In 2024, Paris is set to host the Summer Olympics for the third time since their creation in 1896. The French capital and London have hosted the most Games - three times each - while the United States holds the record by country, with four of such events having taken place in its territory. Including Paris 2024, a total of 23 cities in 18 countries have hosted the 30 editions of the Summer Olympics.

In the history of the Summer Olympics, the United States has been the most successful nation ever, with a combined total of 2,761 medals in 29 Olympic Games. More than one thousand of these were gold, with almost 900 silver medals, and nearly 800 bronze medals. The second most successful team in Summer Olympic history was the Soviet Union**, who took home 440 golds and more than 1,100 total medals in ten Olympic Games between 1952 and 1992. When the total medal hauls of the Soviet Union, Russia and the Russian Empire are combined, they still fall short of the U.S. tally by over one thousand medals. Meanwhile, Great Britain sat in fifth place, with 299 golds and 980 medals in total. Emerging nations While European and Anglophone nations have traditionally dominated the medals tables, recent decades have seen the emergence and increased participation from athletes representing developing nations, such as Kenya, Jamaica, and particularly China. Although China has competed in just 12 Summer Olympics, they have the fifth most gold medals across a variety of events, despite only developing a significant Olympic presence in the 1980s. Athletes from African and Caribbean nations have also developed a more formidable presence since this time, by focusing their resources on specific sports; for example, Kenyan athletes have established a lasting legacy in distance running events, while Jamaicans have dominated sprinting events in recent years. Despite this increased investment, the past three Olympic Games have seen a record number of African-born athletes representing high-income countries in the Arabian Gulf; most notably, athletes born in Kenya and Ethiopia competing for Bahrain. The influence of money, politics and drugs As mentioned above, European and Anglophone countries have dominated the medals tables in the past; this is because they had the financial resources to send athletes around the world to compete, and, until 1964, the host cities were always in these countries, which caused financial and logistical difficulties for African, Asian and Latin American countries. Financial difficulties have caused some countries to refuse invitations to the Olympics as recently as the 1980s, for example, many African and Latin American countries joined in the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games (due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan), saving face by citing the boycott and not financial problems as the reason. This boycott also contributed to the Soviet Union and East Germany's high medal tally, as both nations took over sixty percent of all available gold medals. In retaliation, the Soviet Union led a boycott of the following Games in Los Angeles, opening the way for the United States to win almost half of all available golds in 1984. Recent years have seen doping scandals replace financial and political factors as the main external-influence on the medals table. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was founded by the International Olympic Committee in 1999, to combat the increasing use of performance-enhancing substances in sports. Since then, it has had a major impact on the Olympic medal table, and has helped rescind and redistribute more than one hundred Olympic medals. Athletes from Russia and former-Soviet countries have been particularly affected by these measures, which follows a legacy of state-sponsored doping programs dating back to the 1980s. In 2019, WADA banned all Russian athletes from the 2020 Games in Tokyo due to yet another state-sponsored doping scandal; athletes from Russia could only compete if they have been cleared by WADA prior to the games, while representing the Russian Olympic Committee, rather than the country itself. Paris 2024 was also shadowed by the issue of doping, with some delegations criticizing WADA for clearing 11 Chinese swimmers to participate in the Games, despite testing for a banned substance in 2021.

The statistic shows how confident survey respondents felt that all the stadium and event locations for the Summer Olympics 2016 will be ready for the start of the games. 19 percent of survey respondents said that they were somewhat confident that all the stadiums and event locations in Rio de Janeiro would be completed before the games start.

External Connections of Chinese Cities in the Four Summer Olympic Games.

Data of external connections based on Summer Olympics.

Betweenness centrality of Beijing in four summer Olympic games.

