable to say something like ", some of who are generally considered terrorists" or something like that. provided you can establish consensus on the crimes of these people. Wikipedia articles on a prisoner considered a terrorist would help... However if you do mention such a thing, bear in mind you open the door to people establishing a consensus that the some of the prisoners imprisonment may very well have been injust in which case you'd also have to mention that as well. Personally, I see it as unnecessary. You don't need to know about the crimes (or lack of said crimes) of the prisoners to establish that the action of the Munich terrorists was very wrong. And if you really feel the need to go in to detail on the crimes of any prisoners, the best place would surely be in the main article, not this brief summary here... Nil Einne 15:30, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm slightly confused. Do you mean to say you modified it to "release numerous prisoners" from "release numerous terrorists from prison"? That would seem to jive more with your explanation, which I completely agree with. -- Jonel | Speak 22:12, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Hockey and field hockey

Subject to this topic, all the article which listed as hockey were changed to field hockey. However, after i checked IOC page, it shown "Hockey", [3] FIH official website always called it as hockey and not "field hockey". So, because IOC listed as Hockey as well as FIH, the official name should be hockey, why is field hockey? I know that is another hockey call Ice hockey but also, IOC named it as Ice Hockey [4], so no clash about the name, if someone agree my point, i move soon. Thanks --Aleenf1

Why would the French name of FIH be "...Hockey sur Gazon," literally translating as "Field Hockey" if they refer to the sport just as "hockey?" That doesn't make sense. → JARED ^(t)  17:42, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

According to the FIH statutes and bye-laws, the official name of the federation is the International Hockey Federation, and its initials are "FIH".

There are currently 116 member association of the FIH. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has 65 members.

The wikipedia entry on hockey notes that "the dominant version of hockey in a particular region tends to be known simply as hockey, other forms being more fully qualified." Looking at things globally, the FIH seems to have the upper hand in terms of membership and global reach, which suggests that when describing a global event like the Olympic Games, "hockey" could be used to describe "field hockey" with "ice hockey" retaining the qualifier. This would also, as Aleen points out, bring the article into line with the IOC terminology. (Much as it pains me, as a Canadian, to say that.) Eron 17:58, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

Comment

I don't mean to be nitpicky, but the first Summer Olympic Games of the new millennium actually took place in Athens, not Sydney. 2000 was the final year of the last millennium (1001-2000).Politician818 01:43, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Summer/Winter

It should be noted somewhere that some countries dont use the term "Olympic 'Summer' Games"; tropical countries have virtually no interest/athletes/competitions in so called 'Winter' sports, thus calling the "Olympic 'summer' Games" just Olympic Games.201.53.56.134 19:56, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Simmilarly in this note, as the first Winter Olympic Games were held in 1924, were the games held befor this really 'Summer Olympic Games' or not? After all there were sports in these programs (Ice Hockey and Figure Skating) which are now winter sports. TJ 26 01 08 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.144.151.135 (talk) 13:22, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

I have commented twice on this issue above (Why call it summer). The term "Summer Olympics" is simply inappropriate and reflects a regional bias. It is never used in official terms. But it seems the Wikipedia administrators are not aware of (or worried about) this. Rsnetto74 (talk) 03:45, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Why is it called the Summer Olympics? Look its the Olympic Games (full stop) and the Winter Olympics 81.156.2.196 (talk) 23:17, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Participating countries

There should be a list indicating in what year each country joined the Olympics. If there is a list please tell me.--F3rn4nd0 ^{(Roger - Out)} 01:25, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Questionable statement

The statement "On the bright side, drug testing and regulation authorities were catching up with the cheating that had been endemic in athletics for some years" is not particularly helpful to the topic nor is it objective, at least to me anyway. Should the statement be edited or removed? (Psychoneko (talk) 02:06, 4 April 2008 (UTC))

Vandalism by 69.38.75.237 on 17:49, 16 April 2008

I undid the edits to the previous version by Martin451, the vandalism was created by 69.38.75.237 and also, I believe, 168.216.221.169. Silica-gel (talk) 18:40, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

