What is breaking at the Olympics 2024? Rules explained
The first rule of breaking is: you do not talk about breakdancing.
Each new instalment of the Olympics brings with it the opportunity to refresh the line-up of sports that will be included across the two weeks of competition that year. Doing so is an effort by the International Olympic Committee to modernise the Games, attract new and younger audiences and give athletes from smaller or emerging sports to showcase their talent to the world. At Paris 2024, the sole debutant among the sports to be contested is known by a somewhat obscure name: breaking. Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts With roots in 1970s New York, breaking joins several other urban sports in the Paris 2024 event line-up, including skateboarding and BMX freestyle. But just what does the Olympics’ newest sport actually involve? RadioTimes.com breaks it all down, including the rules of the sport at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators What is breaking? Breaking is a style of street dance which originated in 1970s New York City. The sport can be traced back to the New York borough of the Bronx in the early 1970s, where the dance style began to grow at events like block parties in tandem with the increasing popularity of the hip-hop genre of music. The 'break' is the part of a song where vocals and other instruments fade out, leaving just the percussion – and it is in that break that early b-boys and b-girls (male and female competitors who practice the sport of breaking) began to showcase their acrobatic moves and quick footwork set to the backing of the hip-hop soundtrack. As breaking's popularity spread, more communities and cultures got involved, forming crews to face off in both individual and team dance battles and leading to the first international breaking competitions starting up back in the 1990s. Breaking first featured at an Olympic event in 2018 when it was included at the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was its success there that led to its addition to the event line-up for Paris 2024. View Green Video on the source website Breaking rules and format explained In Paris, the breaking competition is split into a men’s event and a women’s event. The competition will see 16 b-boys and 16 b-girls face off in one-on-one battles consisting of three 60-second throw downs (the term for when a b-boy or b-girl hits the floor and starts breaking), where they must adapt their style and improvise to the beat of the DJ’s tracks in a bid to secure votes from five judges. The athletes take turns to showcase their routines, with popular moves including the 6-step, toprock, windmill and freeze, as well as flips and even dancers spinning on their head. Their performances are judged on five criteria – technique, vocabulary (the variety of their moves), execution, musicality and originality – with the judges sliding a digital slider towards the dancer who is winning the head-to-head battle based on each of them. Each of the five criteria accounts for 20 per cent of the competitor’s final score, with the winner of the round decided based on the average of the five criteria sliders. The breaking competition at Paris 2024 will take place at the Place de la Concorde, with the women’s event on 9th August followed by the men’s event on 10th August. The b-boys and b-girls are divided into groups of four for an initial round-robin stage, battling all the other breakers in their group to decide which two progress to the quarter-finals. The eight quarter-finalists are then seeded into one-on-one single elimination (lose and you’re out) battles based on their previous performance (for example, first versus eighth, second versus seventh). This process is repeated for the semi-finals and the finals to crown the inaugural Olympic breaking champions. 2023 world champions Victor Montalvo, of the United States, and Lithuania’s Dominika Banevič (better known as B-Girl Nicka) were the first two competitors to book their places for Paris. Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
With seven disciplines to master, heptathletes are not like other athletes.
As the decathlon is to men’s athletics, the heptathlon serves as an ultimate test of all-round athleticism in elite women’s sport. Skill, speed, strength and agility – heptathletes must have it all, across seven different track and field events, if they hope to make it to the top. The heptathlon made its Olympic debut at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, replacing the five-event pentathlon that women had competed in at that level since the 1964 Olympics. Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts Team GB has produced its fair share of world-class heptathletes over the years, from Sydney 2000 Olympic champion Denise Lewis to two-time bronze medal winner Kelly Sotherton, but two names will spring to the minds of many: Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katarina Johnson-Thompson. Before her retirement in 2016, Ennis-Hill captured three World Championship titles and a coveted Olympic gold at her London 2012 home Games. Johnson-Thompson, who ranks just ahead of her fellow Brit on the all-time heptathlon performer list, has won two World Championships of her own – including in 2023 – and heads into her fourth Olympics at Paris 2024 looking to clinch an elusive first Olympic medal. RadioTimes.com explains the seven sports involved and how the heptathlon works. Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators Which sports are in the heptathlon? The heptathlon is made up of seven track and field events split across a two-day programme at the Olympics. These are, in order: Day One 100m hurdles High jump Shot put 200m Day Two Long jump Javelin 800m View Green Video on the source website Like in the decathlon – the equivalent all-round showcase for men consisting of 10 events – heptathletes earn points based on how their performance in each event stacks up against a pre-determined "benchmark". An athlete’s seven points scores are then tallied up to find the overall winner by way of who has accumulated the most points across all events combined. A joint winner is declared if athletes end the competition tied on points, while there is a leeway of one false start in track events before you’re disqualified. Every athlete gets three attempts at each of the shot put, javelin and long jump. When it comes to the all-time performances in women’s heptathlon, one athlete reigns supreme: Jackie Joyner-Kersee. The American star still holds the women’s heptathlon world record with her mark of 7,291 points from the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, while she also currently owns the next five highest points scores in history as well, all from between 1986 and 1992 – truly ahead of her time. Retired Swedish heptathlete and 2004 Olympic gold medallist Carolina Klüft has the second highest all-time personal best among heptathletes, followed closely by the current two-time reigning Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium. Alongside Joyner-Kersee (1988 and 1992), Thiam is the only athlete in history with back-to-back Olympic heptathlon titles. She was also so good at the high jump en route to her Rio 2016 gold that she would have won the individual event that year, too. The most recent entry in the rankings is Anna Hall from the US, who in May 2023 put together the best performance since Thiam in 2017 to place herself fifth all-time. That sees Hall currently occupy top spot in the heptathlon world rankings as of April 2024, just ahead of Thiam (third) and GB household name Johnson-Thompson (second). It’s worth noting that there also exists a men’s heptathlon, which is held indoors and at World Championship level - but it is not on the Olympic schedule, with men instead contesting the decathlon. The men’s indoor heptathlon involves the following seven events, in order: (day one) 60m, long jump, shot put, high jump and (day two) 60m hurdles, pole vault, 1000m. The world record holder for the men’s indoor heptathlon is Ashton Eaton, a two-time Olympic champion and former world record holder in the decathlon, with his score of 6,645 points back in 2012. There’s plenty of crossover in the all-time rankings with that of the decathlon, with Canada’s reigning Olympic champion Damian Warner, Frenchman and decathlon world record holder Kevin Mayer, and former Czech world record holder Roman Šebrle all in the top seven in men’s heptathlon history. Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
What is breaking and how does it work at the Olympics?
Each new instalment of the Olympics brings with it the opportunity to refresh the line-up of sports that will be included across the two weeks of competition that year. Doing so is an effort by the International Olympic Committee to modernise the Games, attract new and younger audiences and give athletes from smaller or emerging sports to showcase their talent to the world. At Paris 2024, the sole debutant is known by a somewhat obscure name: breaking. With roots in 1970s New York, breaking joins several other urban sports in Paris, including skateboarding and BMX freestyle, but you may well be wondering what the Olympics’ newest sport actually involves. So here's an RT crash course in the discipline, from rules and point-scoring to terms like B-boy and toprock… So, what is breaking? Breaking is a style of street dance that originated in 1970s New York. The sport can be traced back to the New York borough of the Bronx in the early 70s, where the dance style began to grow at block parties in tandem with the increasing popularity of hip-hop music. The "break" is the part of a song where vocals and other instruments fade out, leaving just the percussion – and it was in that break that early b-boys and b-girls (male and female competitors who practice the sport of breaking) began to showcase their acrobatic moves and quick footwork set to the backing of the hip-hop soundtrack. As breaking's popularity spread, more communities and cultures got involved, forming crews to face off in both individual and team dance battles and leading to the first international breaking competitions starting up in the 1990s. The word "breakdancing" was used by the media and is rejected by those within the sport. Breaking first featured at an Olympic event in 2018 when it was included at the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was its success there that led to its inclusion at Paris 2024. What are the rules and how is it judged? In Paris, the breaking competition is split into a men’s event and a women’s event. The competition will see 16 b-boys and 16 b-girls face off in one-on-one battles consisting of three 60-second throw downs (the term for when a b-boy or b-girl hits the floor and starts breaking), where they must adapt their style and improvise to the beat of the DJ’s tracks in a bid to secure votes from five judges. The athletes take turns to showcase their routines, with popular moves including the 6-step, toprock, windmill and freeze, as well as flips and even dancers spinning on their head. Their performances are judged on five criteria – technique, vocabulary (the variety of their moves), execution, musicality and originality – with the judges moving a digital slider towards the dancer who is winning the head-to-head battle by that measure. Each of the five criteria accounts for 20 per cent of the competitor’s final score, with the winner of the round decided based on the average of the five sliders. The breaking competition at Paris 2024 will take place at the Place de la Concorde, with the women’s event on Friday followed by the men’s event on Saturday. The b-boys and b-girls are divided into groups of four for an initial round-robin stage, battling all the other breakers in their group to decide which two progress to the quarter-finals. The eight quarter-finalists are then seeded into one-on-one single elimination (lose and you’re out) battles based on their previous performance (for example, first versus eighth, second versus seventh). This process is repeated for the semi-finals and the finals to crown the inaugural Olympic breaking champions. 2023 world champions Victor Montalvo, of the United States, and Lithuania’s Dominika Banevič (better known as B-Girl Nicka) were the first two competitors to book their places for Paris.
Which sports are in the modern pentathlon?
The modern pentathlon is about to become the old pentathlon following Paris 2024.
