THE OLYMPICS ARE HERE!!!
The Olympic Games are easily one of my favorite sporting events to watch. Why? You might ask, or who cares? To that I say, Shut your mouth when you're talking to me! The Olympics bring the entire world together for 2-ish weeks, to put differences and conflicts aside in the name of peace and good sportsmanship. Granted, after looking at Olympic Juggernauts like the U.S. and China, it hardly seems fair, but that doesn't mean they are not entertaining.
Now I was going to write this whole essay like post comparing The Hunger Games to The Olympic Games, but it's been a long week at work, and like I said, I've got two weeks, should I ever feel up to it. Until then, enjoy these very interesting facts about The 2012 London Olympic Games. U-S-A! U-S-A!
London will become the first city to officially stage the Olympics for a third time.
There is a very fair argument that the first modern Olympic Games actually took place in the small English village of Much Wenlock in 1866 - some 30 years before the 1896 Athens Games.
Britain was the first country to stage a Paralympic event which took place on the Opening day of the 1948 London Olympics and were known as the Stoke Mandeville Games. Competitors were disabled war veterans. The name derives from Parallel Olympic.
The two mascots of the Games, Wenlock and Mandeville are named after the previously mentioned Much Wenlock and Stoke Mandeville.
The sporting pictograms that are now an integral part of the Olympic Games were first introduced at the 1948 London Games. There were originally just 20 Olympic Symbols and they were used on the tickets to help people find the events. They were reintroduced at the 1966 games and have been used ever since.
At the 1908 London Games the organizers of the Marathon discovered that the British Royal Box was 385 yards further down route than the 26 mile finishing mark. The route was extended to finish exactly in front of King Edward VII and has been 26miles and 385 yards ever since.
It has been announced that there will be serious fines of up to £20,000 for anyone 'streaking' at the London 2012 Olympic Games if they are using their nudity or partial nudity to advertise any product or brand that is not already associate with or a sponsor of the Games. It is uncertain what will happen to people who just get naked for fun.
A century ago, the gold medals were entirely gold. The ones that will be awarded over the next two weeks contain just 6 grams of gold. They're mostly silver. They haven't been entirely gold since 1912.
For more interesting facts, check out CNN's London Olympics by the numbers. Who knew the U.S. has never won a medal in Badmitton, Table Tennis, and Handball? And no, it's not the same Handball that you played in Grade School.
That's the Fun Facts for this week. If you have a topic that you would like me to research and find little known facts for, comment on this post below or call Nikki, perferably between the hours of 1:00am-4:15am.
If you made it this far, congrats!
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