Olympic Games Firsts and Superlatives

These 55 fascinating Olympic Games Firsts and Olympics Superlatives have been prepared for Kids and Students:

55 Olympic Games Firsts and Superlatives
plus five Bonus Facts

What you will find on our updated and expanded page about Olympic Games Firsts:

10 Firsts To Know
Fascinating Firsts
Women's First
Olympic Symbols Firsts
Olympic Host Cities
Olympic Team Firsts

Medal Superlatives
Fabulous Sports Firsts
Amazing Olympic Records
Famous Olympians
Unique Olympic Firsts
More Olympics Facts

10 Olympic Firsts
Everyone Must Know

If you think 55 Facts is way too many facts to know about, let's give you ten Olympic Firsts everybody just must know.

At a Glance

The first Ancient Olympic Games were held in 776 BCE in Ancient Greece.
The first modern Olympic Games took place in 1896 in Athens/ Greece.
Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) is revered as the "Father of Modern Olympics" and he designed the five Olympic Rings.
Gold, silver and bronze medals have been awarded to the first-, second- and third-placed athletes since 1904.
Women first competed in the Olympics in 1900 and since 2012 they can compete in all Olympic sports.
The first Winter Olympic Games were held in 1924 in Chamonix/ France.
The USA leads the all-time Olympic medal table.
Norway and Germany are the strongest nations in Winter Olympic history.
The USA is the country that has hosted the most Olympic Games.
Kirsty Coventry is the first female and current President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Fascinating Olympic Firsts

1. The first Ancient Olympic Games were held in 776 BCE in Greece to honour the Greek god Zeus. The Ancient Olympics were initially a one-day event with only one competition: a 192-metre/ 200-yard sprint race called stadion (στάδιον). This sports event later also included competitions in boxing, wrestling or horse racing. The Games were held every four years until 292 CE/ AD. The Greek word for a period of four years is Olympiad (Ὀλυμπιάς).

2. The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens/ Greece in the summer of 1896. Before this, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was formed in Paris in 1894. This was the start for the modern Olympics held every four years.

3. Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) is revered as the "Father of Olympics" as he tried to bridge differences between countries and cultures with the first modern Olympic Games.

4. The very first modern Games in 1896 had competitions in only 9 sports. The Paris Summer Olympics in 2024 featured 33 sports and the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics in 2026 have competitions in 16 sports!

5. The first Olympic Games in Greece in 1896 had teams from 14 countries: Austria, Australia, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain & Ireland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA.

6. Medals were introduced in 1904 for the first, second and third placed athlete of any event in the Olympics.

7. The first Olympic Charter was signed in 1908 by the International Olympics Committee. It stated that the IOC president must be elected every ten years, but the president can be re-elected.

8. The first Winter Olympics were held in 1924 in Chamonix/ France and included snow sports and ice sports.

9. The first Games for athletes in wheelchairs were introduced in 1960 with the Summer Games in Rome/ Italy. The first Paralympic Winter Games only were held in 1976 in Sweden. Since 1988 the Games were referred to as Paralympics and are held directly after the Olympics.

10. The first Youth Olympic Games (YOG) were held in Singapore in the summer of 2010. The next Summer YOGs will be held in Dakar/ Senegal in 2026 from 31 October to 13 November 2026. About 4500 young athletes aged 14 - 18 years are expected to compete in 35 sports in the first olympic event of the African continent! The next Winter YOGs will be held in Italy in 2028.

Fabulous Firsts
Women in the Olympics

11. The first time, women were allowed to participate in the Summer Olympics was in the Paris Games in 1900, However, they only could take part in five sports: tennis, croquet, sailing, equestrianism and golf competitions.

Side note: One woman, managed to run the marathon in the first modern Olympics in 1896: Stamata Revithi, but she was not part of the Olympic athletes. Read more here.

12. The first female Olympic gold medalist was Hélène de Pourtalès from Switzerland who won the sailing competition in 1900.

13. In 1912, swimming and diving competitions for women were added to the Olympics in Sweden and from the Amsterdam Olympics 1928 onwards, women were allowed to compete in the track and field events too.

14. From 1984 onwards, female events were added in marathon and cycling competitions and rhythmic gymnastics was added. Since the London Summer Olympics 2012, women could participate in all sports.

15. The 2024 Paris Olympics featured the highest number and percentage of female participants in Olympic history, achieving 50% gender parity with 5,250 women competing.

16. The first female members of the International Olympic Committee were elected in 1981. These were Flor Isava Fonseca from Venezuela and Pirjo Häggman from Finland.

17. In 2025, Kirsty Coventry from Zimbabwe was elected as the first female president of the IOC. She is a former Olympian swimmer and won a gold medal in the women's 200-meter backstroke competition of the Summer Olympics in Athens in 2004.

Olympic Symbols Firsts

18. The official Olympic anthem is sung at the opening and the closing ceremonies since the first Olympics took place in 1898. The anthem or hymn is a choral cantata that was composed by Spyridon Samaras and has lyrics by Kostis Palamas.

