21 Note-Worthy 2016 Olympic Facts For Kids That Love Rio Games

Athletes from around the globe gather every four years to compete in various sport events in the Olympics.

Let's begin with the Olympic history; it all started during the summer of 776 B.C. at Olympia in southern Greece. Sports events like wrestling, chariot racing, sprinting and the likes were part of the games.

Athletes used to pray to the king of Greek Gods, Zeus, for their victory and success by thanking and offering him gifts. The Olympic torch relay ritual is actually a practice inspired by ancient Greece, representing and transmitting the message of peace and friendship along its route.

Read on to know more about the 2016 Rio Olympics. If you are a sports enthusiast who wants to explore more, check out our other articles on 2012 Olympics facts and 21st century facts.

2016 Summer Olympics: Location, Event Opening, And Athletes

Rio Olympics was an athletic festival held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. For the first time ever, the summer Olympics was held in a South American country from August 5-21, 2016. A truly inspiring story! In Rio 2016 Olympics, a refugee Olympic team was built for the first time in Olympic history.

10 refugees qualified and competed under the Olympic flag. This refugee Olympic team comprises of sportsperson who were forced to flee their countries.

It is another amazing fact! The mascot for Rio Olympics was 'Moraes', named after Bossa Nova musician Vinicius de Moraes. This Olympic mascot is a yellow and blue creature that resembles a cat or is monkey-like, which can fly with the power to stretch its body and limbs, representing Brazilian wildlife.

Brazil is famous for its colorful, vibrant culture. To promote Brazilian art and culture, during Rio 2016, a cultural festival dubbed Celebra was organized.

Coming to the slogan for the game, no sport event can be complete without a slogan; hence, Rio 2016 Olympic games slogan is ' Live your passion' or 'Viva sua paixao' in Portuguese. Let's explore more! Viva sua paixao!

The host country, Brazil, apart from being known for soccer and its world-famous carnival, was chosen as the host city for the 2016 August Olympics. On October 2, 2009, at the 121st International Olympic Committee Session in Copenhagen, Denmark, Rio de Janeiro was announced as the host city.

It's the first time such an event was held in a South American country or continent.

During the 2016 Olympics or Rio 2016, four districts within Rio de Janerio had millions of visitors in 33 different venues. Barra da Tijuca is the Olympic Park or Olympic village for athletes.

Copacabana, Deodoro, and Maracana hosted the various games and these are the four districts. Five separate Brazilian cities of Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Brasilia, and Manaus were also used for Rio games.

It is commonly referred to as the Rio games and the 31st edition of the Olympic games, and the first summer Olympics under the International Olympic Committee presidency of Thomas Bach.

The opening ceremony is an exciting event to watch. In Rio 2016, neither the International Olympic Committee nor host nation Brazil nor the national Olympic committee revealed the opening ceremonies or Olympic flame/torch lighting.

Though rumors indicated it would be Brazilian soccer legend Pele, but then Pele announced his illness and unavailability to attend the 2016 Rio festivities in South America.

The spectacular moment! The Olympic torch was lit by Brazilian marathoner and former Olympian Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima on August 5, 2016.

The events of opening and closing ceremonies of 2016 Rio were held in the Maracana stadium, with a capacity of 78,838. Being the host nation, Brazil had the largest delegation in its history of the Olympics, with around 11237 athletes. Amongst them, 5,059 women and 6,178 were men.

Interestingly, Rio 2016 witnessed and introduced two new games. Golf took center stage after around 112 years and with rugby making a debut. Rugby proved to be highly impactful and inspiring to sport youth enthusiasts. There were 41 disciplines and 306 events with 306 sets of medals in the 16 days competition at Rio 2016.

11238 people from 207 nations took part in the 2016 Rio games, including some newcomers like - Kosovo, South Sudan, and the Refugee Olympic Team with 306 sets of medals.

An Olympic sport that has five different events, which include freestyle swimming, fencing, equestrian show jumping, and a final combination event of pistol shooting and cross country running, is part of the modern pentathlon.

Here's the list of some famous 2016 Rio athletes that you must know!

