Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When were the first Olympic Games?
The 1896 Olympic Games were the first held in the Modern era and the most important international multi-sport event Greece had ever hosted. The rules of the Games generally excluded women from competition. Influenced by both his times—in the Victorian era women were considered to be inferior to men—and his admiration for the ancient Olympic Games, when only men were allowed to participate in the events, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the visionary of the modern Olympic Games, was not in favour of women's participation in the Olympic Games or in sports generally. He believed that a woman's greatest achievement would be to encourage her sons to be distinguished in sports and to applaud a man's effort.
The first Olympic flag was presented to the Jr National Olympics at the 1920 Summer Olympics by the city of Antwerp, Belgium. At the end of the Games, the flag could not be found and a new Olympic flag had to be made for the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. Despite it being a replacement, the IOC officially still calls this the "Antwerp Flag" instead of the "Paris Flag". It was passed on to the next organizing city of the Summer Olympics or Winter Olympics until the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway, when a separate Olympic flag was created to be used only at the Winter Olympics "(see below)". The 1924 flag then continued to be used at the Summer Olympics until the Games of Seoul 1988 when it was retired.
Alpine skiing is an Olympic sport, contested at the Winter Olympic Games. The first Winter Olympics, held in 1924, included nordic skiing, but the first alpine skiing events were not held until 1936 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. A combined event was held for both men and women in 1936. The International Ski Federation (FIS) decided that ski instructors could not compete in 1936 because they were professionals, and the Olympics were meant for amateur athletes. Because of this, Austrian and Swiss skiers boycotted the events, although some Austrians decided to compete for Germany.
At the 1904 Summer Olympics, seven wrestling events were contested, all in the freestyle discipline for men. All wrestlers who competed in the 1904 Games were from the United States. It was the first time freestyle wrestling was featured, as the first Olympic wrestling contests had been in the Greco-Roman style. Weight classes also made their first appearance.
Men's Artistic Gymnastics had been an Olympic sport since the beginning of the modern games. Women's gymnastics were introduced as a single (team) event in the 1928 games, but were not expanded until the 1952 games, when there were seven events. The International Federation of Gymnastics first drew up a code of points—for men—in 1949.
The Gambia National Olympic Committee was recognized by the International Olympic Committee on 1 January 1976. The nation boycotted the first two Summer Olympic Games held after their recognition. They boycotted the 1976 Summer Olympics over New Zealand's participation, and joined a United States-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Therefore they did not make their Olympic debut until the 1984 Summer Olympics, and have participated in every Summer Olympics since then. Sydney was their fifth consecutive appearance at the Summer Games. The 2000 Summer Olympics were held from 15 September to 1 October 2000; a total of 10,651 athletes represented 199 National Olympic Committees. The Gambian delegation consisted of two track and field athletes, Pa Mamadou Gai and Adama Njie. The flag bearing duties at the opening ceremony were performed by Njie.
By the Imperial Period, the Romans had adopted the Greek combat sport (spelled in Latin as "pancratium") into their Games. In 393 A.D., the pankration, along with gladiatorial combat and all pagan festivals, was abolished by edict by the Christian Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I. Pankration itself was an event in the Olympic Games for some 1,400 years.
The 2000 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and commonly known as Sydney 2000 or the Millennium Olympic Games/Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event which was held between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was the second time that the Summer Olympics were held in Australia, and also the Southern Hemisphere, the first being in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1956.
Cricket has been a sport at the modern Summer Olympic Games. The only time it has been played was at the 1900 Summer Olympics with only a men's contest when Great Britain won the gold medal, but the possibility of it being contested at the Olympics again has recently resurfaced.
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 closing ceremonies, the sitting president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will received the flag from the mayor of the current host city to the mayor of the next host city. The current Olympic Charter requires this person to be the mayor of the next host city, although this has not always been the case. This article lists the people who have had the ceremonial duty to pass the Olympic flag from one to another for them to keep until the closing ceremony of each games.
Olympic sports are contested in the Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games. The 2016 Summer Olympics included 28 sports, with five additional sports due to be added to the 2020 Summer Olympics program; the 2014 Winter Olympics included seven sports. The number and types of events may change slightly from one Olympiad to another. Each Olympic sport is represented by an international governing body, namely an International Federation (IF). The International Olympic Committee (IOC) establishes a hierarchy of sports, disciplines, and events. According to this hierarchy, each Olympic sport can be subdivided into multiple disciplines, which are often mistaken as distinct sports. Examples include swimming and water polo, which are in fact disciplines of the sport of aquatics (represented by the International Swimming Federation), and figure skating and speed skating, which are both disciplines of the sport of ice skating (represented by the International Skating Union). In turn, disciplines are subdivided into events, for which Olympic medals are awarded. A sport or discipline is included in the Olympic program if the IOC determines it to be widely practised around the world, that is, the popularity of a given sport or discipline is indicated by the number of countries that compete in it. The IOC's requirements also reflect participation in the Olympic Games – more stringent conditions are applied to men's sports/disciplines (as men are represented at the Games in higher numbers than women) and to summer sports/disciplines (as more nations compete in the Summer Olympics than in the Winter Olympics).