16 Days

Is it worth mentioning

• that the length of the Games is fixed at 16 days (with the Opening Ceremony on the evening of Day 0 and the Closing Ceremony on the evening of Day 16)? cf:
  • 16 Days of Glory
  • [5] "The 1932 Olympics were the first to last 16 days. The duration of the Olympics has remained between 15 and 18 days ever since. Between 1900 and 1928, no Summer Olympics was shorter than 79 days.",
  • [6] "It was agreed that the current number of 16 days of competition should be confirmed for the future Olympic Programme."
• that since at least 1992, the Olympic football tournament (and possibly other events?) has started before the opening ceremony?

jnestorius^(talk) 10:50, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

What countries attended all of the summer Olympics - article disagrees with itself

From the lead:

Five countries - Australia, France, Great Britain, Greece and Switzerland - have sent teams to every single Summer Olympic Games.

From a later paragraph:

Notably, Greece, Great Britain and Australia did not withdraw, and remain the only nations to have competed in all summer games.

The articles France at the 1980 Summer Olympics and Switzerland at the 1980 Summer Olympics state that both those countries competed, but that to show support of the American-led boycott they did so under the Olympic Flage rather than their national flags. However, as the article 1980 Summer Olympics shows, thirteen other countries did the same, including Australia and Great Britain. All this to say, the later paragraph is wrong - or at least incomplete. I'll remove it. -Eron^Talk 20:28, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

I think the second paragraph—which excludes France and Switzerland—is not referring to the 1980 Games, but earlier instances. In France's case, they did not send a team to the 1904 Games, but a lone "Frenchman" (as he is described in the official report) competed. See Albert Coray and France at the 1904 Summer Olympics. In Switzerland's case, they boycotted the 1956 Melbourne Games, but they attended (and won a bronze medal at) the equestrian events that were held in Stockholm a few months earlier. Some people don't credit Switzerland for attending the 1956 Games because of the boycott, but then you have the paradox of them showing up in the medal table for that one bronze! — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 04:34, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Spelling fixes

Just ran through and fixed a bunch of spelling errors. 68.102.180.134 (talk) 08:04, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

List of Nations finishing at the top of the medals tables

This list has been removed twice, but I don't really understand why. The first reason given was "There is no Olympic games "winner", the IOC does not officially recognize medal counts", and so I replaced the list, rephrasing it to remove the word "winners"; it was then removed again, the reason given was "Removed winners list. It is original research and goes against the IOC because there is no winner of the games.". The list no longer claimed to show "winners", so I don't see what the problem is; it simply summarises the medals tables shown on other Wikipedia pages for the individual Olympiads. The same information is available elsewhere on Wikipedia, this simply put it all in one place. If this table is to be removed because "the IOC does not officially recognize medal counts", then why are all the other medals tables not removed too? Lukens (talk) 13:50, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

I agree that it would be handy to have a single list showing the top medal-winning countries - that is the sort of thing people like to see. While it is arguably original research, as it is synthesizing material from another source into a new table, it is no worse than many of our other Olympic-related lists (e.g. List of multiple Olympic gold medalists) and just as useful. That said, I am not sure that it needs to be included in this article; why not create a new article for it? - Eron^Talk 14:01, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Just put a disclaimer that the IOC does not recognizes Medal Ranking by Country, because they really don't. They do not put this in the Olympic Record Books. What they put are individual records like Phelps 8 Gold medal in one Olympics etc etc. Olympics is all about Individual Achievements and NOT by Nation, and it has always been like that since the the creation of Modern Olympics. I guess the real interest in this tallies started when the Soviet Union joined for the first time in 1952.68.127.152.38 (talk) 04:34, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure if you are just stating the IOC's offical view or agreeing with it, but it sounds naive. It's all about the medal ranking by country for the majority of spectators, teams and nations taking part. You only have to look at each country's media coverage to see this. It is what drives the funding of athletes' training and national Olympic programmes. The IOC, which is expert at keeping one eye on the ideals and the other on the money, is quite happy to allow the organising committee of each games to give a medal ranking by country in its official results service, such as on the official website of www.beijing2008.com. Moreover, this nationalistic interest in the games did not start with the Cold War, though that did raise it to new heights, but national rivalries (such as between Britain and France) were well developed before WWII. Strayan (talk) 04:21, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