Although written in Greek, the hymn was performed only at the first Olympics and then again starting with the Winter Olympics 1960 in the USA. The anthem then was sung in English but various versions in foreign languages were performed since then. Since 2018, the hymn must be performed at the Olympics in either English, Greek or in an instrumental version according to an IOC (International Olympic Committee) ruling.

19. The symbol of the five Olympic rings, designed by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, were presented to the public in Paris in 1913, however, the symbol made its official debut only at the 1920 Games in Antwerp, together with the first raising of the Olympic flag and the first athlete oath.

20. The Olympic flame has been an official symbol since 1928. The torch relay was first introduced in the 1936 Berlin Games. The torch relay in the Winter Olympics 2026 includes all 20 region (and 110 provinces) of Italy! Remember, the torch relays help connect the hosting country to the Olympic Games and spreads the Olympic spirit far beyond the stadiums.

21. The first official Olympic mascot was Waldi, a dachshund. This mascot was introduced in 1972 at the Munich Summer Olympics.

22. Multiple mascots were at the Olympics since the Winter Olympics in 1988. The Calgary Olympics featured two polar bears, named Hidy and Howdy, and the Sydney Summer Olympics in 2000 featured three mascots Syd, the platypus, Olly, the kookaburra and Milly, the echidna.

23. The Beijing Olympics in 2008 had with five mascots, which is the most mascots ever used at any Olympic Games! The mascots were called Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini. Each one of these five mascots represented a colour of the Olympic rings and together the names of these five mascots formed the phrase "Welcome to Beijing" (Beijing huanying ni).

First in Olympics
Countries and Cities

24. The Olympic Games so far have been held in Europe, in North America, in South America, in Asia and in Australia, but not on the African continent! The first Olympic event ever held on the African continent will be the Summer Youth Olympics in Dakar/ Senegal, which will take place in November 2026.

25. Only five countries participated in all Summer Olympics ever held, these are Australia, France, Great Britain, Greece, and Switzerland. Twelve countries participated in all Winter Olympics ever held, these are Austria, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the USA and Canada.

26. Until today, most of the Summer and Winter Olympic Games were hosted by the USA: Eight times in total! Four times the Summer Olympics and four times the Winter Olympics.

Did you know?

The next Summer Olympics in 2028 will be held in Los Angeles/ USA.

(Note: Palisades Tahoe, then was known as Squaw Valley, the ski resort was renamed in 2021)

27. Beijing became the first city in the world that has hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008 and the Winter Olympic Games in 2022.

28. The 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics will be the first Winter Olympics that are shared by two main cities. After these Olympics, Cortina d'Ampezzo will be amongst the cities who hosted the Olympics twice.

29. London and Paris are the only two cities in the world that hosted the Olympic Games three times. London, however, was the first to host three Olympics by 2012! Tokyo was the first city in Asia to host the Olympic Games twice: in 1964 and 2020. The 2020 Games were actually held in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Did you know?

Cortina d'Ampezzo will host the Olympics also for the second time in 2026!

30. Olympic Games Firsts: The Olympics were only hosted by countries on the Northern Hemisphere, only in Europe and North America, until 1956. Then the Olympics were held for the first time in Australia.

31. The 1956 Melbourne Olympics in Australia were the first Olympics held in the Southern Hemisphere. The Olympic Games have been held in the Southern Hemisphere only three times: 1956 in Melbourne/ Australia, 2000 in Sydney/ Australia and 2016 in Rio de Janeiro/ Brazil.

Olympics Firsts
Teams and Athletes

32. In 1912 sportsmen from all five inhabited continents (Africa, North America, South America, Asia, Europe and the region of Oceania) took part in the Olympic Games in Stockholm/ Sweden. Remember, only men competed in the Games until 1928!

33. Athletes from the former states of the Soviet Union or USSR (now Russia) competed for the first time in the Olympic Games in Helsinki/ Finland in 1952. Athletes from the People’s Republic of China participated for the first time in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles/ USA.

34. The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro/ Brazil had the most athletes ever participating at a Summer Olympics, with 11,238 athletes taking part from around the world.

35. Even though the Winter Olympics have fewer athletes in general, the Beijing Winter Olympics had the most participants (2,871 athletes) so far. However, in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, more than 3,000 athletes are expected to join in the sporting competitions!

36. In 2018, the athletes from North Korea and South Korea marched and competed under one united flag. They even presented a joint women's ice hockey team.

37. The youngest Olympian ever was a ten-year old athlete in the first modern Olympics in Greece in 1896. The youngest participant in the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics is 15-year old freestyle skier Abby Winterberger from the USA. The oldest participant in the 2026 Winter Olympics is 54-year old Curling athlete Rich Ruohonen from the USA.