Pankration (; ) was a sporting event introduced into the Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC and was an empty-hand submission sport with scarcely any rules. The athletes used boxing and wrestling techniques, but also others, such as kicking and holds, locks and chokes on the ground. The only things not acceptable were biting and gouging out the opponent's eyes.
The Men's Shot Put event at the 2000 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held at the Olympic Stadium on Friday, 22 September. The shot put has been ever present since the beginning of the modern Olympic Games in 1896. The qualifying athletes progressed through to the final where the qualifying distances are scrapped and they start afresh with up to six throws.
After not being able to host the Games in 1944, Cortina d'Ampezzo was selected to organise the 1956 Winter Olympics. At the opening ceremonies the final torch bearer, Guido Caroli, entered the Olympic Stadium on ice skates. As he skated around the stadium his skate caught on a cable and he fell, nearly extinguishing the flame. He was able to recover and light the cauldron. These were the first Winter Games to be televised, and the first Olympics ever broadcast to an international audience, though no television rights were sold until the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. The Cortina Games were used to test the feasibility of televising large sporting events. The Soviet Union made its Olympic debut and had an immediate impact, winning more medals than any other nation. Soviet immediate success might be explained by the advent of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete". The USSR entered teams of athletes who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession, but many of whom were in reality paid by the state to train full-time. Chiharu Igaya won the first Winter Olympics medal for Japan and the continent of Asia when he placed second in the slalom.
[[Wrestling at the 1896 Summer Olympics|1896]] 
[[Wrestling at the 1904 Summer Olympics|1904]] [[Wrestling at the 1908 Summer Olympics|1908]]
[[Wrestling at the 1912 Summer Olympics|1912]] 
[[Wrestling at the 1920 Summer Olympics|1920]] [[Wrestling at the 1924 Summer Olympics|1924]]
[[Wrestling at the 1928 Summer Olympics|1928]] [[Wrestling at the 1932 Summer Olympics|1932]]
[[Wrestling at the 1936 Summer Olympics|1936]] ] [[Wrestling at the 1948 Summer Olympics|1948]]
[[Wrestling at the 1952 Summer Olympics|1952]] [[Wrestling at the 1956 Summer Olympics|1956]]
[[Wrestling at the 1960 Summer Olympics|1960]] [[Wrestling at the 1964 Summer Olympics|1964]]
[[Wrestling at the 1968 Summer Olympics|1968]] [[Wrestling at the 1972 Summer Olympics|1972]]
[[Wrestling at the 1976 Summer Olympics|1976]] [[Wrestling at the 1980 Summer Olympics|1980]]
[[Wrestling at the 1984 Summer Olympics|1984]] [[Wrestling at the 1988 Summer Olympics|1988]]
[[Wrestling at the 1992 Summer Olympics|1992]] 
[[Wrestling at the 1996 Summer Olympics|1996]] [[Wrestling at the 2000 Summer Olympics|2000]]
[[Wrestling at the 2004 Summer Olympics|2004]] [[Wrestling at the 2008 Summer Olympics|2008]]
[[Wrestling at the 2012 Summer Olympics|2012]] [[Wrestling at the 2016 Summer Olympics|2016]]
[[Wrestling at the 2020 Summer Olympics|2020]] [[Wrestling at the 2024 Summer Olympics|2024]]
Neither of the teams realised that they had competed in the Olympic Games, the match having been advertised as part of the world's fair. Although the IOC has never decided which events were "Olympic" and which were not, the medals won by the teams were later upgraded to gold for Great Britain and silver for France. The scheduled cricket competition at the 1904 Summer Olympics, held in St. Louis, was cancelled at short notice due to a lack of facilities, and the sport has not been included in the Olympic Games since.
The Youth Olympic Games are held every four years in staggered summer and winter events consistent with the current Olympic Games format, though in reverse order with Winter Games held in leap years instead of Summer Games. The first summer version was held in Singapore from 14 to 26 August 2010 while the first winter version was held in Innsbruck, Austria from 13 to 22 January 2012. The age limitation of the athletes is 14 to 18. Jacques Rogge, IOC President, formally announced plans for the Youth Olympic Games at the 119th IOC session in Guatemala City in July 2007. There are several goals for the YOG, and four of them include bringing together the world's best young athletes, offering an introduction into Olympism, innovating in educating and debating Olympic values. Singapore was announced as the host of the inaugural Summer Youth Olympics in February 2008. In December 2008 the IOC announced that Innsbruck, host of the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics, would be the host of the inaugural Winter Youth Olympics in 2012.
Four cities have been chosen by the IOC to host upcoming Olympic Games: Tokyo for the 2020 Summer Olympics, Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics, Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics, and Los Angeles for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Cricket was originally scheduled to be included in the inaugural 1896 Summer Olympics, which were held in Athens; cricket would have been the only team sport held at the Games. There were, however, insufficient entries and so no event was held.