What's naive about it? Yes, the media does publishes it and everything. Perhaps Countries also uses the Medal Tallies to drive them to success. Perhaps Countries also uses to spark interest etc etc. But those are just opinions. I am not against posting the Medal Tallies here as well. But the thing is since this is Encyclopedia and we are getting our Information from the IOC we should also respect their Official views as well. Putting a simple disclaimer like what they do in their own website is the proper way to show it as encyclopedic.68.127.148.83 (talk) 03:21, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

See here for more information. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 03:28, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

It's just not a good idea to include those numbers on this list. It applies WP:undue weight to the "winner" of each Games (especially since the IOC doesn't declare a "winner"), and it opens up another front in the edit-warring over which is more important: total medals or total gold only. — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 04:30, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

The problem still seems to be with the nations being termed "winners" yet all references to nations "winning" were removed from the section. The IOC may not declare a winner, but medal tables are ubiquitous, and are included across wikipedia articles on the Olympics - pages for individual nations at individual games also often include where they ranked in the medals tables. I don't see how it can be argued that a summary of the tables should not be included on this page, without medals tables also being removed from all other pages. I do think it's a shame that this information is not currently available on Wikipedia. The IOC may not recognise winners, but there is no denying that medals tables exist, and different nations finish at the top of them. Do people who object to the summary table being included here have any problems with the idea of it being included as a page on its own (which would make it clear that the IOC do not recognise winning nations)?Lukens (talk) 07:10, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

I agree with Lukens, Strayan, 68.127.148.83 and Eron. This is existing information, it is of great interest (despite the IOC's wishes) and is the kind of article I would expect in an encyclopedia. I support including the table as a separate page, with the IOC comment as a disclaimer if necessary. Personally I would like to go further and see comment on the rise and fall of the Soviet block, the rise of China, the response of countries to their 'poor' showing, the benefit of 'home advantage'... but this is right into Original Research territory (and all probably anathema to the IOC!). Wikipete 23:08, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Created a separate article: List of Nations Finishing at the Top of the Medals Tables at Summer Olympic Games, should do the same for the Winter Olympics now. Lukens (talk) 12:13, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

There is a discussion at WikiProject Olympics over the merits of this article's existance. Lukens (talk) 14:30, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Attempt to gain consensus

(Firstly, sorry if this is not the best way to gain consensus; however, nobody seemed able to suggest what was the best method - if you know, please say what it is)
OK, so as it is probable that the separate articles will be deleted due to premature forking, we need, somehow, to come to a consensus on what should happen, I see three options:

1. in main - have the list as part of this article
2. separate article - have the list as an article in its own right (possible merged with the Winter Olympics one)
3. delete - banish the list from Wikipedia altogether

Lukens (talk) 12:52, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

• strongly for separate article, weakly for in main, strongly against delete - I feel that when included in the main article it does give possibly undue weight to the importance of medal table rankings, I do not feel this is the case when it is in a separate article. Also, the All-time Olympic Games medal table is included as a separate article, and so it would be following that model. If it is felt that it does not have enough merit to exist as its own article, then I feel it should be included in the main article. I am strongly against it being deleted altogether, as I feel it is both factual, useful, and informative. Lukens (talk) 12:52, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
• Delete. You give reasons yourself for not having it in this article. Having a seperate page with these tables, that is linked to from here, gives it eqaully undue weight. Call it what you will but you are basically proposing a list of "Olympic Games winners". Basement12 (T.C) 13:20, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

