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Field Hockey

 

                                                              

Since: Men’s1908, London Summer Olympics, women’s 1980, Moscow Summer Olympics

History: Field hockey is one of the oldest ball and stick games. It was played in Persia in 2000 BC. The name hockey probably comes from the French hocquet which means shepherd’s crook. It is based on the crook ed stick. The stick is used to hit a small plastic ball. The game became more established in the late 19th century and became an Olympic sport in 1908.

Famous Founders:

Aldo diSorbo was in the summer Olympics several times and was nominated two times for “World’s Best Player of the Year”. She had to withdraw from the 2004 Olympics in Athens due to injury. In her career she played 280 games and scored 86 goals. Jennifer Morris, field hockey defender, was on the Australian Women’s Hockey Team in the 1996 Atlanta, Georgia games. Jennifer Morris's team brought home a gold medal for Australia. Once again four years later she returned to the 2000 Sydney, Australia games and won another gold.



Gymnastics

                                                                                                  

Since: 1896, Athens, Greece

History: The Federation Internationale de Gymnastique was started on July 23, 1881 when members of the gymnastics groups of Belgium, France and Netherlands came together in Liege. Both its member federations and gymnastics clubs throughout five continents hold the sport. In 1897, seventeen national associations came together to make the rules of the European Gymnastics Federation. When USA was committed to the Summer Olympic Games in 1921, the committee changed the name to the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique or FIG. This is what it is known as today.

Famous Founders:

            Karen Cockburn, of Canada, was originally a diver in the Olympics. She used the trampoline as a training tool but decided she liked gymnastics better and switched over to competitive trampolining. When trampolining was entered in the Olympic at the 2000 Sydney Games, Karen was one of twelve women to participate. Cockburn went home with a bronze medal. Handsome Aleksandr Dityatin of Russia first competed in the 1976 winter Olympics and won a silver medal in the gymnastics team event. He placed fourth in the individual event which made him miss a medal by five hundredths of a point. In the 1980 Moscow Olympics he lead his team to winning the individual round in his hometown.

 

Swimming 

                                                                 

Since: 1896, Athens, Greece

History: Swimming has dated back to the Stone Age from paintings around 7,000 years ago. Some of the earliest recordings of ancient swimming are the Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible, Beowulf , and other sagas. Competitive swimming started in Europe at about 1800, mostly using breaststroke.

Famous Founders:

            Michael Phelps is an American swimmer. He’s won 14 career Olympic gold medals, the most by any Olympic competitor. Phelps hold the record for the most medals won in one competition. He won eight gold medals in the Bejjing 2008 Summer Olympics. Breaking the record of  Mark Spitz’s seven golds in 1972. Overall he has won 16 medals in his Olympic career. Dawn Fraser, known to be the best female swimmer, was the first woman to swim the 100- meter event in less than a minute. She was first discovered in 1952 when she was 12 years old. In 1955 she broke current freestyle swimming records of 880 yards. In the 1956 Olympics she broke the 100 meter freestyle record. At just 18 years old she won three medals in her first Olympics.

 

Triathlon 

                                                                 

Since: 2000, Sydney, Australia

History: The first triathlon was held on Fiesta Island in 1974 when San Diego University was looking for new ways to find interests. As an endurance sport the game has athletes compete in cycling, swimming, and running. The sport requires intense training and discipline. In 2000 it became an Olympic sport.

Famous Founders:

Simon Whitfield was young when he decided that he wanted to be in the Encyclopedia Britannica. He would have to be the best in the world in something. Whitfield was not one of the favorites at the Olympics. He was ranked thirteenth in the world and had not won a triathlon in a year. Conrad Stoltz of South Africa and world champion Olivier Marceau of France took a lead of one minute after 5 out of 6 laps. On that same lap, a 15 men had fallen and Whitfield had to put his foot down and skid to a stop. Which had made him began the 10km run in 24th place. Stoltz had fallen behind while Marceau stayed in for six kilometers, right before he was passed by Stephan Vuckovic of Germany. Whitfield caught Vuckovic, but with 1,000m to go, the German team lead of almost 25m. Whitfield cut through and then began his final sprint with 450m left. He passed Vuckovic about 200m from the finish line and won. At the 2004 Summer Athens Olympic Games, Simon finished in 11th place.

 

Cycling

                                                                               

Since: 1896, Athens, Greece

History: Bicycles were first created in 1817 and have been used as a sport for many years. The front wheel used to be much larger than the rear wheel. That made the rider elevated a great deal, making the bikes difficult to control and dangerous. In 1885, J.K. Starley made a more modern bike with a chain and equally sized wheels which helped the growth of bicycle racing as a sport.

Famous Founders:

            Paolo Bettini,“the golden cricket”, placed ninth in the road race in 2000. But he grew better at the 2001 World Championship in Lisbon and in both 2002 and 2003 he won the World Cup. In 2006 and 2007 he won two more titles; the world road race champions, which gave him the right to wear his world famous jersey. The 2008 Beijing Olympics was one of his last appearances.

 

Weightlifting

                                                                                                  

Since: Men’s 1896, Athens, Greece. Women’s 2000, Sydney, Australia

History: Weightlifting is an ancient sport, as old as mankind. This sport tests human strength. The apparent simplicity of lift a heavy object one or two times is deceiving. This event concentrates on strength, power, speed, timing, and technique.

Famous Founders: Naim Suleymanoglu (the pocket of Hercules) was born to Turkish parents and lives in Bulgaria. Even though he is only 1.47m tall he quickly found his calling for a career in professional weightlifting. In 1988 he broke the boycott that Bulgaria had against the Olympics and competed in his first games.

