The Olympic Water Cooler: Olympic Facts We Should All Know

Fun facts!

Who usually dominates? Which is it – the United States or Russia? Neither! Norway has won more medals at the Winter Games than any other country, 303 – with 107 gold, 106 silver and 90 bronze. Norway’s cross-country skier Bjorn Daehlie holds the record for the most medals won by any athlete, 12 – 8 gold and 4 silver. In second place nationally is the United States with 253 total – 87 gold, 95 silver and 71 bronze. Austria is next, followed by the former Soviet Union, then Germany, Finland, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland. Only two countries south of the equator have ever won medals at the winter games—Australia and New Zealand.

^{Photo by Megan Cole/Flickr Creative Commons}

Fun facts!

First in space. Traditionally, the Olympic torch is lit in Greece, then carried by runners to the site of the upcoming Olympics. While the Olympic torch has traveled into space twice before, this year, it was carried in a “run” where it was handed off in the vacuum of space. On November 7, 2013, cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin blasted off with the torch on board, then handed it off to Oleg Kotov at the International Space Station, Kotov then carried it on a spacewalk, handing it off to fellow cosmonaut Sergey Ryazansky outside. Since an open flame is not allowed on the space station – and would not burn in space anyway – there was no flame, so the run was admittedly symbolic.

^{NASA photo}

Fun facts!

What if the torch goes out? Before each run, the flame is kindled from the sun at the ruins of the Temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece. The torch run ends at the opening ceremonies of the games – and who will be the final runner is always a secret until they appear in the stadium, always someone the host country wishes to honor. Along the long route, runners don’t pass on the same torch – only the flame. Each runner is allowed to keep their torch. And if the torch goes out? It happens all the time. So, flaming reserve torches are kept on hand. Once a torrential rainstorm doused the flame at the stadium and a local official quickly re-lit it with his cigarette lighter. Traditionalists were horrified – and the illicit flame was extinguished, then reignited with one of the reserve torches.

^{U.S. Air Force photo}

Fun facts!

The bicycling speed-skater. The only athlete ever to win medals in the summer and winter Olympics during the same year was Germany’s Christa Luding-Rothenburger. One of the world's best sprinters in speed skating, she was convinced in 1980 by her coach, Ernst Luding (whom she would marry after the 1988 Winter Olympics), to take up cycling during the off-season. As a result, in 1988, she earned the distinction of being the only athlete to win Summer and Winter Olympic medals in the same year. It also made her the first woman, and the third athlete overall, to win a medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympics. At the Winter Games in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, she won the gold medal in the 1,000-meter speed-skating event and silver in the 500-meter event. Seven months later, she won the silver medal in the 1,000-meter sprint in track cycling at the summer games in Seoul, South Korea.

^{Photo by UweFan/Wikimedia}