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  1. Home
  2. Topics
  3. The history of the Olympics

The history of the Olympics

Explore the history of the Olympic Games

Explore the modern Olympic Games

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Arrives Japan
General Modern

Q&A Have the Olympic Games ever been cancelled?

Tokyo Olympics 1964: Yoshinori Sakai prepares to light the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony. Born on the day that the first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima, he was a symbol of Japan’s postwar reconstruction and peace
20th Century

Tokyo Olympics 1964: the Games that defined Japan

Joep de Beer of Holland throws a javelin at the Stoke Mandeville Games
20th Century

Q&A When and where were the first Paralympics held?

The first modern Olympics at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens
Victorian

The first modern Olympics: what happened at the 1896 games?

Read more about the Olympics

Discover the ancient Olympics of antiquity

A depiction of athletes in the torch race, ancient Olympics
Ancient Greece

What were the ancient Olympics like? Take a visit to the Games of 436 BC

Wrestlers in ancient Greece
Ancient Greece

Q&A How did ancient athletes prepare for the Olympics?

(Photo by naphtalina/Getty Images)
Ancient Greece

Q&A Why do we say ‘resting on your laurels’?

Olympic athletes past and present

Crown Prince Olav on his ice yacht (Getty Images) 
20th Century

From Hollywood to war heroes: 10 Olympians who were more famous outside sport

A man runs on an athletics track with a crowd behind him
20th Century

Harry Edward: Britain’s first black Olympic hero

Medal winners on a podium
Victorian

Q&A Who won the first Olympic medal? And what was the prize before that?

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