Podcast Review | Short History of….The Modern Olympics by Lindsay Galvin

Short History of….The Modern Olympics by Lindsay Galvin

With majority of people glued to the TV to watch the 2024 Olympics, it’s worth taking a quick history lesson on the Games and how they have changed over 130 years.

While several iterations of the games have taken place previously, and for different reasons, mostly religious or to honour gods, it was in 1894 when French aristocrat, Pierre de Coubertin set about reviving the Olympic Games. The first modern Olympic Games took place in its ancient birth pace, Greece, where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) attracted athletes from 14 nations to compete in 9 events. Fast forward 130 years, there are more than 200 countries competing in Paris at the moment across 32 sports spread over 329 events.

Below are a few interesting facts from the last 130 years, clearly not an exhaustive list:

• 1912 - inclusion of artistic events in the Stockholm Olympic Games, including literature, sculpture, painting, architecture and music.
• 1948 – Para Olympics first started.
• 1968 – First year IOC bans performance enhancing substances, include caffeine. But it has been reported athletes have used some form of drugs as early as 1904
• 1976 – Summer Olympics in Montreal cost $1.7bn, which took 30 years to pay off the debt.
• 2000 – Revenue from TV rights become extremely important given the Games popularity among viewers with the Sydney Olympics generating $1.3bn in revenue from TV rights alone (note the whole Games cost Sydney over $6bn)
• 2024 – First carbon neutral Olympics banning single use plastics.

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