What do the Olympic Rings Represent Fun Facts about the Olympics for Kids

  • The Olympics started in Ancient Greece in 776.
  • The Olympics were originally held to celebrate the Greek God Zeus.
  • The first Olympic games only have one event, 210 yard long race called the stade.
  • Only men were allowed to participate in the Olympics.
  • The men ran the stade naked!
  • The winner of the Olympics was crowned with a kotinos, a wreath made out of olive branches.
  • The first documented winner of the Olympics was a cook named Coroebus.
  • The Olympics were held every four years for 1,170 years.
  • In 394 AD Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II banned the Olympics because he believed it was a Pagan holiday.
  • In 1896 French Historian Pierre de Fredy Baron de Coubertin helped re-start the Olympics.
  • Women were not allowed to participate in the Olympics until the Paris, France games in 1900.
  • The first Winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France in 1924.
  • There are five Olympic rings.
  • The five rings represent 5 regions of the world: Africa, Asia, the Americas (North and South), Australia and Europe.
  • The five colors of the rings are blue, yellow, black, green and red.
  • The colors were chosen to represent all the national flags of every country. Every country’s national flag has at least one of the Olympic colors.
  • The Olympics were held every four years until 1994.  Now the Winter an Summer Olympics alternate every two years.
  • The continents of, Africa and Antarctica have have never hosted the Olympics.
  • Burning a flame on a torch started in Ancient Greece.
  • The burning of a flame symbolized the theft of fire from the Greek God Zeus.
  • The first running of the torch was in the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, Germany.
  • The torch is lit in Olympia Greece before each Olympic games.
  • After being lit the torch is brought to and ran around the country that is hosting the games.
  • The motto of the Olympics is Citius, Altius, Fortius.  It is Latin for Faster, Higher, Stronger.
  •  Michael Phelps holds the record for having the most Olympic gold medals.  He currently has 23 (as of 8/13/16).

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