History of the modern Summer Games

In 2008 the Olympic Games were held in China for the first time. In the months prior to the Games’ start, a devastating earthquake in Sichuan province, international focus on China’s pollution problems, and protests over China’s human rights record and Tibet became part of the Olympic story. Moreover, the Chinese government was criticized for its failure to ensure complete media freedom for visiting reporters in the lead-up to the Games. Nevertheless, China was determined to show the world, also through an Olympic lens, that it had joined the ranks of the world’s most modern and influential countries, and the Games took place with few problems and were considered a great success by the IOC. The Beijing organizing committee earned high marks for the facilities that were constructed for the event, particularly the award-winning National Stadium (colloquially known as the Bird’s Nest), which was designed by noted Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.

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The 2004 record for participating national Olympic committees (NOCs) was surpassed in 2008, with 204 NOCs represented in the Games. More than 11,000 athletes competed in 302 events in 28 sports, but the Beijing Games were dominated by two historic sporting feats. American swimmer Michael Phelps broke Mark Spitz’s record for most gold medals won in a single Olympics, taking the gold in each of the eight events in which he competed. Phelps’s eight golds brought his career total to 14, another Olympic record. While Phelps’s accomplishments would likely have been the biggest story in almost any other Olympiad, sprinter Usain Bolt of Jamaica earned his share of the spotlight by claiming the mantle of “the fastest man alive” in dramatic fashion. He not only took gold in both the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints (and captured a third gold medal as a member of Jamaica’s 4 × 100-meter relay team), he did so while shattering the world record time for each event. Other notable moments of the Beijing Games included India’s Abhinav Bindra winning the men’s 10-meter air rifle event to capture the first individual gold medal in his country’s history and Mongolia’s Tuvshinbayar Naidan taking the men’s 100-kg judo event for the first gold of any kind in his country’s history. The Games were also a boon for the host country, as China won more gold medals in a single Olympiad (51) than any other country had since 1988.

London, England, 2012

In 2012 London became the first city to host the modern Games three times, having previously been the site of the 1908 and 1948 Olympic Games. The city was chosen as the 2012 host in a close 2005 International Olympic Committee (IOC) election, beating runner-up Paris (the heavy favorite, which also was attempting to become the first three-time host) by four votes. Safety concerns dogged the London Olympics in the weeks before the opening ceremonies, for the private firm that had been contracted to provide the Games’ security notified the British government that it could not provide as many guards as it had promised (falling short by some 3,500). The government was forced to send in military personnel and local police as a stopgap measure, but the Games proceeded with no major security issues, and the episode proved to be an embarrassment rather than a crisis. The London Games’ opening ceremonies proved to be one of the festival’s highlights. The elaborate spectacle (devised by film director Danny Boyle) depicted the cultural and social history of Britain and drew raves from attendees and television viewers, who were treated to an unexpected comic turn by Queen Elizabeth II.

The record for the total number of participating national Olympic committees—204—that had been established at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was equaled in London. The London Games featured more than 10,500 athletes who participated in 302 events in 36 sports. The most-notable addition to the London program was women’s boxing, which made its Olympic debut in three weight classes (51 kg [112 pounds], 60 kg [132 pounds], and 75 kg [165 pounds]). The London Games were also the first Olympiad wherein each participating country had at least one female athlete competing.

Like the Beijing Olympics, the London Games were dominated by two of the greatest Olympians of all time: Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and American swimmer Michael Phelps. By taking gold in both the 100-meter and 200-meter events, Bolt became the first man to win track’s two most prestigious sprints in consecutive Olympiads. Phelps became the most-decorated athlete in Olympic history by capturing six medals (including four golds) to bring his lifetime total to 22. Overall, the U.S. won an Olympics-high 46 golds, which was the country’s best performance in a non-boycotted Olympics since the poorly organized 1904 Games, where more than five-sixths of the competitors were Americans. Along with Phelps, American swimmers took home a great number of those golds, notably teenage sensation Missy Franklin (who won four golds, including both the 100-meter and 200-meter individual backstroke) and Phelps’s friendly rival Ryan Lochte (winner of two golds and five total medals). The other major swimming story of the London Games was 16-year-old Ye Shiwen of China, who won the women’s 200-meter individual medley (IM) and shattered the world record while winning the 400-meter IM event. The star of the gymnastics events was Gabrielle Douglas of the United States, who won the women’s individual all-around gold and was a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. team.

