Top 10 Olympic Games facts

Greece marched twice, both first and last. According to the tradition, Greece always walks first due to its historical status as the progenitor of the Olympics, while the host nation always marches last. Since in Athens, Greece was also the host nation, they walked twice.

Women were allowed to participate in athletic competitions. The decision to include women in athletic competitions was widely criticised not only by the majority of the sport community, but also by Vatican.

Chinese Taipei. The People's Republic of China opposes the use of "Republic of China" or the common name "Taiwan" for the country because it would imply an acceptance of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Taiwanese also rejected "Taiwan" as they officially still claim the sole legitimate government of all of China.

0. In response to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, 14 Eastern Bloc countries including the Soviet Union boycotted the Games. The IOC awarded Los Angeles the Games by default, as no other city was interested.

Hungary vs USSR. By the start of the Olympics, the 1956 Hungarian Revolution had been suppressed by the Soviets, and many players saw the Olympics as a way to salvage pride for their country. After the extraordinarily violent game, many of Hungary team members sought asylum in the West. Hungary won 4:0.

Greeks. According to Herodotus, an Athenian runner named Pheidippides was sent to run from Athens to Sparta (225 km, 140 miles) to ask for assistance before the battle. Then, following the battle, the Athenian army marched quickly the 40 km (25 miles) to Athens, in order to head off the Persian forces. Later these two events became confused with each other, leading to a legendary but inaccurate story (first recorded by Plutarch in 1st century AD) of Pheidippides running from Marathon to Athens after the battle, to announce the Greek victory.

Taekwondo. Gyeorugi, a type of taekwondo sparring, has been an Olympic event since 2000. There have been attempts to introduce karate as Olympic sport as well. In the 117th IOC Session (July 2005), karate received more than half of the votes, but not the two-thirds majority needed to become an official Olympic sport.

Chariot racing. Nero bribed his way into several Olympic Games as he did in 67. He usually drove a single horse chariot, but Nero raced a ten-horse chariot, and nearly died being thrown from it. He 'won' on the pretense that he would have won if he had completed the race. Paid crowds paraded him with olive wreath crowns when he returned to Rome. He died one year later, and was removed from the list of winners. [Swaddling, Judith. 1999. The Ancient Olympic Games. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.]

Austria. Of the total number of 397 medals awarded so far, Austria got 105, nearly twice as much as Switzerland, which comes second with 56 medals. Austrian dominance is not limited to the Olympic Games - Austrians won also nearly 30% of all Alpine Skiing World Cup races.

4th century AD. The Olympic games were disbanded as "pagan rituals" shortly after Christianity was made the official religion of the Roman Empire. Theodosius the Great dissolved the order of the Vestal Virgins in Rome and banned the Olympics in Ancient Greece.