  It's no more a list of Olympic Games winners than each medal table is a list of winners of those games - those tables could easily be arranged alphabetically, so as to make them more neutral, but there not, and I suspect they are not because a) people want to see which nations won the most medals, and b) despite the IOCs wishes, most people do probably perceive there to be a winner of the games, and do consider medal tables and national rankings to be important. I think it is silly to delete this list simply because the IOC does not recognise medal tables, and does not announce winners - whether they do or not doesn't alter the fact that most people who have an interest in the games have an interest in medals tables, and most members of the general public probably consider there to be "winners". Furthermore, having the list also provides the ideal opportunity to state that these nations are not winners. I also feel that having it as a separate article does address the undue weight issue, as I feel that it's a fairly minor issue anyway, and taking it off the main page about the Olympics is enough of a context change to reduce the perceived importance of the list, and therefore the weight of any implications that may be read into it - however, if you feel it makes no difference to the undue weight argument, then I'm happy for it to remain as a subsection of the main article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lukens (talk • contribs) 13:54, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

• Delete. I have to agree with Basement12 here. --Tone 15:43, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
• Delete from this article, and certainly do not create (or keep) seperate article(s). I firmly believe that it places undue weight on the "winner" of each Games. You might argue that the individual Games articles have top-10 subsets of the main medal tables, and link to seperate articles with complete medal tables, so why doesn't that offer undue weight? Well, those tables are published by quite a few reliable sources, including the IOC itself, obviously. And none of those sources seem to go to the trouble of publishing a winner-by-Games summary... — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 16:48, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

  Have any of them gone to the (considerably greater) trouble of producing an All-time_Olympic_Games_medal_table? Lukens (talk) 18:28, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

  That page doesn't attempt to rank NOCs, or declare a winner/leader, it is simply a page where all the medals won are added together. Basement12 (T.C) 18:32, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

  Yes. For example, http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/countries/ has all-time medal counts, and the contributors for that website are well-respected Olympic historians (see http://www.isoh.org), so that website is a very WP:reliable source as far as I am concerned. Now, their numbers do not align with Wikipedia's in all instances because they make some judgement calls about "incorrect" IOC data from early Games. For example, several competitors in 1904 competed for US-based clubs (from Chicago, Philadelphia, etc.) but were born in other countries before moving to the US, and they attribute medals to the country of birth (e.g. Julius Lenhart for Austria, Francis Gailey for Australia, etc.) They also consider some events from Paris 1900 to be Olympic events, although they do not appear in the IOC database (e.g. see Equestrian at the 1900 Summer Olympics and Sailing at the 1900 Summer Olympics). Additionally, there are certainly some other sources (albeit less accurate and with unknown computation methods) that are listed in the external links section of that page. The problem with All-time Olympic Games medal table is not that it is a unique presentation of these totals, but that because of so much uncertainty with early Games, we can't find any pair of sources that agree on the totals. The Wikipedia page is a "triangulation", if you will, of all these sources, with the most objective criteria for computing the totals that we can think of. — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 18:53, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

• strongly for separate article see reasons in my comment in previous section Wikipete 22:15, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

History of the Games ignores social, cultural and political changes

The history section talks about the ancient games and the modern games, but the fact is there are two distinct phases of the so-called modern era. The games prior to the 1952 Helsinki Summer Games would be unrecognisable to us today, and comparisons across that divide (for instance in comparing medals won) are rendered pretty meaningless. Before 1952 social and cultural condiditions prevailing in the leading participating countries excluded or disadvantaged people based on ethnicity, social class, and gender. It was a nonsense to suggest that the participating athletes were the best of their countries, when their sports organisations and social/political structures excluded or discouraged many groups. Some participating countries such as the Union of South Africa had racial policies that excluded by law some segments of their populations, while others such as Australia had de facto exclusions.

