For two weeks every four years, the world is swept up in Olympic Games fever. The international event attracts staggering audiences, with an average of four billion people tuning in globally, based on figures from 2000 to 2016. With origins tracing back to ancient Greece more than 2,500 years ago, the Games have become a modern sporting phenomenon since their revival.
As the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (held in 2021 due to the pandemic) and Paralympics drew to a close, it was the perfect time to revisit some of the biggest lies, myths, and misconceptions surrounding this mammoth medal competition.
The First Modern Games Took Place in 1896
The first recorded Greek Olympics took place in 776 BC and featured just a single event: a 194-metre footrace, won by a naked chef. In the modern era, it is commonly claimed that the first Games were staged in Athens, Greece, in 1896 under the leadership of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.
Yet this wasn’t the beginning. The small town of Much Wenlock in Shropshire, with a population today of just 3,000, held its own Olympic Games in 1850. Founded by William P. Brooks, the Wenlock Olympic Games was a nine-day event across eight venues in Shropshire and continues to this day.
De Coubertin himself acknowledged the Wenlock influence, writing in 1890: “It is due, not to a Greek, but to W.B. Brooks. It is he who inaugurated them 40 years ago. It is he… who continues to organise and inspire them.”
Coubertin may have united the world behind the Olympic Games, but Brooks deserves the credit for resurrecting them decades earlier. In tribute, the 2012 London Olympics featured a mascot named Wenlock — honouring the true birthplace of the modern Games.
All Events Are Sporting Ones
In recent editions, untraditional sports such as skateboarding, surfing, and sport climbing have made their Olympic debut. While people typically associate the Olympic Games with athletics, gymnastics, and swimming, the programme has always included unusual events. Past competitions have featured plunge-diving, pistol duelling, and even a 3,000-metre steeplechase.
The 1900 Paris Games, in particular, were bizarre. Events included tug-of-war, firefighting, delivery van driving, pigeon shooting, and even a poodle-clipping contest — won by a farmer’s wife who trimmed 17 dogs in two hours. That year’s shooting competition also produced a record: Sweden’s Oscar Swahn, who at 64 became the oldest gold medallist in Olympic history.
The Games once extended beyond sport altogether. Baron de Coubertin himself won a gold medal for poetry, while other competitions included town planning, music, sculpture, painting, and literature. In fact, the oldest-ever Olympic medal winner was John Copley, a British artist who claimed silver for engraving and etching in 1948 at the age of 73.
Ultimately, these artistic events were dropped after 1948. The rationale was that while artists could pursue their craft throughout life, athletes had only limited years to balance sporting careers with other work.
All Olympians Are Known
It may seem impossible, but there is one Olympic gold medallist whose identity remains a mystery.
At the 1900 Paris Olympics, the Dutch rowing team decided to swap their coxswain, replacing their heavier member with a lighter alternative. Following the example of the French, they chose a local child from the crowd, believed to be between seven and ten years old. This anonymous boy steered the Dutch team to victory and promptly disappeared back into the audience.
To this day, he remains the only anonymous Olympic Games gold medallist in history.
The Gold, Silver, Bronze Medal Table Has Always Been Present
In ancient Greece, Olympic champions were awarded olive wreaths and silver medals, while runners-up received laurel wreaths and bronze medals. These prizes were symbolic tributes to Zeus, king of the gods.
By the 1896 Athens Games, the system had shifted: first place received a silver medal and olive wreath, while second place earned a copper medal. The 1900 Paris Games went further off-script, with winners receiving cups, trophies, or works of art — all chosen by the host nation.
It wasn’t until the 1904 St Louis Olympics that the gold, silver, and bronze medal format was standardised, becoming the system we still use today.
One of the most touching stories in medal history came at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Japanese pole vaulters Sueo Ōe and Shuhei Nishida tied for second place but refused to compete in a tiebreaker. Back in Japan, they had their medals cut and fused together — creating two unique “Medals of Friendship,” half silver and half bronze.
Gold Medals Are Made of Gold
If you’ve ever dreamed of winning an Olympic gold medal, here’s a reality check: they aren’t made of solid gold — and sadly, they’re not chocolate either.
In fact, the last time gold medals were crafted primarily from gold was at the 1912 Stockholm Games. With the outbreak of World War I making gold scarce, medals were redesigned. Since then, gold medals have been made of at least 92.5% silver, plated with about six grams of gold.
Modern medals are often created from recycled materials, including metals reclaimed from discarded mobile phones and electronics. For example, the 2016 Rio Olympics ensured their gold was free from mercury contamination, while all medals had to meet minimum standards of being three millimetres thick and 60 millimetres in diameter.
The cost difference is significant. If each medal were made of pure 18-karat gold, the total bill for a Games would exceed £1.5 million ($2 million). By comparison, the actual gold plating makes them far more affordable, averaging around £3,000 ($4,100) each.