Micheal Phelps won men's 328.08 ft (100m) and 656.17 ft (200 m) swimming along with a 656.17 ft (200 m) individual medley butterfly. Ryan Lochte won men's 4x 656.17 ft (4x 200 m) freestyle relay in swimming and Missy Franklin won Women's 4x 656.17 ft (4x 200 m) freestyle relay.

Dipa Karmakar participated in women's uneven bars, beam, vault, floor exercise, and individual gymnastics. Simone Biles won gold for women's uneven bars, beams vault team all-around, floor exercise, and individual gymnastics.

Gabby Douglas won a medal for women's uneven bars, beams vault team all-around, floor exercise, and individual. Ibtihaj Muhammad won a bronze medal for fencing both women's individual saber and team saber.

The famous Usain Bolt won men's 4x 328.08 ft (4x 100 m) relay, 656.17 ft (200 m), and 328.08 ft (100 m). William sisters, Serena and Venus William, won Women's singles and doubles in tennis. 

The 2016 US women's Olympic gymnastic team has won gold in Rio de Janeiro; the participants were Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez, and Madison Kocian.

Emblem Of The 2016 Summer Olympics

Interestingly! The 2016 summer Olympics and Paralympics comprised the Games of 31st Olympiad and 15th Paralympic Games, and both referred to as Rio 2016, held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America.

An emblem is an important part of any game. It represents the particular theme of the games or nation where the games are being held. Accordingly the Rio 2016, Olympic games portal unveiled the new emblem on New Year's Eve at a Copacabana beach party in Brazil.

The new emblem of the 2016 summer Olympics was not offensive and has been modeled as a 3D design that the event organizer planned on implementing at various stages of the games. The usages included 3D sculptures, animations, and laser light shows, and the concept was more about people joining in the embrace.

The emblem was representative of the diversity of Rio. The emblem looked like three different colored humans holding hands together.

Maximum Number of Gold Won By Whom

The Olympics are the only world's truly multi-sport, celebratory athletics competition, where more than 200 countries participate, to feel inspired and be together. The five rings in the Olympics emblem represent the union of the five continents and the harmonious meeting of athletes.

Another interesting fact about the Olympic flag is about the Olympic rings, those intertwined five rings on a white background; this current version is based on the design by Baron Pierre de Coubertin in 1914. The flag represents the Olympic games and the Olympic movement, whereas the movement stands for global unity, friendship, and sportsmanship.

These rings and the flag are the exclusive property of the International Olympic Committee.

Team USA has been the most prosperous nation in the history of the summer Olympics, as they have won more than 2,500 medals in 27 games, out of which 1,061 were gold medals.

It has topped the medal table for the 2016 Rio games, with 46 gold medals, followed by Great Britain and China with 26 and 27 gold medals respectively.

Moreover, the host nation Brazil won seven gold medals.

The global ranking marks these top three athletes with the most gold medals. Micheal Phelps with 23 gold medals for swimming; followed by Larisa Latynina with nine gold medals for gymnastics, and Paavo Nurmi with nine gold medals for a marathon.

Maximum Number Of Bronze Won By Whom

In an athlete's life, winning is one of the most significant achievements, especially if it is winning an Olympics gold medal, silver, or even bronze; standing on that podium means a lot.

Bronze medal-winning is part of athletics, artistic swimming, shooting, sport climbing, weightlifting, diving, rowing. For the bronze medal, sports are played on courts and fields using playoffs for third place. The losing semi-finalists play against each other. Sports like basketball, archery, beach volleyball or volleyball, rugby sevens, table tennis are a few examples.

In the 2016 Olympic games, the team USA topped with 38 bronze medals, followed by China and Japan 26 and 21, respectively. The US team is considered the largest delegate for the 2016 Olympic games, with 554 athletes, out of which 263 were men and 291 were women.

The host nation, Brazil, too had the largest delegates in their Olympic history with around 462 athletes, 209 women, and 253 men.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 21 note-worthy 2016 Olympic facts for kids that love Rio games, then why not take a look at 15 interesting 19th-century London facts all about Victorian London or 1972 facts Olympic games, presidency & other fun facts.