A little bit of Olympic trivia

[girlyswot]

I can't think why I don't have a sporty icon. LOL!

So, this is the 29th Olympiad. But how many Olympic Games have been held? Not 29.

In 1916, 1940 and 1940, the games were, for obvious reasons, cancelled. In 1906 an extra set of games was held, though these are no longer officially recognised. For some reason, the IOC defines an Olympiad as a 4 year period, regardless of whether an Olympic Games is actually held.

The Beijing Olympics is in fact the 26th official Olympics and the 27th actual Olympics (I'm guessing the ones who won medals in Athens in 1906 felt pretty miffed when they were downgraded).

Comments

[alkari.livejournal.com]

LOL at this. Many years ago when I was driving around Cornwall and Devon with a friend, we had a somewhat hysterical time when none of the maps or road signs seemed to match up. And of course, were cheerfully lost somewhere south of Torrington. I assured poor RK (who has absolutely NO directional sense) that as it was January in the UK, we would eventually end up at the English Channel if we kept the afternoon sun ahead and to our right (around 2pm if we were looking at imaginary 12 o'clock) and if it got dark, I could always navigate due south by using the Pole Star, which I could definitely find!! She didn't sound at all reassured, but as we successfully ended up at Widdecombe in the Moor (which was on a map), we didn't have to rely on astronomy or my dead reckoning.