Opening Ceremony London Olympics 2012 on Google homepage

Google is already in the Olympics Mood and changes its doodle to an Olympic theme Doodle for today 27th July 2012 which marks the start of the London Olympics, with the opening Ceremony which will happen today at the Olympic Village in Stratford, London, UK.

Google celebrates the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games 2012 (July 27th, 2012). It is the first of 17 olympic Doodles that will be shown on Googles homepage during the next two and a half weeks.

Five athletes represent the five continents: Europe, Asia, North-America, South-America and Africa. Originally, the ancient Olympic Games were held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894. Since then, the Olympic Games are held every four years.

Here are some interesting Facts about the Olympics

The Official Olympic Flag
Created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914, the Olympic flag contains five interconnected rings on a white background. The five rings symbolize the five significant continents and are interconnected to symbolize the friendship to be gained from these international competitions. The rings, from left to right, are blue, yellow, black, green, and red. The colors were chosen because at least one of them appeared on the flag of every country in the world. The Olympic flag was first flown during the 1920 Olympic Games.

The Olympic Motto
In 1921, Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, borrowed a Latin phrase from his friend, Father Henri Didon, for the Olympic motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius (“Swifter, Higher, Stronger”).

The Olympic Oath
Pierre de Coubertin wrote an oath for the athletes to recite at each Olympic Games. During the opening ceremonies, one athlete recites the oath on behalf of all the athletes. The Olympic oath was first taken during the 1920 Olympic Games by Belgian fencer Victor Boin. The Olympic Oath states, “In the name of all competitors, I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules that govern them, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our teams.”

The Olympic Creed
Pierre de Coubertin got the idea for this phrase from a speech given by Bishop Ethelbert Talbot at a service for Olympic champions during the 1908 Olympic Games. The Olympic Creed reads: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

The Olympic Flame
The Olympic flame is a practice continued from the ancient Olympic Games. In Olympia (Greece), a flame was ignited by the sun and then kept burning until the closing of the Olympic Games. The flame first appeared in the modern Olympics at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. The flame itself represents a number of things, including purity and the endeavor for perfection. In 1936, the chairman of the organizing committee for the 1936 Olympic Games, Carl Diem, suggested what is now the modern Olympic Torch relay. The Olympic flame is lit at the ancient site of Olympia by women wearing ancient-style robes and using a curved mirror and the sun. The Olympic Torch is then passed from runner to runner from the ancient site of Olympia to the Olympic stadium in the hosting city. The flame is then kept alight until the Games have concluded. The Olympic Torch relay represents a continuation from the ancient Olympic Games to the modern Olympics.

The Olympic Hymn
The Olympic Hymn, played when the Olympic Flag is raised, was composed by Spyros Samaras and the words added by Kostis Palamas. The Olympic Hymn was first played at the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens but wasn’t declared the official hymn by the IOC until 1957.

Real Gold Medals
The last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912.

The Medals
The Olympic medals are designed especially for each individual Olympic Games by the host city’s organizing committee. Each medal must be at least three millimeters thick and 60 millimeters in diameter. Also, the gold and silver Olympic medals must be made out of 92.5 percent silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams of gold.

The First Opening Ceremonies
The first opening ceremonies were held during the 1908 Olympic Games in London.

Opening Ceremony Procession Order
During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the procession of athletes is always led by the Greek team, followed by all the other teams in alphabetical order (in the language of the hosting country), except for the last team which is always the team of the hosting country.

A City, Not a Country
When choosing locations for the Olympic Games, the IOC specifically gives the honor of holding the Games to a city rather than a country.

IOC Diplomats
In order to make the IOC an independent organization, the members of the IOC are not considered diplomats from their countries to the IOC, but rather are diplomats from the IOC to their respective countries.

First Modern Champion
James B. Connolly (United States), winner of the hop, step, and jump (the first final event in the 1896 Olympics), was the first Olympic champion of the modern Olympic Games.

The First Marathon
In 490 BCE, Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, ran from Marathon to Athens (about 25 miles) to inform the Athenians the outcome of the battle with invading Persians. The distance was filled with hills and other obstacles; thus Pheidippides arrived in Athens exhausted and with bleeding feet. After telling the townspeople of the Greeks’ success in the battle, Pheidippides fell to the ground dead. In 1896, at the first modern Olympic Games, held a race of approximately the same length in commemoration of Pheidippides.

The Exact Length of a Marathon
During the first several modern Olympics, the marathon was always an approximate distance. In 1908, the British royal family requested that the marathon start at the Windsor Castle so that the royal children could witness its start. The distance from the Windsor Castle to the Olympic Stadium was 42,195 meters (or 26 miles and 385 yards). In 1924, this distance became the standardized length of a marathon.

Women
Women were first allowed to participate in 1900 at the second modern Olympic Games.

Winter Games Begun
The winter Olympic Games were first held in 1924, beginning a tradition of holding them a few months earlier and in a different city than the summer Olympic Games. Beginning in 1994, the winter Olympic Games were held in completely different years (two years apart) than the summer Games.

Cancelled Games
Because of World War I and World War II, there were no Olympic Games in 1916, 1940, or 1944.

Tennis Banned
Tennis was played at the Olympics until 1924, then reinstituted in 1988.

Walt Disney
In 1960, the Winter Olympic Games were held in Squaw Valley, California (United States). In order to bedazzle and impress the spectators, Walt Disney was head of the committee that organized the opening day ceremonies. The 1960 Winter Games Opening Ceremony was filled with high school choirs and bands, releasing of thousands of balloons, fireworks, ice statues, releasing of 2,000 white doves, and national flags dropped by parachute.

