Go for Gold: Try This Quiz on Modern Olympic History

The United States has hosted a grand total of eight Olympic Games, including four Summer Olympics (in St. Louis, Atlanta, and Los Angeles twice) and four Winter Olympics (in Squaw Valley, Salt Lake City, and Lake Placid twice). In second place is France, hosting five Olympic Games, and third place is a tie between Japan and the United Kingdom, both playing host four times.

Tug-of-war was an official Olympic event from 1900 to 1920, beginning with the Paris games at the turn of the century. To win, a team of eight men had to pull the opposing team a total of six feet. Some tug-of-war enthusiasts have tried to get the game back on the Olympic docket in recent years, but current rules say that a sport must be “widely practiced” in order to be included.

The blue, yellow, black, green, and red Olympic rings represent “the union of the five continents,” and the six colors (including the white background) represent the colors that appeared on all the national flags in the world when the first modern games were held in 1896. Created by the founder of the International Olympic Committee, the design brings the cooperative spirit of the games to life.

German Olympian Christa Luding-Rothenburger is the only athlete to win Winter and Summer Olympic medals in the same year. She dominated the 1988 games, bringing home the gold in speed skating at the Winter Olympics in Calgary and going on to score a silver medal in sprint cycling at the Summer Olympics in Seoul.

Inspired by the original Olympic Games in ancient Greece, the first contemporary Olympics were held in 1896, appropriately in Athens, Greece. The games brought together 241 athletes from 14 nations around the world. While this celebration brought upon a new age of Summer Olympics, the first Winter Olympic Games did not take place until 1924, in Chamonix, France.