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women compete for the first time at the olympic level
Hélène de Pourtalès of Switzerland became the first woman to compete at the Olympic Games and became the first female Olympic champion, as a member of the winning team in the first 1 to 2 ton sailing event . -
Jesse Owens stands up to Hitler's regime at the Berlin Games
Jesse Owens’s record-setting performance at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the gold medals he won in the 100-meter sprint, 200-meter sprint, long jump, and 4×100 relay would be celebrated as a powerful rebuke of Adolf Hitler. A black man’s incredible success in a crucible of hate served as the ultimate rejection of the idea of white supremacy. -
First paralympic games
On the day of the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympic Games, Dr. Guttmann organised the first competition for wheelchair athletes which he named the Stoke Mandeville Games, a milestone in Paralympic history. -
Track and field athletes raisea black power salute
During their medal ceremony in the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City two African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos each raised a black-gloved fist during the playing of the US national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner". -
The Munich massacre
The Munich massacre was an attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, in which the Palestinian terrorist group Black September took eleven Israeli Olympic team members hostage and killed them along with a West German police officer. -
African nations boycott the Olympic Games
Twenty-nine countries, mostly African, boycotted the Montreal Games when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to ban New Zealand, after the New Zealand national rugby union team had toured South Africa earlier in 1976 in defiance of the United Nations' calls for a sporting seize. -
Cathy Freeman carries Australian and Aboriginal flags on victory lap
Cathy Freeman carrying the Australian flag and Aboriginal flag after winning the 200 metre race at the Commonwealth Games in 1994. During her victory lap she carried both the Australian and Aboriginal flags, a true symbol of reconciliation and pride of her Aboriginal cultural heritage. -
A parkinson's diagnosed lights Olympic Flame
In 1996, Ali faced down those fears on one of the biggest stages of all, when he stepped out of the shadows to light the Olympic flame at the Atlanta Games. The debilitating effect of Parkinson's was now evident to everyone watching the opening ceremony -
North and South Korea appear as United Korea In Sydney
North Korea competed as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Athletes from North and South Korea marched together in the opening ceremony under the Unification Flag of Korea