Russia Not Present
Though Russia had sent a few athletes to compete in the 1908 and 1912 Olympic Games, they did not compete again until the 1952 Games.

Motor Boating
Motor boating was an official sport at the 1908 Olympics.

Polo, an Olympic Sport
Polo was played at the Olympics in 1900, 1908, 1920, 1924, and 1936.

Gymnasium
The word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek root “gymnos” meaning nude; the literal meaning of “gymnasium” is “school for naked exercise.” Athletes in the ancient Olympic Games would participate in the nude.

Stadium
The first recorded ancient Olympic Games were held in 776 BCE with only one event – the stade. The stade was a unit of measurement (about 600 feet) that also became the name of the footrace because it was the distance run. Since the track for the stade (race) was a stade (length), the location of the race became the stadium.

Counting Olympiads
An Olympiad is a period of four successive years. The Olympic Games celebrate each Olympiad. For the modern Olympic Games, the first Olympiad celebration was in 1896. Every four years celebrates another Olympiad; thus, even the Games that were cancelled (1916, 1940, and 1944) count as Olympiads. The 2004 Olympic Games in Athens was called the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad.

facts via: About

Here are some Weird Facts about Olympics

Gandhi once covered the Olympics as a newspaper reporter. The 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. I have no idea why, since it was right during his civil disobedient prime.But he did.
The Olympic rings cover every flag in the world. They picked yellow, green, red, black and blue because at least one of those five colors appears in every flag in the world. (The five rings also allegedly represent the five continents of the world. But wait, you’re saying, aren’t there seven continents? Yes. But the Olympic committee has spun things to try to appease everyone. The way they’ve condensed the world into five continents: America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania. Sorry, Antarctica. And apparently, we’re now continent mates with Uruguay and Colombia. Cool.)
Black athletes didn’t win the marathon until 1960. It’s impossible to picture now, but a black athlete didn’t win the marathon until Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia did it in 1960.And he did it barefoot.
No white person has ever run 100 meters in under 10 seconds. At this Olympics, Usain Bolt set a new world record, running the 100 meters in 9.69 seconds. And he kinda slowed down at the end.
No white person in history has ever run the 100 in under 10 seconds. The closest was Marian Woronin of Poland, who ran it in 10 flat… 40 years ago.

There’s no count on just how many black athletes have broken the 10 second mark, but it happened first in 1968, and seems to have happened (at least) several hundred times since.
Gold medals haven’t been pure gold in 96 years. The 1912 Olympics was the last time that gold medals were solid gold. Ever since, they’ve been silver with gold plating.
The top prize at the first modern Olympics was the silver medal. In 1896 in Athens, first place winners got a silver medal and an olive branch. Second place got a bronze. Third place got nothing. (Not even the pink participation ribbon?)
In 1900, in France, winners got paintings instead of gold medals. Gold, silver and bronze medals weren’t given out until the third modern Olympics, in 1904. The French gave the winners paintings because they believed they were more valuable.
The first Olympic drug suspension wasn’t until 1968. At the 1968 Mexico City games, Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, a Swedish pentathlete, was suspended because he tested positive for a banned substance. That substance: Alcohol. He drank several beers before the pentathlon… which was against the rules… so he was suspended.
Frankly, he should’ve been applauded for attempting to do the pentathlon drunk. 99.999999999% of the world couldn’t even do it sober.
China didn’t win its first medal until 1984. It’s hard to believe now, since China seems to be a medal-winning monolith (sure, they may be getting it done by making death threats to judges’ families and pets, but, hey, winning is winning). But China didn’t get its first Olympic medal until 1984.
Xu Haifeng won gold in the 50 meter pistol event.
The Olympics once lasted 187 days. In 1908, the London Olympics went on for 187 days… they started in April and didn’t end until October.
That’s a LOT of time for human interest stories. Has anyone else noticed that lots of Olympians have had to overcome things?
There’s a 62-year age difference between the oldest and youngest Olympians ever. The youngest Olympian ever was Dimitrios Loundras, a Greek gymnast in the 1896 Athens Olympics. He was 10.
(I’m not sure when they started imposing age requirements. Although, as we’ve learned, age limits don’t mean much when a government is willing to doctor a birth certificate to say anything.)

The oldest Olympian ever was Oscar Swahn, a Swedish shooter in the 1920 Antwerp, Belgium, Olympics. He was 72.

Here are some interesting Facts about London 2012 Olympics

46 world championships in 27 days
4 billion + TV audience
205 nations
10,500 Olympic athletes
4000 Paralympics athletes
70,000 volunteers
20,000 media
10 million tickets
19 Live Sites around the UK – urban big screens and event spaces with live information, video, news and community events.
32 venues constructed
800+ pre-training venues
26 Olympic events
20 Paralympics events
6,000 coaches and officials
63,400 uniforms (1,000,000 items)
140,000 square metres of temporary facilities
30 new bridges built in Olympic park
4,000 trees planted
150,000 temporary seats
50,000 hotel rooms
Up to 60 thousand meals daily provided in the village
10 million litres of fuel
1 million pieces of sports equipment
An accredited workforce of over 150,000
113 sponsors, with 15,000 guests
Over 250,000 m2 of athletes’ apartments
15,000 beds in Olympic Village
12 million meals (including spectators)
5,000 vehicles
1,000 magnetometer search arches
500 UK businesses have won around £5 billion worth of Games-related contracts.
11,000 new homes built
5 new neighbourhoods established, each with a distinct character
The 115m ArcelorMittal Orbit will be the tallest sculpture in the UK
After the Games have finished, the new Olympic Park will become one of the largest urban parks created within Europe for more than 150 years.