Great Britain’s 65 total medals was the host country’s best Olympic performance in more than a century, with gold medal triumphs from cyclist Sir Christopher Hoy—whose victories in the team sprint and keirin competitions gave him six career golds, the most won by any Briton and more than any other cyclist had won—and locally beloved tennis player Andy Murray, who defeated Roger Federer of Switzerland in the men’s singles final to avenge a loss to Federer in the Wimbledon final a month earlier.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2016

Rio was awarded the Games by the International Olympic Committee in 2009 over bids from Chicago, Madrid, and Tokyo. The buildup to the Rio Games was beset by more problems than any other recent Olympiad. Like many 21st-century Games, particularly the 2014 Sochi Games, the Rio Olympics were plagued by massive cost overruns and construction that ran far behind schedule. Athletes, coaches, and tourists were wary of traveling to the crime-riddled city, where, in addition, an outbreak of the Zika virus led to the withdrawal of a number of prominent athletes, including golfers Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth. The waterways of the city were filled with debris and so polluted that the World Health Organization suggested that athletes using the open waters avoid swallowing it, cover any exposed cuts with waterproof bandages, and shower as soon as they left the site. Fewer than 50 days before the Games started, the state of Rio de Janeiro declared a “state of public calamity,” which gave authorities the ability to ration essential public services and made the state eligible for federal emergency funds. Moreover, the Petrobras scandal plunged the Brazilian economy into a recession in the run-up to the Games.

Despite all of these troubles, the Rio Games started on time, and there were few significant problems over the course of the two weeks. The Games featured a new-record 205 participating national Olympic committees, with over 11,000 athletes competing in 42 sports. Notable new sports that were added for the Rio Games were golf and rugby sevens. The Rio Olympics also featured the debut of a Refugee Team made up of 10 athletes from various war-torn countries who had no permanent new home at the start of the Games.

Like the previous two iterations, the Rio Olympics were highlighted by the achievements of the greatest Olympian of all time, U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, and the greatest sprinter in Olympic history, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt. After returning from a short-lived retirement, Phelps expanded his Olympic record totals for overall medals (28) and gold medals (23). On the track, Bolt won the 100-meter and 200-meter races for the third consecutive Olympic Games, becoming the first person to accomplish that feat. He also won a gold as a member of Jamaica’s 4 × 100-meter relay team, which temporarily gave him three golds in three straight Olympics—before the January 2017 revelation of a failed drug test by one of his 2008 relay teammates led to the earlier relay medal’s being stripped. Nevertheless, Bolt’s six total individual sprint Olympic golds still solidified his claim as the fastest man in history.

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Phelps was not the only American swimmer to dominate the Rio pool. Katie Ledecky won four gold medals (the 200-, 400-, and 800-meter freestyle and the 4 × 200-meter relay) and one silver (4 × 100-meter freestyle relay). Her performance in the 800-meter final was one of the most impressive in Olympic swimming history; she took almost two seconds off the previous world-record time and finished more than 11 seconds faster than the silver medalist. Fellow U.S. swimmer Simone Manuel won two golds and two silvers, and her win in the 100-meter freestyle made her the first African American woman to win an individual swimming gold. Americans also led the way in the women’s gymnastics events as Simone Biles became the first U.S. woman—and just the fifth female ever—to capture four gymnastics golds at a single Games (all-around, floor exercise, vault, and team). Biles’s fourth gold in the team event was also significant in that the American team won with the largest margin of victory (8.209 points) in that competition since the “open-ended” scoring system began in 2006.

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In other events, the home Brazilian men’s football (soccer) team won the first Olympic gold medal in the football-mad country’s history on a dramatic penalty kick in the final by star forward Neymar. The Fiji rugby sevens team won the first gold medal in that country’s history, fittingly in Fiji’s most popular sport, which led to the declaration of a celebratory public holiday in the country. Two Britons also had historic performances at the Rio Games: Distance runner Mo Farah repeated as Olympic champion in the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter races, becoming the second man (after Lasse Virén) to do so, and cyclist Bradley Wiggins won gold as a member of the men’s pursuit team, giving him eight career Olympic medals, the most in his country’s history.

