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When choosing locations for the Olympic Games, the IOC specifically gives the honor of holding the Games to a city rather than a country. The ancient Olympic Games were always held at Olympia in Greece. The first Olympic Games of the modern era was held in Athens, Greece too. From then onwards, the Games have been held in different host cities around the world.

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Host City Information

• The complete List of Host Cities
• An analysis of the countries with host cities
• Timezones for each Games
• Latitude (distance from equator) for each host city
• Bid Cities for each Olympiad

Olympiads

An Olympiad is a period of four successive years. The Olympic Games celebrate each Olympiad. For the modern Olympic Games, the first Olympiad celebration was in 1896. Every four years celebrates another Olympiad; thus, even the Games that were canceled (1916, 1940, and 1944) count as Olympiads. The 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo was called the Games of the XXXII Olympiad.

Host City Trivia

• Because of World Wars, there were no Olympic Games held in the years 1916, 1940, or 1944 (though the Olympiads were still counted).
• Two continents – Africa and Antarctica – have never hosted an Olympics.
• With London hosting the 2012 Olympic Games, they became the first city to host the Summer Olympic Games three times. Paris (2024) and Los Angeles (2028) will also join them in having hosted the Games three times.
• The USA have hosted the Summer Olympic Games four times, the most of any country: 1904, 1932, 1984 and 1996, and will do so again in 2028. (see more on countries with host cities).
• The awarding of the Olympic Games to two hosts at once, Paris (2024) and LA (2028), was for the first time done in 2017.
• Brisbane was selected to host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games, following a revamped procedure for choosing Olympic host cities, which sees a small group of members identify and propose hosts to the Executive Board.

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Related Pages

• See the complete LIST of Olympic Host Cities.
• List of countries with host cities
• Winter Games host cities
• History of the Olympic Atheltes Village
• List of Olympic Stadiums