African American Woman
Included in the Olympics!

Louise Stokes and Tydia Pickett were the first African-American woman to be in the Olympics in 1932. The 2 woman were qualified in track and field events, but the coach only entered team members that were white, so both Louise and Tydia did not actually compete in the games.

The Winter Games are Held

These Olympics were supposed to take place in Amsterdam, but Pierre de Coubertin, the I.O.C president said that he was planning on retiring and wanted his last Olympic games as president of the I.O.C to be on his own turf, so the games took place in Chamonix, France.

16 countries competed, and over 200 athletes were there. The games went on for 11 days.

National Basketball Association

In 1992 professional players from the NBA were allowed to participate in the Olympics. John Stockton, Scottie Pippen, and David Robinson were among them.

Summer and Winter Games

Take Place in Different Years

In 1992 the summer and winter games began to take place in different years. Now Olympics take place 2 years apart, one is the summer games, one is the winter games.

Women’s Bobsledding

Men’s bobsledding had been taking place in the Olympics since 1924. However, in the 2002 games in Salt Lake City Jill Backen became the gold medalist for women’s bobsledding.

Snowboarding

Snowboarding did not become part of the Olympics until 1998. They took place in Nagano, Japan. There used to be only alpine snowboarding, and half pipe. This year in Turin, there will be a snowboarding event called the giant slalom. The giant slalom is when 4 racers speed down rough terrain.

Olympics on Television for the U.S!

CBS televised the Olympics for the first time in the U.S in 1960. CBS spent $394,000 to get the rights to film it.

Nadia Comaneci

Nadia Comaneci, a 14 year old Romanian weighing 86 pound and 4 feet 11 inches tall became the first ever to get a perfect score of 10 in gymnastics at the Olympics. The year was 1976 in Montreal. Nadia went on to get 6 more scores of 10.

Charlotte Cooper

Charlotte Cooper became the first woman to win a gold medal at the 1900 Olympics. 11 women participated.

Charlotte Cooper was a tennis player, tall and slim. She was nicknamed Chattie and won Wimbledon 4 times.