The Olympic Games, or Olympics, are an international multi-sport event taking place every four years and comprising summer and winter games. Originally held in ancient Greece, they were revived before 1612 by English Captain and Attorney Robert Dover in Chipping Campden as a protest against Puritanism[1], British nobleman William Penny Brookes[2] revived them in 1850 in Much Wenlock before a French nobleman, Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin started the current Olympics in the late 19th century. The Summer Olympics (Games of the Olympiad) have been held every fourth year starting in 1896, except in 1916, 1940, and 1944 due to the First and Second World Wars. A special edition for winter sports, the Olympic Winter Games, was first held in 1924. The first winter Olympics competitions were originally held as a non-Olympic sports festival, but were declared to be official Games by the International Olympic Committee in 1925. Originally these were held in the same year as the Summer Olympics, but from 1994 on the Winter Games and the Summer Games have been held two years apart.
Ice hockey tournaments have been staged at the Olympic Games since 1920. The men's tournament was introduced at the 1920 Summer Olympics and was transferred permanently to the Winter Olympic Games programme in 1924. The women's tournament was first held at the 1998 Winter Olympics. The Olympic Games were originally intended for amateur athletes, and until 1998, the players of the National Hockey League (NHL) and other men's professional leagues were not allowed to compete. From 1924 to 1988, the tournament started with a round-robin series of games and ended with the medal round. Medals were awarded based on points accumulated during that round. The games of the tournament follow the rules of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), which differ slightly from the rules used in the NHL. The tournament follows the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) rules on performance enhancing drugs and the IIHF maintains a Registered Testing Pool, a list of top players who are subjected to random in-competition and out-of-competition drug tests. Several players have tested positive for banned substances since the 1972 Winter Olympics.
Opening ceremonies climax with the lighting of the Olympic Flame. For lighting the torch, modern games feature elaborate mechanisms such as this spiral cauldron arrangement lit by the 1980 U.S. Olympic ice hockey team at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Tony Marchant, also known as "Tippy" Marchant (born August 28, 1937) is a former Australiantrack cyclist who along with Ian Browne won the 2000 m tandem event at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. Marchant had little formal training and only took up the sport at the age of 16 because his friends liked the sport. In 1955, Marchant shot to prominence after only two years in the sport, winning the 500 m time trial and the 5 mile event at the Junior Australian Championships. This resulted him being approached by Browne to team up in early 1956 and they promptly won the tandem event at the national championships to earn national selection. The pair were eliminated after losing their first two races but were given a reprieve when the Soviet Union pair were hospitalised in a crash and forced to withdraw. Thereafter Marchant and Browne were unbeaten and progressed to an unlikely Olympic gold. In 1957, Marchant retired to play Australian rules football, again basing his decision on his friends' interests. In 1958 he made a brief comeback as a professional, but with only sporadic success, he retired in 1961.
For up to date, in depth Olympic coverage, see Wikinews:Portal:Olympics. Wikinews is a sister project of Wikipedia, which deals with journalism of current events. They are both operated by the Wikimedia foundation.
...that the men's tournament of football at the 2004 Summer Olympics was played by "U-23" (under 23-years-old) player) teams, with up to three over-age players allowed per team?
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