Do you know that...?

The 2014 Winter Olympics are in Sochi, Russia. The opening ceremonies was on February 7, 2014. The closing ceremony will be on February 23, 2014. Over 85 nations and more than 2500 athletes will compete.

The first Olympic Games was in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece. It had only one event, a sprint (a short run that was called the "stade"). Only yang men could compete and women couldn’t. They had to be free men, and speak Greek. The prize was a crown of olive leaves.

  Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (1863-1937) (a French educator and sportsman) brought the Olympic Games back in 1896, in Athens, Greece. The first winter Olympics were in 1924, in Chamonix, France.

The flag of the Olympic Games has five rings (blue, yellow, black, green, and red) on a white ground. The rings are for the five parts of the world: Africa, two Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe. Baron de Coubertin designed the flag of the Olympics in 1913-1914.

 The tradition of the Olympic flame began on the ancient Olympic Games, 2700 years ago in Greece. For each Olympics, a new flame is started in the ancient Olympic stadium in Olympia, Elis, Greece. They took the flame to the country where the games will be. The last runner uses a torch to light the large Olympic torch which burns throughout the games.

In the Winter Olympics there are: ice hockey, figure skating, speed skating, snowboarding, bobsleigh, skeleton and other sports.

At the modern Olympics, each first-place winner got a gold medal, each second-place winner got a silver medal, and each third-place winner got a bronze medal.