The Olympic Torch Relay Is a Greek Tradition
One of the most iconic symbols of the Olympic Games is the torch relay, but contrary to popular belief, it is not a Greek tradition at all. Instead, it is a far more controversial invention — created by Nazi Germany.
For the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Joseph Goebbels sought a spectacle that would showcase Germany’s power and capture global attention. Organised by Carl Diem, the relay ran from Olympia in Greece to Berlin, with 3,422 torchbearers carrying specially designed torches capable of burning for ten minutes in all weather conditions.
The event was carefully staged for propaganda purposes and immortalised in the 1938 Leni Riefenstahl film Olympia. What is now a celebrated ritual of unity and peace actually began as part of a carefully orchestrated Nazi campaign.
The Five Rings Are a Greek Tradition
Another enduring misconception is that the five Olympic rings are rooted in ancient Greece. In truth, they were created in 1913 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin. The rings symbolise the five continents — Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas — with their colours chosen because every national flag contains at least one of them.
The symbol debuted officially at the 1920 Antwerp Games and gained prominence during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where Nazi organisers used it as part of their propaganda. Carl Diem even carved the rings into a stone milestone.
Decades later, American authors Lynn and Gray Poole mistakenly claimed in their book History of the Ancient Games that Diem’s carving was evidence of a Greek origin. This error spread widely, embedding the false belief that the Olympic rings were an ancient Greek symbol.
Today, the interlocking blue, yellow, black, green, and red rings on a white background are among the most instantly recognisable emblems in the world — even if their history is rooted in myth rather than tradition.
Hitler Snubbed Jesse Owens
A widely circulated story claims Adolf Hitler snubbed African-American athlete Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, refusing to acknowledge his four gold medal victories. The truth, however, is more complicated.
Initially, Hitler only congratulated German athletes. He was then instructed to either congratulate all medal winners or none — and he chose the latter. Owens himself later clarified that Hitler did not snub him personally, saying: “When I passed the Chancellor, he arose, waved his hand at me, and I waved back. Hitler didn’t snub me.”
The real snub came from Owens’s own country. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt never invited him to the White House, shook his hand, or even sent him a telegram. On returning home, Owens was still subjected to racial segregation, forced to use service entrances and denied the honours that should have accompanied his achievements.
Drugs Have Always Been Banned
It might feel like drug testing has always been part of the Olympic Games, but that’s not the case.
The first official anti-doping rules came in 1967, and a year later, Swedish pentathlete Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall became the first athlete to be disqualified for substance use. His offence? Ethanol — he admitted to drinking beer before competing.
Before this, doping was surprisingly common and often ignored. In the 1904 marathon, American runner Tom Hicks was given brandy mixed with strychnine during the race to keep him going. Others openly used substances without punishment. Even in 1936, swimmer Eleanor Holm was disqualified not for performance enhancement but for drunkenness.
Since then, doping has been one of the biggest issues in Olympic history. The Russian state-sponsored scandal saw the country banned from competing under its flag, with athletes forced to compete as the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). The Games now symbolise not only athletic excellence but also the ongoing battle to ensure fairness and integrity.
Amateurs Are Allowed to Compete
Another misconception is that the Olympic Games were originally reserved for amateurs. While often romanticised this way, the reality is that many competitors in ancient Greece were professionals who trained specifically for competition.
In the modern Games, the idea of amateurism survived for a time. One of the most famous examples is Michael “Eddie the Eagle” Edwards, who represented Great Britain in ski jumping at the 1988 Winter Olympics. Though inexperienced and underfunded, his determination made him a folk hero and even earned a reference in the closing ceremony speech.
Similarly, Eric “the Eel” Moussambani from Equatorial Guinea became a cult figure at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Having never even seen an Olympic-sized pool before, he swam his 100-metre heat in one minute and 52 seconds — an incredibly slow time, yet enough to progress after his competitors were disqualified.
However, Edwards’s underdog story prompted the International Olympic Committee to tighten rules. Known as the “Eddie the Eagle Rule,” it now requires athletes to have competed in international competitions and to rank within their nation’s top 30 or the world’s top 50. While this prevents unprepared amateurs from entering, it arguably undermines the spirit of giving anyone the chance to represent their country.
Final Thoughts
The Olympic Games are surrounded by myths, legends, and misconceptions that continue to shape how we see the event today. From the mistaken belief that medals are made of solid gold, to the Nazi origins of the torch relay, to the truth behind Jesse Owens’s supposed snub, history is often more complicated than the stories we repeat.
What remains undeniable, however, is the Olympic Games’ ability to capture the imagination of billions across the globe. Despite its myths, controversies, and political baggage, the Games remain a unique celebration of athleticism, perseverance, and international unity.
