{"id":48479,"date":"2016-08-05T00:31:08","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T07:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=48479"},"modified":"2016-08-08T01:46:30","modified_gmt":"2016-08-08T08:46:30","slug":"olympic-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2016\/08\/olympic-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Fascinating Olympics Facts"},"content":{"rendered":"
Here’s a round-up of all the interesting Olympic facts we’ve covered over the years, including eighteen articles and seven Quick Olympics Facts.<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>Why Do Olympians Wear Colored Tape?<\/a><\/p>\n

The colored tape the Olympians and other athletes wear is called \u201cKinesio\u00ae Tex Tape\u201d, which is essentially just an elastic cotton strip with an acrylic, heat activated adhesive. \u00a0The tape was designed in the 1970s by a Japanese chiropractic and acupuncture specialist, Kenzo Kase. To date, there hasn\u2019t been a single reputable study that conclusively shows this tape actually does anything the makers and athletes claim it does, though as Kevin Anderson, director of Kinesio UK, states \u201cThere\u2019s a lot more needed on the research side to confirm the positive results we\u2019re seeing so far.” (In truth, there have been numerous studies in the over 30 years this tape has been around and so far the results of using the tape have been more or less in-line with the placebo effect. It\u2019s interesting that the… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"olympic-art\"<\/a>When Art was an Olympic Sport<\/a><\/p>\n

When Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, he declared that one of the missions of the modern Olympiad would be \u201cto reunite in the bonds of legitimate wedlock a long-divorced couple \u2014 Muscle and Mind.\u201d To the Baron, Olympic competition wasn\u2019t just going to be about physical athletics, but sports of the mind as well \u2013 and there are fewer greater \u201csports of the mind\u201d than the arts. From 1912 to 1948, in seven Olympiads, over 151 Olympic medals were awarded in artistic competitions. Growing up in the French autocracy, Coubertin valued a classical education. He loved sports, especially rugby, but there is little evidence he was particularly… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"BobbyPearce-340x271\"<\/a>That Time an Olympic Rower Stopped to Let Some Ducks Swim By and Still Won the Gold Medal<\/a><\/p>\n

Born in Sydney Australia in 1905, Henry Robert Pearce, better known as Bobby Pearce, dominated the world of competitive rowing throughout the 1920s and 1930s and was extremely popular with fans of the sport due to a combination of the ease with which he seemed to best opponents and his affable personality. Perhaps the greatest example of both of these things in action was the time Pearce stopped mid-race to allow a duck and her ducklings to pass in front of him and still won. This particular anecdote from Pearce\u2019s life occurred at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam during the quarter final of the single sculls event in the Sloten canal. For anyone unfamiliar, the single sculls is essentially… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"1904-marathon-340x340\"<\/a>The Trials and Tribulations of 1904 Olympic Marathon Runners<\/a><\/p>\n

When the United States hosted the Olympics for the first time in 1904, the games had yet to reach the high level of competition and popularity we know today. Although athletes from countries around the world were invited to participate, the games were less about the world\u2019s best athletes competing for medals and more about (actual) amateur athletes competing against each other. The ultimate decision to host the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis, Missouri, created a huge obstacle for international athletes in that travel to the innermost parts of the States was difficult and costly. The only way to travel between continents was by a long and expensive ocean voyage, after which the athletes needed to take about a 1,000-mile train trip. As a result, many countries decided not to participate. Out of the 630 athletes from 12 nations that competed that year, 523 were American, which explains why the United States won so many medals that year (239, with the closest runner up being Germany who won 13). Perhaps one of the most surprising athletes to compete for his country was F\u00e9lix de la Caridad Carvajal y Soto… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"now-you-know-answers1-340x286\"<\/a>How Much are Olympic Gold Medals Worth?<\/a><\/p>\n

As far as the value of the raw materials in them, this varies from Olympiad to Olympiad.\u00a0 For the recent 2012 Olympics in London, the medals were the largest of any in Summer Olympic history up to that point, weighing in at 400g for the gold medal.\u00a0 Of this 400g, 394g was sterling silver (364.45g silver \/ 29.55g copper) with 6g of 24 karat gold plating.\u00a0 At the price of gold and silver when these medals were won by various Olympians, this means a gold medal in the London Olympics was worth about $624, with $304 of the value coming from the gold plating and about $320 coming from the sterling silver. Since then, the price of gold has dropped about 18% and the price of silver has dropped about 39%. For the current 2016 Rio Olympics… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"now-you-know-answers1-340x286\"<\/a>Do Olympic Medalists Receive Cash Prizes With Their Medals?<\/a><\/p>\n

Some are awarded cash prizes by their respective local Olympic committees or governments.\u00a0 Also, sometimes private businessmen will match values given, such as in Armenia where a man donated $700,000 to be added to the cash given by the Olympic committee for medals. Another similar thing occurred for Belarus athletes during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.\u00a0 Those Belarusians who won any medal in the Olympics that year not only got a cash prize ($100,000 for gold, $50,000 for silver, and $30,000 for bronze), but also were given free meat and sausage for life from a local major meat company, Belatmeat.\u00a0 In the end, though, typically any cash prizes and the decision on whether to award them each Olympics is decided by the local Olympic Committees in each country and generally all the cash for the bonuses comes from these committees. As to the amounts of these prizes, the United States Olympic Committee awards… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Bonus<\/span> Olympic Facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n