Tokyo 2021

Scheduled for 2020, the Tokyo Summer Games were postponed until the next year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming the first Olympics ever held after the proposed start date. They are still referred to as the 2020 Games for marketing purposes and to keep with Olympic naming tradition. The pandemic also prompted the Japanese Olympic Committee to bar spectators from the sporting venues, making the competition the only Olympics ever held without official spectators. The 2020 Olympics marked the return of the Summer Games to Japan after more than 50 years (the 1964 Summer Olympics were also held in Tokyo).

In early 2020, as the novel coronavirus began spreading more rapidly, health experts raised concerns about the viability of the Olympics. Although the Olympics had faced virus-related challenges in the past (e.g., the Zika virus at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympics and the swine flu at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games), those events were held as scheduled. However, COVID-19 immediately affected Olympic qualifying events, many of which were moved to a new location, delayed, or canceled. On March 12, 2020, the lighting of the Olympic flame occurred in Olympia, Greece, but only before a small audience because of health concerns; the following day, the Greece portion of the torch relay was suspended after large crowds followed the torch through Sparta; and on March 24, with international pressure and health concerns mounting, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced the postponement of the Olympics until 2021.

In early 2021 rumors circulated that the Olympics were going to be canceled, which Japan and the IOC vehemently denied. On March 25 the Olympic torch relay finally began. Many Japanese citizens expressed their concern over public safety by protesting in the streets. Although athletes and organizers continued to test positive for COVID, Olympic officials denied there was a health risk to the public, citing the ban on spectators and the high vaccination rates among athletes and attending media. Despite polls showing that a majority of Japanese were against hosting the Games, the event officially began on July 23, with the opening ceremony held in a nearly empty Tokyo Olympic Stadium. Although most athletes did not wear protective masks while competing in events, most did so during the opening, medal, and closing ceremonies of the Games.

In all the Games included 33 sports and 339 events, which were competed at 42 venues, with more than 11,000 participating athletes from 205 countries; there was also a team of international refugees. Russian athletes competed under the “Russian Olympic Committee” name because a doping scandal (in which Russia was found guilty of tampering with a testing laboratory database) had led the IOC to ban use of the country’s name, flag, and anthem. The Games cost some $13 billion, with $1.4 billion spent on the new Kengo Kuma-designed National Stadium, which seats 68,000. It was estimated that the ban on spectators cost the Japanese Olympic Committee $800 million in ticket sales.

Surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing, and karate made their Olympic debut. The new events, within existing sports, of 3x3 basketball and BMX freestyle were also introduced. In addition, baseball and softball returned to the Games after a 13-year absence.

The collegial spirit of the Games was highlighted by high jumpers Mutaz Barshim of Qatar and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy, who chose to share the gold medal rather than proceed with a jump-off to determine the winner. The two men, who had been friends for more than a decade at the time of the Games, said they never considered going to the jump-off. “This is beyond sport,” Barshim said at the time, according to the Associated Press. “This is the message we deliver to the young generation.”

Paris 2024

In 2024 the Summer Games returned to Paris for the third time in modern history, after previous editions in 1900 and 1924. The organizers of the Paris Games emphasized sustainability and gender parity as overarching themes of the event. In an effort to align the Olympics with the goals and recommendations of the Paris Climate Agreement, the Paris Games included public transportation access to all venues, reuse of existing buildings and stadiums as venues, and low-carbon and eco-friendly new buildings. Organizers reported that more than 98 percent of the energy needed to power the Games came from renewable sources. The IOC stated that it was the first Olympic Games in history to achieve full gender parity, as half of the allotted 10,500 spots for athletes were reserved for women. In practice the number of male athletes who qualified for and participated in the Games was slightly larger than the number of female athletes.

The U.S. national Olympic committee topped the medals chart with 126 total, including 40 gold medals. China also won 40 gold medals. Top individual performers included French swimmer Léon Marchand (4 gold medals and 1 bronze medal), Australian swimmer Mollie O’Callaghan (3 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze), and American gymnast Simone Biles (3 gold and 1 silver). Breaking was the only newly added sport in 2024.

The next Summer Games are scheduled to be held in Los Angeles in 2028.