38. The oldest Olympian and Olympic medalist was 72 year old Swedish athlete Oscar Swahn, who competed in the Summer Olympics 1920 in Belgium. His team won in running deer shooting event, which is a discontinued discipline. With 36 years, snowboarder Linsey Jacobellis is the oldest American woman to ever win a gold medal. She won the snowboard competition in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Olympic Games Firsts
Olympic Medals Superlatives

39. The USA lead the all-time medal table with 3,095 medals: 1,219 gold medals, 1,000 silver medals and 876 bronze medals. The country also leads the table at every Summer Olympic Games since 1896! The USA has led the Winter Olympics medal table 4 times and is the only country in the world that earned at least one gold medal in all Winter Games.

Did you know?

40. Norway and Germany lead the all-time Winter Olympics medal table and is especially strong in skiing and other Nordic sports. Germany won the most medals in Winter Olympic history with a total of 435 medals.

41. Most medals won in one edition of the Olympics: Michael Phelps won gold in every event he took part in and stands as the record holder for most Olympic golds won in a single edition of the Summer Games. German swimmer Kristin Otto leads the way for women, having won six gold medals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

42. The most Olympic medals in consecutive games were achieved by Armin Zöggeler from Italy. He won six gold medals in six Olympic Games editions in luge.

Olympic Games Firsts
Sports & Disciplines Firsts

43. The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo had the most sporting events of any Olympics with 339 scheduled events. Remember the first Olympics only had nine sports!

44. The first Olympic marathon over the standard distance of 42 km/ 26 miles was held in 1908 London Olympics. The first marathon swimming event over 10 km/ 6.2 miles was held in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

45. Over the years, many sports disciplines were added. Amongst the most important additions as future core sports are skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were added in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as well as breaking or breakdancing, a sport that was added in Paris in 2024.

46. Several mixed team events were added to various sports in the Winter Olympics in recent events, Women's monobob was added in 2022, while Slopestyle and Big Air, both snowboard discipline, were introduced in 2014 and 2018. In the 2026 Winter Olympics, a new sport "ski mountaineering" will have its debut.

Olympic Games Firsts
Amazing Olympic Records

47. Many remarkable records have been set over the years, and several outstanding records still wait to be broken again, such as these records:

Athletics: Usain Bolt (Jamaica): Men's 100m (9.63s) record set in 2012 and Men's 200m (19.30s), record set in 2008
Athletics: Florence Griffith Joyner (USA): Women's 100m (10.62s) and Women's 200m (21.34s), both records set in 1988
Speed Skating: Nils van der Poel (Sweden): Men's 10,000m, record set in 2022
Ski Jumping: Nika Prevc (Slovenia): Women's ski jump 236 metres/ 774 feet in 2025

Olympic Games Firsts
Famous Olympians

48. Usain Bolt is the first man to win and set world records of the 100m and 200m sprint finals.

49. Michael Phelps, swimmer from the USA, is the most decorated Olympian. He won a total of 28 Olympic medals, of which 23 are gold medals, in the Olympic Games between 2004 and 2016. Fun fact: Michael Phelps alone has won more medals than many countries have won in Olympic history!

50. The most most successful female Olympian of all time is Larisa Latynina from the former Soviet Union who won a record 18 Olympic medals between 1956 and 1964 in gymnastics.

51. The most successful female Winter Olympian is Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen with 15 medals won between 2010 and 2018 and is the third most successful Olympian athletes of all times!

Scoring Perfect Points

The first and the only athletes to achieve perfect scores from all judges:

Olympic Games Firsts
Unique Olympic Firsts

52. Since 1924, athletes have been housed in Olympic Villages, which are either purpose-built or adapted by the host city.

53. Commercial sponsorship was first introduced to the Olympic Games in 1928, when Coca-Cola became the first official sponsor. Today, fourteen global partners support the Olympic Games.

54. Olympics on Television: The 1956 Olympics in Cortina were the first Winter Games ever broadcast on television. The broadcast was then in black and white only and only could be seen in some regions in the world. The 1964 Tokyo Olympics were the first Olympic Games shown on television worldwide.

55. In 2021 humanoid robots were used at the Olympic events for the first time. Mascot-type robots greeted athletes and visitors at the Olympic Games venues in Japan.

Do you want more fascinating Facts about the Olympics?

Find more facts about the Olympic Games on our separate page here:

More about the Olympic Games

Olympic Games Firsts | Resources

The International Olympic Committee. "Olympic Games." Olympic.org. Last accessed 5 February 2026
The International Olympic Committee. "Milano-Cortina Olympics." Olympic.org. Last accessed 5 February 2026
Olympic Museum. "Participating Countries in the Olympics 1896." OlympicMuseum.de. Last accessed 5 February 2026
Guinness World Records. "Most participants at a Summer Olympics." GuinessWorldRecords. Last accessed 5 February 2026
Alia Khan. "You need to be tough." AlJazeera. 25 November 2023. Last accessed 5 February 2026

Images on the Olympic Games Firsts page: Tokyo Olympics Header Image: Chaay_Tee/ shutterstock.com; torch: KirillS/ shutterstock.comMascots: Octavio Acosta Carlock/ shutterstock.com; Logo: Krovop58/ shutterstock.com as well as own graphics generated by AI-ChatGpt (fact-checked)