 

Basketball

                                                                  

Since: 1936, Berlin, Germany

History: Basketball was invented in 1892 by James Naismith. When basketball was first invented people used peach baskets as the hoops or baskets and a soccer ball was the substitute for the basketball and there were only 13 rules.

Famous Founders:
   
             At the 1936 Olympics James Naismith presented the basketball medals to the top three teams. Winning the Olympics is thought to be the highest honor in international basketball.

Earvin “Magic” Johnson played for the US Olympic basketball team also know as the “Dream Team” in 1992 in Barcelona, Spain. And brought home an Olympic gold medal; the only one of his career.

 

 

Volleyball

                                                                                            

Since: 1964, Tokyo, Japan

History:

The game of volleyball was invented in 1895, by a man named William G. Morgan. Morgan designed volleyball to be a combination of basketball, baseball, tennis, and handball. Six feet six inches; that was the height of the first volleyball net whose idea came from the tennis set-up. In 1928 the first association for volleyball was formed; USVBA. Standing for United States Volleyball Association. Two years later in 1930 the first 2-man beach volleyball was played. Then the first beach volleyball association appeared in California in 1965. In the1984 Los Angeles Olympics American men and women competed in indoor volleyball, and took home gold and silver. In 1996 2-man beach volleyball became an official Olympic sport.

Famous Founders:

                  Misty May Treanor and her partner Kerri Walsh (USA) are two of volleyball's most known Olympians. Misty and Kerri have won their last 69 international matches and, have had 10-straight gold medal victories. Misty and Kerri won the beach volleyball tournament in the 2008 Olympics. They went on to become the first team to ever win two beach volleyball Olympic gold medals. The pair finished with a record of 7-0, and in all of their matches they never dropped a set.

 

Football (Soccer)

                                                                   

Since: 1900, Paris, France

History:

The modern game of football (soccer) started with the Football Association of England in 1863 but its roots are spread to almost opposite ends of the world. Ancient Chinese, Greeks and Romans played a very similar game. Football didn't really get popular in the Olympics until 1930. From 1948 to 1980 Eastern European teams won 23 of the 27 medals in football. (With the exception of Sweden, Denmark and Japan). For the 1984 Los Angeles Games the rules were changed to bring interest back to Olympic football. A compromise was struck so that the Africa, Asia, Oceania and North America could field their strongest professional players and European teams had to pick players who had not previously played in the World Cup. Now all the teams in the Olympics have to have all players under twenty three years old with the exception of three players.

Famous Founders:

              Some of the most succesful and famous Olympic football players are Mia Hamm of the U.S and Patrick MBOMA DEN of Cameroon. Patrick was born in Cameroon and moved to France with his family when he was two. Patrick had already played with France, Japan and Italy in the world cup but he hit his peak in 2000 when he got to play for Cameroon in the Olympics. In the final Patrick ended up having both goals for his team and his team went on to win the shoot out 5-3. Patrick had carried Cameroon to the gold. That year Patrick was named the player of the year for his performance .

 

Table Tennis

                                                                   

Since: 1988, Seoul, South Korea

History:

Ping Pong was invented in England in the 1890's as an after dinner alternative to lawn tennis. Now table tennis is an intense sport where players compete for big money and wield high tech rackets. Players volley the ball at speeds up to 160 miles per hour. Ping Pong has become the worlds biggest participation sport with over 40 million competitive players and countless millions play recreationally.

The game debuted in the 1988 Olympic games at Seoul. The game originally used cigar box tops for rackets and a carved champagne cork for a ball. Today, players use specially made rubber coated wooden rackets with specially applied glues to put extra spin and velocity. Of course some glues are banned from the games because they can make the ball fly up to 30 miles per hour faster.

Famous Founders:

               Yaping Dung from China is a great Ping Pong player in the Olympics. When she was 9 she qualified for the Olympic team but was denied a spot because she was too short. Again when she was 13 Yaping qualified for the team but was again denied because she was too short. Finally when she was 16 the comittee gave in and let Yaping compete at 4 and a half feet tall. In Yaping's short career she won four gold medals.

 

Track and Field

                                                                                       

Since: 1896, Athens, Greece

History:  Track and field is the embodiment of the Olympic motto, “Citius, Altius, Fortius”, meaning faster higher stronger. Track and field is about going faster, jumping higher, and throwing farther than your opponent. In ancient Olympic games they were usually simple foot races but occasionally they had to run in full armor or holding a soldiers shield. Today Track and field is one of the most popular Olympic sports. From the 100 meter dash to the 42.195 km marathon, track and field is one of the biggest Olympic sports to date.

                  

Famous Founders:


           On May 31, 2008 at the athletics meeting in New York the general public found out about Usain Bolt. That day Usain broke the world record for the 100 meter dash at 9.69 seconds. When the Olympics started in Beijing Bolt was a favorite for the sprinting events but many other competitors could win the gold. His first heat a 10.20 was not his best but he ran his second and semifinal heats in under 10 seconds setting the best qualification time. On the sixteenth of August 2008 the 100 meter final was about to take place with optimal conditions. In the middle of the track the Caribbean sprinter set off a little behind his opposition but soon caught up at the mid point. With a few meters to the finish line Usain knew he had the race and could savour his first Olympic gold. When Usain looked at the clock he realized he had ran a exceptional race, 9.69 seconds! He was the fastest man in the world!