The history of video games spans a period of time between the invention of the first electronic games and today, covering a long period of invention and changes. Video gaming reached mainstream popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, when arcade video games, gaming consoles and home computer games were introduced to the general public. Since then, video gaming has become a popular form of entertainment and a part of modern culture in most parts of the world. The early history of video games, therefore, covers the period of time between the first interactive electronic game with an electronic display in 1947, the first true video games in the early 1950s, and the rise of early arcade video games in the 1970s ("Pong" and the beginning of the first generation of video game consoles with the Magnavox Odyssey, both in 1972). During this time there were a wide range of devices and inventions corresponding with large advances in computing technology, and the actual first video game is dependent on the definition of "video game" used.
Freestyle skiing is one of the six skiing disciplines contested at the Winter Olympic Games, and one of the youngest. In 1924, the first Winter Olympics featured Nordic skiing disciplines (cross-country skiing, ski jumping, and Nordic combined), while alpine skiing was first contested in 1936. Only at the 1992 Winter Olympics, in Albertville, France, were freestyle skiing events first held as official medal events. Before that, freestyle skiing was contested at the 1988 Winter Olympics as a demonstration sport, consisting of events for both men and women in three variants: moguls, aerials and ski ballet. In Albertville, moguls was the first-ever official freestyle skiing medal event; aerials and ski ballet were also held but still as demonstration events. The growing popularity of aerials convinced the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to add this freestyle discipline to the 1994 Winter Olympics official program. Moguls and aerials have thus been contested at every Winter Games since. Ski cross inclusion in the Winter Olympics program was approved at an IOC Executive Board meeting in November 2006, and the first events were held at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The Comité Olímpico Cabo-verdeano (Olympic Committee of Cape Verde) was recognized by the International Olympic Committee on 1 January 1993. Their first Summer Olympics were the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where they sent 3 athletes, all in athletics. As of the 2018, Cape Verde has never won an Olympic medal. The 2000 Summer Olympics were held from 15 September to 1 October 2000; a total of 10,651 athletes represented 199 National Olympic Committees. Sydney was their second appearance at an Olympic Games; the island nation has never participated at a Winter Olympic Games as of the 2018 Winter Olympics. The Cape Verdean delegation to Sydney consisted of two track and field athletes, Isménia do Frederico and António Zeferino. Do Frederico was chosen as the flag bearer for the opening ceremony.
The Special Olympics World Games is a major event put on by the Special Olympics. The World Games alternate between summer and winter games, in two-year cycles, recurring every fourth year. The first games were held on July 20, 1968 in Chicago, Illinois, with about 1000 athletes from the U.S. and Canada. International participation expanded in subsequent games. In 2003, the first summer games held outside the United States were in Dublin, Ireland with 7000 athletes from 150 countries. The most recent World Summer Games were held in Los Angeles, California (The largest event in LA since the 1984 Olympic Games), from July 25, 2015 to August 2, 2015. This was the first time that the Special Olympics were part of ESPN daily coverage. The next World Summer Games will be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in March 2019. These will be the first Special Olympics World Games to be held in the Middle East.
Paris played a central role in the organization of international sports and in the professionalization of sports. The first efforts to revive the Olympic Games were led by a French educator and historian, Pierre de Coubertin. The first meeting to organize the games took place at the Sorbonne in 1894, resulting in the creation of the International Olympic Committee and the holding of the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. The second games, the first Olympics held outside of Greece, were the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, from 14 May until 28 October 1900, organized in conjunction with the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900. There were 19 sports included in the event, and women competed in the Olympics for the first time. The swimming events took place in the Seine. Some of the sports were unusual by modern standards; they included automobile and motorcycle racing, cricket, croquet, underwater swimming, tug-of-war, and shooting live pigeons.
A total of twenty-five sports venues were used to host the events of the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. For the first time in the history of the modern Olympic Games, the diving, gymnastics, swimming, and water polo competitions were held indoors. These Games have since been nicknamed the "Austerity Games" for the tight control of costs at a time when the host nation was still under rationing, which resulted in a total expenditure of around £750,000. All of the venues were already in place and required only temporary modifications. The organizing committee decided not to build an Olympic Village; instead, foreign athletes were housed in makeshift camps at military bases and colleges around London, while local athletes were told to stay at home. Despite these measures, the combined venues of the 1948 Summer Olympics recorded the highest attendance figures for a Games at that time.
St. Moritz was selected to host the first post-war Games in 1948. Switzerland's neutrality had protected the town during World War II, and most of the venues were in place from the 1928 Games, which made St. Moritz a logical choice. It became the first city to host a Winter Olympics twice. Twenty-eight countries competed in Switzerland, but athletes from Germany and Japan were not invited. Controversy erupted when two hockey teams from the United States arrived, both claiming to be the legitimate U.S. Olympic hockey representative. The Olympic flag presented at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp was stolen, as was its replacement. There was unprecedented parity at these Games, during which 10 countries won gold medals—more than any Games to that point.