The Ancient Olympic Games were religious and athletic festivals held every four years at the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia, Greece. Nobody knows when the first Olympic Games took place. The earliest recorded Olympics were at Olympia in 776BC. In AD393, the Roman emperor Theodosius banned the Games as they had become too pagan. The Olympics were not held again for 1,503 years. In 1894, a French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin, proposed a revival of the ancient tradition, and thus the modern-day Olympic Summer Games were born.

The five Olympic rings represent the five major regions of the world – Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania, and every national flag in the world includes one of the five colours, which are (from left to right) blue, yellow, black, green, and red.

The Olympic motto, Citius, Altius, Fortius, a Latin expression meaning “Faster, Higher, Stronger” was proposed by Pierre de Coubertin in 1894 and has been official since 1924.

Up until 1994 the Olympics were held every four years. Since then, the Winter and Summer games have alternated every two years.

The Soviet Union hosted the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow.
The mascot of this Olympic games was MISHA.
The bear’s full name is Mikhail Potapych Toptygin.
The 2014 Olympic Winter Games were the first time that the Russian Federation hosts the Winter Games.

The mascots of this Olympic games were THE HARE, THE POLAR BEAR AND THE LEOPARD.

There are three mascots in a nod to the three places on the Olympic podium.

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