This collection of 60 short Olympic tales covers the past 125 years. From the early days of running on cinder tracks and swimming in rivers to today’s sparkling architectural precincts, the Games have become the world’s largest two-week sportsfest spawning hundreds of champions with their own background from all around the world.
Enjoy these stories, relive historical moments, remember the legends, celebrate the heroes… be inspired.
POCKET HERCULES
In the sport of weightlifting Naim Süleymanoğlu proved bigger is not always better. Pound for pound the strongest weightlifter of all time the Turkish legend made Olympic history at Atlanta in 1996 by winning 3 consecutive gold medals in the featherweight division. Weighing in at 60 kilos and standing just 147 centimetres tall the tiny powerhouse nicknamed “Pocket Hercules” is the only weightlifter ever to clean and jerk 10 kilos more than 3 times his bodyweight.
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2:47 mins – Play story
GREEK HISTORY
Olympic tradition dates back almost 3000 years to the Original Olympus Games held in ancient Greece. But it could have been a different story. The father of the Modern Olympics French Aristocrat Baron Pierre De Coubertin wanted the first games to held in Paris in 1900 to coincide with the World’s Fair. Unwilling to wait 4 years organisers opted for Athens in 1896. Aligning the modern Olympics with classical Greek history forever.
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3:20 mins – Play story
GOLDEN GRAND SLAM
Tennis was re-introduced to the Olympics at Seoul in 1988 after a 64-year hiatus. Number 1 in the world at the time was German superstar Steffi Graff who had won the US Open a week earlier adding to her existing Australian, French and Wimbledon crowns that year… completing a rare grand slam. But with the addition of an Olympic Gold medal which she rates as her finest achievement… Graff became the only person ever to achieve a Golden Grand Slam.
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3:48 mins – Play story
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