For these reasons I think the article should recognise that the games as we know them today -- the truly Modern Olympics -- date from Helsinki in 1952. Using London 1948 as the first of the modern games does not work because although it was the first post-war games, it was still badly affected by the war years and pre-war attitudes, and did not have the participation of Germany (West or East), Japan and the Soviet Union. Strayan (talk) 04:50, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Number of sports in the Olympic Games

In the table List of Modern Summer Olympic Games, the numbers of "sports" in each games comes from the numbers LISTED on the official Olympic site, but clicking on the links to look at the list of actual sports on the programs in each Olympics reveals only that the IOC doesn't know how to count past seventeen.

From 1948 to 1960, the Olympics consisted of a basic seventeen sports: 01. Aquatics 02. Athletics 03. Basketball 04. Boxing 05. Canoe / Kayak 06. Cycling 07. Equestrian 08. Fencing 09. Football 10. Gymnastics 11. Hockey 12. Modern Pentathlon 13. Rowing 14. Sailing 15. Shooting 16. Volleyball 17. Wrestling

For 1964, the IOC added Judo and Volleyball to the program, bringing the number of sports to nineteen.

For 1968, the IOC (temporarily, as it turns out) removed Judo from the program, reducing the number of sports to eighteen.

For 1972, the IOC added Archery, Handball, and Judo to the program, bringing the number of sports to twenty-one.

For 1988, the IOC added Table Tennis and Tennis to the program, bringing the number of sports to twenty-three.

For 1992, the IOC added Badminton and Baseball to the program, bringing the number of sports to twenty-five.

For 1996, the IOC added Softball to the program, bringing the number of sports to twenty-six.

For 2000, the IOC added Taekwondo and Triathlon to the program, bringing the number of sports to the present day total of twenty-eight.

For 2012, the IOC has deleted Baseball and Softball from the program, which will reduce the number of sports to twenty-six.

Note in particular that the IOC numbers show twenty-eight sports for 1992, and only twenty-six for 1996, even though no sports were removed from the program (and softball was added). --124.197.54.13 (talk) 08:25, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Costs

Is there some way the cost of each event can be added to List of modern Summer Olympic Games? - 83.108.203.102 (talk) 07:01, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

Opening section is not very good

The first two paragraphs are great, but the massive third paragraph and fourth paragraph are very much out of place. This is not the appropriate place for a detailed listing of the countries that have hosted the game and the frequency of hosting. Indeed, at this point, all we know is that medals are involved and some sports. More broad information should be presented in this section including the importance of the games in modern culture and examples of sports and their impact. Far too much detail on the hosts. Someone please change! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.163.250.68 (talk) 03:36, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

I agree that the third paragraph re hosting was unnecessarily long and detailed. I have moved much of that detail out of the lead and into the body. Barryjjoyce (talk) 14:50, 22 May 2015 (UTC)

A question on capitalizing names....

If event/sport names such as "Water Polo" and "Synchronized Swimming" are wikified to "Water polo" and "Synchronzied swimming", why is this page not similarly wikified to "Summer olympic games"? It is also an event name.... - Hooperswim (talk) 20:52, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Adolf Hitler

Why is Adolf Hitler the only world leader/head of state named without a title in the list of people who have opened the games? Should he not be listed as Führer Hitler or Chancellor Hitler? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.80.104.117 (talk) 06:53, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

Maybe we could preface Schicklgruber's name with the title "Canceller of Germany" because that is what he did if observed objectively... Many large cities were canceled by bombing as well as a large parts of the german population, battalions of "hitlerjugend" child soldiers sent to battle T-34 tanks, millions of jews and gipsy gassed and cremated... 91.82.37.52 (talk) 11:06, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

That's not entirely correct. From 1934 he wasn't only chancellor but also head of state but he wasn't referred to as chancellor any more, just as "the Führer". I understand however, that we can't name him this, therefore his name without a title is best. Everyone knows who Hitler was, so his name should suffice. --Maxl (talk) 18:25, 23 February 2014 (UTC)

Olympics unexplained as a 2-dimensional event?

