Urban planning was once an Olympic event, although the first gold medal – awarded to Germany’s Alfred Hensel for the Nuremberg stadium – turned out to be an unfortunate choice.
Imagine cities competed to eliminate hunger, poverty, unemployment, crime and greenhouse emissions, and to offer housing and transport for all. Don’t scoff – urban planning was once an Olympic event.
The 100m final in Rio will be won in a time that would have seemed impossible to the athletes competing in Athens in 1896.
Reema Rattan, The Conversation; Emil Jeyaratnam, The Conversation e Wes Mountain, The Conversation
As the track and field events are about to start in Rio, we look at how some athletic events have changed since the first Olympics in 1896.
Olympic authorities were quick to deny that the green pool posed a risk to divers’ health, but that actually depends on why the water changed colour.
Reuters/Antonio Bronic
The possible culprits are: a sudden algae bloom; a change in pool alkalinity; or a chemical reaction in the water. How do these cause a change in the colour of the water?
Athletes must execute their individualised race plan to the best of their ability to win.
Reuters/Michael Dalder
Races at the international level are often decided by as little as 0.01 of a second.
Protesters wearing masks of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin take part in a demonstration against the country’s ‘anti-gay’ laws outside the Embassy of the Russian Federation in London, February 2014.
Reuters/Neil Hall
In order to become a better runner, you need to consider these factors first.
Jim Thorpe and Ben Johnson were both banned from the Olympics. But if each had played at different points in history, they would have been allowed to compete.
Nick Lehr/The Conversation
Australia has had a good start to the Rio Olympics. But does that mean that the strategy created in response to Australia’s poor Olympic performance in 2012 is working?
A TV cameraman shoots a Madame Tussauds Museum figure of US Olympic gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps at Banneker Pool in Washington, to coincide with the opening of the Rio Olympics on August 5.
Gary Cameron/Reuters
They look sore but it’s fairly harmless – and the effect may really be a placebo.
Gold medal winner Mack Horton (centre) said he had no time or respect for drug cheats in reference to silver medallist Sun Yang.
Dominic Ebenbichler/Reuters
Rarely do we see such unscripted individual honesty on difficult topics such as doping, right in the middle of arguably the biggest international sporting stage.
Rugby Sevens serves as the perfect example of how lifelong dedication to a single sport might not be the only pathway to Olympic success.
Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters
A former Olympic gold medalist reflects on his own financial struggles as he trained and competed for the 1984 Games. Decades later, not much has changed for many Olympians.