All About Olympic Day: Theme, History, Significance And Some Facts On Olympics You Should Know About

Olympics, one of the leading International Sporting events, provides a platform to thousands of athletes to showcase their talents by participating in a variety of competitions. To celebrate this spirit of Sportsmanship, Olympic Day is observed on June 23 every year worldwide.

Olympic Day is a global celebration when hundreds of thousands of people from all age groups gather together and participate in numerous activities such as sports, runs, marathons, exhibitions, music events and physical-mental educational seminars. So let's dive deep to know more about its history.

Theme of Olympic Day 2022

The theme of Olympic Day 2022 is: "Together For A Peaceful World"
The theme for 2022 is decided in a view of the power of sports to bring people together from diverse backgrounds and natures with sportsmanship. The theme is focused on topics such as sustainability, inclusion, solidarity and peace and aimed to bring together the people who want to contribute towards a better world through sports.

Why is The Olympic Day Celebrated?

The Olympic Day commemorates the foundation of the International Olympic Committee by its founding fathers Baron Pierre De Coubertin on June 23, 1894. Baron Pierre De Coubertin was a French historian, educator as well as the 2nd President of the International Olympic Committee.
Originally the day has been celebrated since 1948 to mark the birth of the Modern Olympic Games on June 23 after the foundation of the International Olympic Committee which led the organisation of first modern games in Athens in 1896.

The First Olympic Day

The idea of celebrating International Olympic day was proposed in 1947 in the 41st session of the International Olympic Committee by one of its members Dr Gruss. The primary objective was to promote the idea of Olympics. His proposal was approved in the 42nd session of IOC in St. Moritz in 1948 and the National Olympic Committees were given the charge of its yearly celebration.
The first Olympic day was celebrated on June 23, 1948 in which 9 countries named Portugal, Greece, Austria, Canada, Switzerland, Great Britain, Uruguay, Venezuela and Belgium participated for the first time. The event was addressed by the then IOC President Sigfrid Edstrom.

The Modern Day Olympics

Olympics is a unique and world's foremost sporting event where competitors from more than 200 nations come to participate in different categories. The Olympic games are generally held every four years but since 1994 with the inception of summer and winter Olympics, it is splitted in 2 years games instead of 4. The Games are inspired by the ancient Olympic Games held in Olympia, Greece from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD.
As per the Olympic Charter of 1978, all the National Olympic Committees were recommended to celebrate the Olympic Day to popularise the Olympic Movement. Among various activities the Olympic Day run is considered as the core activity of Olympic day which was celebrated in 1987 with the participation of 45 NOCs which are now increased to 150.

Interesting Facts About Olympic

Here we are presenting some fast facts that you should know about for examination purposes.

• Recently the Summer Olympics was organised in Tokyo, Japan for the 2nd time. Japan has hosted 4 editions of Olympics so far which includes 1964 Summer Olympics (Tokyo), 1972 Winter Olympics (Sapporo), and 1998 Winter Olympics (Nagano) and Tokyo Summer Olympics 2020.
• In the Tokyo Olympics participants from 206 nations participated in 339 events in 39 sports.
• The best performing country in the Tokyo Olympics was the USA with 113 medals, followed by China 89 and Japan 58.
• India grabbed 48th position with 7 medals: 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 4 Bronze.
• The winter Olympics 2022 will be hosted by Beijing China.
• First Modern Olympic Games were held in 1896 in Athens, Greece.
• Baron Pierre De Coubertin is known as the father of modern Olympic Games.
• The headquarters of International Olympic Committee is in Lausanne, Switzerland.
• Five rings of Olympic logo with 5 colours: Red, Blue, Green, Black and Yellow represents 5 continents.
• Women participated for the first time in the Paris Olympics held in 1900.
• A sport should be played by men in at least 75 countries on 4 continents and by women in 40 Countries on 3 continents, to be qualified as a sport event in the Olympics.
• Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian javelin thrower to win the gold at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, by clocking an 87.58m record.
• Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav was the first Indian to win an Olympic Medal in Independent India in the Summer Olympics 1952. He won a Bronze medal in wrestling.
• India's Balbir Singh holds a record of maximum goals in an Olympic final.
• Karnam Malleshwari was the first Indian woman weightlifter to win an Olympic medal in 2000.
• P.V Sindhu in 2016 Rio Olympics, became the first badminton player to reach the finals of an Olympic game and won Silver Medal.
• The colours of the five rings on the Olympic symbol representing five continents (The Americas are treated as one continent) are Red, blue, green, yellow, and black.