The world is treated to a sports-related spectacle every four summers and in 2024 the celebration of competition and competitors known as the Summer Olympics returns in Paris. Athletes from across the globe have gathered in France to compete for their home countries this summer and fans are turning in to see who takes home the gold in a variety of sports.
No one knows which special moments are still unfold in Paris this summer, but fans of the Summer Olympics can look to history and learn about many of the Games’ more notable moments from years past.
• Women compete for the first time in 1900: Many a notable woman athlete has made a name for herself on the Olympic stage, but that was not possible prior to 1900. The 1900 Olympics, held in Paris like this year’s games, marked the first time women athletes were allowed to compete. Though women athletes’ participation was limited to lawn and tennis and golf in 1900, the barrier was officially broken, and women athletes may find it especially meaningful to compete in the City of Light this summer.
• Jesse Owens dominates at the 1936 Summer Olympics: Tension surrounded the 1936 Games in Berlin, Germany, where the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, also known as the Nazi Party, ruled over the country. Known for its racist, antisemitic ideology, the Nazi Party lent an air of tension to the Games, as the party’s official newspaper argued that Jewish and Black athletes should not be allowed to participate in the Games. Party leaders, including Adolf Hitler, ultimately relented when other nations threatened to boycott the Games altogether. Against that backdrop, American track and field star Jesse Owens, who was Black, won four gold medals in Berlin, a feat no one would repeat for almost half a century.
• Wilma Rudolph inspires anew in 1960: American sprinter Wilma Rudolph overcame childhood polio to compete in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, where the sixteen-yearold earned a bronze medal in the 4 x 100-meter relay. But Melbourne proved to be just a preview of what was to come, as Rudolph, whose left leg was briefly paralyzed as a child, returned to compete in the 1960 Games in Rome, where she became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Games.
• Tragedy looms over the 1972 Games: The Summer Olympics are intended to be a celebration of competitions and competitors, but issues far away from the arena of sports have often cast a shadow over the Games. Such was the case in 1972, when members of a Palestinian militant organization infiltrated the Olympic village in Munich, Germany and killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team before taking nine others hostage. Before the situation was resolved, the nine athletes and coaches initially taken as hostages were killed.
• Michael Phelps sets the record for gold medals in 2008: Among the most accomplished athletes of all time, American swimmer Michael Phelps won eight gold medals at the Beijing Games in 2008, breaking fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz’s record for gold medals earned during any single Games. Perhaps fittingly, Phelps earned his eighth gold medal at the Beijing Games by setting a world record in the 200-meter individual medley.
History is made every four years at the Summer Olympics, and this year’s games in Paris are sure to provide a host of recordbreaking, inspiring achievements.
