I have chosen the Olympics as my topic to write about because I enjoy watching them and I am passionate about sports. I am also interested in learning more about the Olympics. The modern Olympic games are a series of international athletic competitions in different sports that were first held in the spring of 1896 in Athens, Greece. Only men competed in the first Olympics, women were not permitted until the 1900 games in Paris. The Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin inspired by the ancient Olympics, decided to revive them for the modern day. At first, only the summer Olympics were held every four years, the winter games began in 1924. The summer and winter games were held in the same year until 1994, now they are held every two years, two years apart. In the first games there were 9 sports with 43 events and 280 participants. In the most recent games there was 33 sports, 339 events and over 11,000 participants, wow, those numbers grew a lot. Nineteen countries have held the Olympic games with only one continent other than Antarctica never hosting the games before and that is Africa. London is the only city that has hosted the games three times, 1908, 1948 and 2012. The Olympic symbol is five colored rings that represent the joining of world athletes from five different continents. The Olympic games are very diverse and inclusive, and strive to include the values of excellence, friendship and respect. I was very sad that the 2020 Olympics were cancelled due to the pandemic, but I am looking forward to whenever they reschedule.