CRAZY OLYMPICS CHAMPIONS!

To tie-in with Tokyo Olympic Games (23rd July-8th August 2021), 500 true and yet incredible facts.

The Olympic motto has been created by a Dominican Father. There has been Olympic cigarettes. The first disqualification for doping was for... having drunk two beers. There has been an angling competition in
Olympic Games...
Both sports aficionados, the authors gathered around 500 incredible anecdotes about (modern) Olympic Games, since 1896.
Sorted by sports (athletics, swimming, cycling, tennis...), these 500 fun facts unveil the most surprising and unexpected sides of the biggest worldwide sports event. 50 B&W drawings (by Deligne, published in several French newspapers) are included.
An emergency Olympic flame:
The ceremony of the Olympic flame is very ritualized. No snag is allowed ! Some measures are thus indispensable. So, the Olympic flame is lit during a ceremony organized by the Greek Olympic Committee, in front of the ruins of Hera temple, with the sun rays striking a parabolic mirror. But freaks of weather could impede the ceremony. So, an "emergency flame" was also lit earlier, under the same traditional process, in
good weather, and safely conserved : it is used only if the weather is bad.
Medals for men, diplomas for women...:
For a long time, Olympics were quite misogynous... For instance, in the 1908 London Olympic Games, the three fi rst male champions awarded gold, silver and bronze medals - that will become the norm -, while women, who were officially allowed to enter the tennis, skating and archery competitions, only got diplomas. Discrimination was even in the awards...

Lionel Chamoulaud was a sports reporter for France Télévisions (France 2, France 3...) for 40 years. He is the coauthor of many books about sports, such as Pierre Lagrue, a real living encyclopedia about Olympism.