The list of olympic sports includes races on the soil and water, but nothing contested overhead. There should be a paragraph in this article, explaining the lack of aviation: e.g. no presence for soarplaning, parachuting, rogallo wings, aerobatics. There is motorcycle racing in the summer olympics, disguised as motor-assisted pedal cycling and gunpowder based target shooting involves using a piece of machinery by each contestant.

This analogy shows there is no logical reason to exclude flight from the games. Significantly more people fly today compared to how many pedal cycles, ever since China started using motor-scooters. Why there is cycling in the games, but not aviation? The article should explain this hiatus! 91.82.37.52 (talk) 11:15, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

Olympic sports explains why no air sports. Do you have a source for Olympic cycling allowing motor-assisted bicycles? The exclusion is on motorized propulsion, so gunpowder isn't really relevant. -- Jonel (Speak to me) 12:54, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

Medal discrepancy

The tally of Soviet medals doesn't add up in the All-time medal table. 395 gold medals plus 319 silver and 226 bronze make a total of 940, not 1010. So, is it either of the medal counts or the total that is wrong? /Ludde23 ^{Talk Contrib} 01:03, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

Anyway, the distinction of the Soviet Union more looks like Western?/Eastern? politics rather than showing Olypic spirit. It would be very easy to verify from which nations those medaillists were coming from (probably about 50% from Russia itself) and add them to the todays countries. Then we would have a proper medal table without any political blablabla, right? 178.197.233.117 (talk) 23:21, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

3 Sports

On February 6th, the 3 sports Wushu, Camel racing and Chess will be added to the Olympic sports since the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:C:780:83B:203F:FAE9:B6EB:5D37 (talk) 00:32, 22 December 2013 (UTC)

Name move

Following User:MaxxFordham's recent move of this page from Summer Olympic Games to Olympic Summer Games, I think there should have been a bit of discussion before this move, given the prominence of the article. The claim that the "Olympic Summer Games" is the common name doesn't seem entirely to stand up, given the presence of "Summer Olympic Games" on the Olympic website being near 2000, while Olympic Summer Games garners just over 400. What are other people's take on the article? SFB 08:03, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

Strange it is. Backward we speak. Common phraseology that ignore we must. Well you have by Yoda instructed he has been. My point are you getting? Recognize common names at wikipedia we must, lest understand our knowledge users might not. Rock this boat, I understand not why we must. Trackinfo (talk) 08:38, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

Oh, really, huh? Well then why don't you tell me why that format ("Olympic Winter Games," "Paralympic Winter Games," etc.) is THE format that the organizations themselves use?

Gosh, just about every edition I try to do on here gets reverted or at least complained about by you resistant, stubborn, whiny crybabies! What the hell is supposedly "wrong" with fixing the naming order of something like from "Winter Olympic Games" to the CORRECT "Olympic Winter Games," and not explaining it, especially when that adjustment it just conforming to what the AUTHORITY on the matter (the organizations themselves)? Who are you to think you have "more authority" to say how something is or should be written out as than the organizations who created and are in charge of it? Why should I have to offer any discussion explanation for something that just follows what the authorities already have?

GEESH! Why must we have to have editors who insist on being such crybabies over so many things? "NOO, don't fix the errors in my precious article! REVERT! I want it back to the WRONG way!" GOSH! It's so ridiculous!

"Maxx Fordham" — Preceding unsigned comment added by MaxxFordham (talk • contribs) 09:54, 13 March 2014‎ (UTC)

The bottom line is that we do not change article names without bringing it up at the articles talk page first. And calling other users "crybabies"? Come on Maxx, even you can come up with something better to do then to throw a tantrum instead of discussing it like a grown up :)--BabbaQ (talk) 10:04, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

@MaxxFordham, I suggest you have a read of WP:COMMONNAME before getting too precious about using the formal name. No doubt you would want to move Bill Gates to "William Henry Gates III", and United Kingdom to "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" - after all, that's their "official" name.Le Deluge (talk) 18:13, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Olympic map

The 1920 overlaps the 2012 on the Olympic map. We need a better map. Georgia guy (talk) 01:02, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

The Japan color on the map should be blue now, since Japan has been twice the host country. Alubini 19:56, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

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Who opened the games/Who topped the medal table?

