63
votes
Accepted
Why are professional athletes allowed to compete in the Olympic games?
The IOC officially began allowing professional athletes to compete in the Olypmic Games in 1988, basically leaving it up to the individual sporting federations to decide if they would permit it. The ...
- 1,282
25
votes
Accepted
Are World Records set in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics not considered Olympic records?
Those are Olympic records. They're both World Records (WRs) and the Olympics Records (ORs). A WR set in the Olympics is a WR and an OR.
WRs are not bounded to the Olympics and so can happen at other ...
- 11.1k
20
votes
Accepted
Did Adolf Hitler really snub Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin?
Jesse Owens was snubbed by who?
Everyone knows that at the 1936 Olympics Hitler snubbed Jesse Owens. As the story goes, after Owens won one gold medal, Hitler, incensed, stormed out of Olympic ...
- 400
17
votes
Has any high official (politician) won any medal in an important competition while holding office?
Various members of the British Royal Family have won high level showjumping medals:
Princess Anne, the daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, won various titles including the 1971 European Eventing ...
- 24.7k
14
votes
Accepted
Are the gender differences in Olympic uniforms simply a style choice? Whose choice?
The precise rules for clothing are published by the international sport federations (FIVB for Beach Volleyball, FIG for gymnastics, FINA for Swimming etc.). Typically, they consist of
basic rules ...
- 2,233
13
votes
Accepted
Has any high official (politician) won any medal in an important competition while holding office?
William Grenfell competed in the 1906 Intercalated Games in team épée. He was a UK MP until December 1905 until raised to the peerage and was - if I understand how the House of Lords worked in the ...
- 373
12
votes
Accepted
Who are the "Olympic Athletes from Russia"?
The Russian Olympic Committee was suspended from the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games as a result of state-sponsored doping and testing fraud in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games. They are ...
Nij♦
- 8,202
12
votes
Accepted
How are marathon numbers decided (And why do they always seem to be in the thousands?)
If I'm not mistaken, the athlete numbers are one large pool for all athletic events, including the track and field ones. Athletes are ordered, first by gender (women first, men last), then by country, ...
- 1,805
10
votes
What is the record for the most family members competing in the same Olympic Games?
Another example of four siblings in the same Olympics is the Belgian Borlée family during the 2016 Rio olympics.
The brothers Jonathan, Kevin and Dylan participated in the 4x400m relay, taking fourth ...
10
votes
Accepted
Athletes who have competed in the Olympics for more than one country
I recall Merlene Ottey, who represented Jamaica (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000) and Slovenia (2004). She obtained 9 medals representing Jamaica: 3 silver and 6 bronze.
I also recall the cross-...
- 1,385
10
votes
Accepted
If a swimmer breaks a record in a medley event, does the record count towards the individual event or the medley event?
This is clear in the rules of swimming. For example, take the USA Swimming (official web site) rules, which follow from FINA. In section 102.24, Timing Rules one finds:
102.24 TIMING RULES
...
- 605
10
votes
Accepted
What happens if every city withdraws bids to host the Olympics?
The IOC has actually had to backtrack quite a few times at much later points in the process than host selection, 8 years out.
The 1904 Olympics in St Louis and 1908 Olympics in London both were ...
- 1,958
10
votes
Why do canoers appear to stop paddling in the final few metres of the race?
Toward the end of the race, the boats are doing fewer than 3 strokes per 10m. Also, while the lane floats are 10m apart, they don't indicate the finish. I believe the final floats are less than 10m ...
- 6,871
10
votes
Has any high official (politician) won any medal in an important competition while holding office?
Ukrainian Zhan Beleniuk has been a parliamentary deputy (equivalent to MP) since 2019, and has competed at the Olympics in Greco-Roman wrestling, winning silver in 2016 and gold in 2020. (Borderline ...
10
votes
Has any high official (politician) won any medal in an important competition while holding office?
Russian wrestler Alexander Karelin won the World Wresting Championship in 1999 and a silver Olympic medal in 2000, while serving as a deputy to the State Duma (an MP).
- 201
9
votes
What happens when two athletes fall down in a 100m dash?
According to IAAF competition rules art 163:
Lane Infringement
(a) in all races run in lanes, each athlete shall keep within his
allocated lane from start to finish. this shall also apply to any
...
- 9,382
9
votes
Accepted
Why was USA disqualified from the 4x100 men's relay final in the Rio Olympics?
4x100m relay are composed by 4 runners that run approximately 100m each. To avoid that a faster athlete run a longer section are imposed limits for the passage of the baton.
In the image below you ...
- 9,382
8
votes
Accepted
What are the red circles on the body of Michael Phelps at Rio 2016?
The circles are actually the result of a purported recovery practice called cupping. Practitioners claim that it aids in blood flow and recovery to various body parts. Considered a form of ...
- 752
8
votes
Athletes who have competed in the Olympics for more than one country
Zola Budd competed for Great Britain in the 1984 Olympics and for South Africa in 1992. She was noted for running barefoot.
In 1984, South Africa was barred from the Olympics because of the ...
- 81
8
votes
Can I take part in the Olympic Games decathlon by default?
Entry for decathlon is by meeting qualifying standards.
In decathlon, your ability compared to the average athlete is irrelevant; what you need is to meet the fixed entry standard within a certain ...
Nij♦
- 8,202
8
votes
Why do top NBA stars from USA skip the Olympics?
Because in those players' views, the risks, most notably injury risks either from directly being injured in the Olympics or an increased injury risk the following season due to having less off-season, ...
- 24.7k
7
votes
Accepted
WR Line while swimming
I'm pretty sure it shows the world record pace, rather than the position of the holder at that point in the race - i.e. it advances at a constant speed. Unless the TV company had exact positional data ...
- 3,505
7
votes
Did Adolf Hitler really snub Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin?
Owens, a lifelong member of the Republican party, said
"Hitler didn't snub me - it was [FDR] who snubbed me. The president
didn't even send me a telegram,"
at a Republican rally in October, ...
- 189
7
votes
Why is a bronze medal not awarded when two silvers are awarded in the Olympic Games?
You can look at it this way:
The Gold Medal is awarded to the athletes who have no other athlete before them, in this case Joseph Schooling.
The Silver Medal is awarded to the athletes who have one ...
- 531
7
votes
Athletes who have competed in the Olympics for more than one country
Oksana Chusovitina, a world and Olympic level gymnast, is another particularly good example. She has competed for five countries including the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan, and Germany due to political ...
- 211
7
votes
Accepted
Athlete medal Olympics and Paralympics?
Yep! Just one, Pál Szekeres:
He has the distinction of being the first person to have won medals at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games
Szekeres represented Hungary at the 1988 Summer Olympics in ...
- 1,385
7
votes
Accepted
Can physically disabled people participate in the Olympics?
Yes. Oscar Pistorius is by far the most famous example, competing in the men's 400m at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Other examples are Natalia Partyka who competed in the women's table tennis at the 2008 ...
- 24.7k
7
votes
Accepted
After the revocation of an Olympic medal, do those who took lower places get upgraded?
Per this BBC article, the athletes will receive medals that were stripped from the banned competitors:
Britain's 4x400m relay squad from the 2008 Beijing Games got their
podium moment in front of ...
- 6,598
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible