Tokyo Olympics 2020: Fun facts you should know!

The Olympics is one of the biggest sporting events that takes place on a global level. Held every four years, it is a special event for athletes all around the globe. Winning a medal at the Olympics is the greatest achievement for any athlete. Athletes prepare for this event for years as all they want to do is make their nation proud.

The Olympics is an accumulation of the world's finest athletes who have to qualify to get an entry. But it wasn't always like this. The Olympics were slightly different back then. Earlier, the Olympic Games were known to be a religious festival. This was from 776 BC to 393 AD.

The Olympics we know of now are the modern-day games which are divided into the Summer and Winter Games. With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics around the corner, here's something light and fun to read - 5 Olympics facts you probably didn't know.

#1 The true meaning behind the Olympic rings

There is a reason that the Olympic Rings are coloured the way they are

Each ring symbolises a prominent region on the globe. The rings are interconnected with one another which demonstrates unity. These five regions are Asia, America, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. It was in 1912 that the Olympic rings were designed by Baron Pierre de Coubertin. The reason that the rings are blue, black, red, yellow and green is that every national flag in the world contains at least one of these colours.

#2 The gold medals aren't actually gold

Nope, the gold medals athletes win at the Olympics isn't made out of gold. Since 1912 the gold Olympic medal hasn't been composed of pure gold. The gold medals we see today are made mostly out of silver and contain a very small amount of gold, approximately 6 grams.

During the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, the medals given were said to be the heaviest. Those medals weighed 586 grams. If an Olympic medal were to be made out of nothing but pure gold then, the cost of one medal would easily be $28,000.

#3 The modern-day Olympics have been cancelled before

The Olympics has been cancelled before due to reasons one couldn't avoid - World War.The modern-day Summer Olympics has been cancelled three times before, and every time the reason has been battlefield. In 1916, 1940 and 1944 due to World War I and World War II the games were called off.

#4 The first athlete to win gold at both the Summer and Winter Games

Eddie Eagen is the first and only person to win gold in the Summer and Winter Olympics. At the summer Olympics, Eddie won the gold medal in 1920. It was later on in 1932, he won the gold medal during the Lake Placid Games in the team event for bobsledding. No one has been able to beat his record.

#5 The return of Golf

In 2016, golf came back to be part of the Olympics after 112 years. The International Olympic Committee made the decision to bring back golf at the Summer games. Earlier golf was played during the 1900 and 1904 games. It was in 2009 that the IOC during a session in Copenhagen made this decision to bring golf back.