I have removed these from the list of columns from the games. The table is already crowded and these two are completely unnecessary to the table. Sportsfan 1234 (talk) 21:12, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

Unnecessary from your point of view, but not from mine. If they're posted on the individual Olympic articles then it should be the same for the columns. Nstepneski1 (talk) 22:23, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

So do we put in final torchbearers, oath takers etc.? Where do we draw the line? Sportsfan 1234 (talk) 23:10, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

Point well taken. However, I still remain firm on my stance. Hopefully we can work out a compromise. Nstepneski1 (talk) 00:31 4 September 2017 (UTC)

I'm fine with them being included but there is literally no space unless we reduce the font size (which would cause an accessibility issue). Sportsfan 1234 (talk) 02:11, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

Then how about we just include "Top Nation" and leave who ever opened the Games and the maps out. If not that, then maybe we could do the reverse. As long as an extra column isn't added then maybe the table wouldn't be that much of a problem. But how would I know? I don't know any thing about programming or data or any of that. Honestly I checked the previous version of the page and compared it to the current version and there is a font size difference in the tables, however prior to the edit I could access the page just fine for both Summer and Winter Games. Nstepneski1 (talk) 02:51 4 September 2017 (UTC)

"Top nation" is not an official thing. It is a hugely debateable issue. Whose definition is appropriate? HiLo48 (talk) 23:17, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

I've changed them back for right now using my last sentence as justification. The font of the table for the winter games is the same as the rest of the page, so I think we can probably leave that one the way in is. And like I said before I have had no accessibility issue with Summer Games page despite the smaller font sizes on it's respective table. Nstepneski1 (talk) 01:54 6 September 2017 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Olympic Games which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 11:15, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

Continents

The article says that the games have been held on six continents. I only count five: Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Australia. The games have not been held in Africa or Antarctica. Shouldn't the number be five?Bill (talk) 23:24, 10 October 2019 (UTC)

Decathlon

Why is there basically no mention of the Decathlon either here or on Olympic sports? 82.27.180.245 (talk) 19:06, 3 September 2020 (UTC)

Hitler and Brezhnev

The Games are always opened by the head of state of the host nation, or their representative. So it is wrong to say that Hitler opened the 1936 Games in his capacity as Chancellor, or that Brezhnev opened the 1980 Games in his capacity as General-Secretary of the Communist Party. Hitler in 1936 was Germany's head of state with the title Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Imperial Chancellor). Brezhnev in 1980 was head of state of the Soviet Union with the title Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. I realise these are both longer and clumsier formulations that the current ones, and also that people dislike using the German word Führer, but those were the capacities in which they opened their respective Games and the article should state this accurately. Constant Pedant (talk) 02:30, 27 July 2021 (UTC)

1992 Summer Olympics

The top performing team is the Unified Team not the Soviet Union, get it right 120.29.69.128 (talk) 04:17, 19 March 2024 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Research Process and Methodology - SU24 - Sect 200 - Thu

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 22 May 2024 and 24 August 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Zhilin0321 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Zq2197 (talk) 04:29, 17 August 2024 (UTC)

Update

Paris Olympics have finished. why this article not been updated yet? The medal numbers are same i saw 3 yrs ago. Arorapriyansh333 (talk) 14:35, 12 August 2024 (UTC)

I want to say the same thing as well, like some of the countries' medal count have been updated, while some other countries haven't seen their medal count updated yet. Not to mention, some countries' medal count also doesn't add up as well. We would like to see this discrepancy fixed ASAP. It's been almost a week now since the Paris Games ended, so the medal count should have been updated right then (with the accurate medal count of course). Please, someone with authority should look into this. Ryumikhail (talk) 22:45, 15 August 2024 (UTC)