During the ancient Olympic games, the Olympic flame was kept burning throughout the tournament, as fire was regarded as a divine element in ancient Greek culture. A mirror was used to light the flame from the sun's rays (in order to ensure it's purity) and sacred fires were lit at the temples of Hestia, Zeus and Hera. Today, the Olympic flame continues to be lit at the temple of Hera in the town of Olympia, and the tradition of using mirrors and sunlight has been preserved; this ceremony is held to emphasize the link between the modern Olympic games and it's ancient roots. Modern use of the flame Contemporary use of the Olympic flame was first incorporated in the modern games in Amsterdam 1928, while the relay has been an Olympic tradition since the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin. Over the past eight decades, the Olympic relay has become one of the most distinguished traditions before every Olympics, which sees thousands of torchbearers carry the flame from Greece to the host city of the games. The journey is used to spread the Olympics' message of international peace and unity. The lighting of the cauldron is the centerpiece of the opening ceremony. Those torchbearers who light the flame are often chosen due to their athletic abilities or cultural significance, with notable Olympians such as Muhammad Ali, Cathy Freeman and Paavo Numi having performed this function in their home nations. Interesting journeys The relay with the highest number of flame carriers was in 1964, when the Olympic flame crossed fourteen countries on it's way to Japan, where it was then carried throughout the country in teams of up to 23 people per kilometer (one torchbearer, two reserve runners and twenty additional runners). In the history of the relay, the torch has made many remarkable journeys, including three trips into space in 1996, 2000 and 2014, once to the summit of Mount Everest in 2008, and once to the Great Barrier Reef in 2000. An international relay was held in 2004, where the torch passed through all previous host cities of the modern Olympics before making its way back to Greece. In it's history, the Olympic flame has been carried on foot, horseback, by boat, gondola, surfboard, in the air and by camel, although the most unique transfer came in 1976, when a satellite was used to transmit the flame from Athens to Ottawa, where it was then relayed to Montreal. The 2020 Summer Olympics relay will begin in Olympia, Greece on March 12, and the cauldron will be lit at the opening ceremony on July 24.

The average number of viewers of all Tokyo 2020 Olympics broadcasts on television in Russia from July 23 to August 8, 2021 represented 0.56 percent of the country's population between 18 and 55 years old living in large cities. This indicator, referred to as the television rating (TVR), decreased compared to Rio 2016 Olympics viewership.

This statistic presents the total number of visits by international tourists to the United Kingdom (UK) for the London Olympic Games and Paralympics in 2012, by age and gender. In total, around 471,000 trips were made to the UK with the main purpose of going to the Olympic or Paralympic events. Of these, 81,000 visits were made by males aged between 35 and 44. In comparison only 28,000 visits were made by females in the same age group. A higher number of 25 to 34 year old females visited the Games from overseas.Male visitors also tended to be higher than females among 45 to 54 year olds. This is also reflected in international tourist spending on the London Olympics, with males between the ages of 25 and 64 spending significantly more on visits for the Games than females of the same age.The Summer Olympic Games are a major international multi-sport event, held every four years in different city destinations worldwide. The Paralympic Games usually take place after the main Summer Olympic events, involving athletes with various disabilities. In 2012, London hosted the Olympic Games for the third time, with a total budget of 11.3 billion British pounds (or 17.7 billion U.S dollars).The main international visitors to arrive in the UK for the London Olympics came from France, the Netherlands and Germany. Visitors from the United States also made up a large proportion of visitors.

In 2024, approximately 11.9 million people lived in São Paulo, making it the largest municipality in Brazil and one of the most populous cities in the world. The homonymous state of São Paulo was also the most populous federal entity in the country. Brazil's cities Brazil is home to two large metropolises: São Paulo with close to 11.9 million inhabitants, and Rio de Janeiro with around 6.7 million inhabitants. It also contains a number of smaller but well-known cities, such as Brasília, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, and many others, which report between 2 and 3 million inhabitants each. As a result, the country's population is primarily urban, with nearly 88 percent of inhabitants living in cities. While smaller than some of the other cities, Brasília was chosen to be the capital because of its relatively central location. The city is also well-known for its modernist architecture and utopian city plan, which is quite controversial - criticized by many and praised by others. Sports venues capitals A number of Brazil’s medium-sized and large cities were chosen as venues for the 2014 World Cup, and the 2015 Summer Olympics also took place in Rio de Janeiro. Both of these events required large sums of money to support infrastructure and enhance mobility within a number of different cities across the country. Billions of dollars were spent on the 2014 World Cup, which went primarily to stadium construction and renovation but also to a number of different mobility projects. Other short-term spending on infrastructure for the World Cup and the Rio Olympic Games was estimated at 50 billion U.S. dollars. While these events have poured a lot of money into urban infrastructure, a number of social and economic problems within the country remain unsolved.