The modern pentathlon has found itself the subject of some hotly contested debate in recent years, chiefly between the sport’s organisers and some of its top competitors. This most recently has centred on a decision to change the event line-up after the Paris 2024 Olympics, following an incident with a horse being punched by a coach in Tokyo. The modern pentathlon finds its roots in the Ancient Olympic pentathlon, which featured running, jumping, javelin, discus and wrestling, with the event’s name derived from Greek, combining "pente" (five) and "athlon" (competition). Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts It has been an event for men at the Summer Olympics since 1912, and was added to the women’s schedule at the Olympics for the first time at the Sydney 2000 Games. But with the modern pentathlon having undergone great changes since its introduction, and with it soon to be tweaked again, read on for the breakdown from RadioTimes.com of how it currently works. Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators Which sports are in the modern pentathlon? As of the Paris 2024 Olympics, the five sports involved in the modern pentathlon are fencing, swimming, equestrian (horse-riding), shooting and running. These are split into four events, with running and shooting combined into what has been called the "laser run". After the Paris Olympics, horse riding is set to be replaced by an obstacle course discipline. The fencing (involving an electric épee) has the most to it, first involving a ranking round in which every athlete competes against all other athletes for a total of 35 one-on-one bouts, each limited to one minute in length or the time taken for one competitor to land a hit anywhere on their opponent’s body – whichever comes first. A bout where neither athlete scores a hit is registered as a defeat for both. 250 points are awarded for achieving a 70 per cent win rate (25 out of 35 bouts), with six points added or deducted for every additional win or loss, respectively. The second ("bonus") round of fencing is single elimination – you lose, you’re out – with 45-second bouts, opponents determined by positions from the ranking round and a bonus point scored for each bout won. In the equestrian, riders are allocated an unfamiliar horse 20 minutes before they compete. After a maximum of five practice jumps, they must navigate through 12 show-jumping obstacles. Completing the round in the allotted time is rewarded with 300 points, with deductions for any penalties. The swimming event sees pentathletes seeded into heats based on their Pentathlon World Ranking swimming time. They must then swim 200m of any stroke, with the benchmark of two minutes and 30 seconds earning an athlete 250 points while every one-third of a second above or below that time equates to one point added or deducted. The points scored in the fencing, riding and swimming events are then used to determine each athlete’s starting position for the final event: the laser run. This involves athletes running a total distance of 3200m, during which there are four shooting stops. At each shooting stop the athletes have either 50 seconds or an unlimited number of shots to hit five electronic targets with a laser pistol from a distance of 10m. The staggered start for the laser run is determined by how far back each athlete is from the leader following the fencing, riding and swimming rounds; every point corresponds to a one-second delay. Whoever then crosses the finish line first in the laser run is declared the winner. In Paris, the fencing ranking rounds for men and women take place on one day, with a 90-minute format for the semi-finals and finals taking place on subsequent days. The 90-minute format is in order as follows: 35 minutes of equestrian 5 minutes break 20 minutes of fencing (bonus round) 10 minutes break 15 minutes of swimming (200m) 15 minutes break 20 minutes laser run (combined running and shooting) Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Just a few hundred thousand metres per second slower than an actual lightning bolt.
The 10-second mark is widely seen as a key barrier in the men’s athletics 100m event, a benchmark for the elite sprinters to surpass. Over 180 men have run quicker than 10 seconds in the sport’s premier sprint race since the barrier was first broken by the American star Jim Hines at the 1968 Olympics. None, however, have been faster than Usain Bolt. Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts In fact, no other sprinter has been within even a 10th of a second of the world record set by Jamaica’s sprinting sensation well over a decade ago, even in the years since his retirement in 2017. But just how fast was Bolt at his peak, and what is the closest others have come to his world record? RadioTimes.com explains (in slightly more than 10 seconds). Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators What is Usain Bolt’s 100m world record? The men’s 100m running world record, set by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, stands at 9.58 seconds. Bolt’s lightning-quick performance that day in the German capital shaved 0.11 seconds off his own previous world record from the Beijing Olympics the previous year, and remains the 100m world record today. The closest any other athlete has come to the world record was when the USA’s Tyson Gay ran a 9.69 in Shanghai in 2009, equalling the third-fastest time in history alongside Bolt and later fellow Jamaican Yohan Blake, who ran the same time in Switzerland three years afterwards. As well as the world record, the second-fastest performance of all time also belongs to none other than Bolt, courtesy of his 9.63 at the London 2012 Olympics. Blake, who has announced that Paris 2024 will be his final Olympics, is the only active runner in the top-10 all-time performance list. Fastest 100m sprints of all time (at the start of Paris 2024) 9.58 (WR) – Usain Bolt (Jamaica) – Berlin, Germany, 2009 9.63 – Usain Bolt (Jamaica) – 9.63 – London, UK, 2012 9.69 – Usain Bolt (Jamaica) – Beijing, China, 2008 9.69 – Tyson Gay (USA) – Shanghai, China, 2009 9:69 – Yohan Blake (Jamaica) – Lausanne, Switzerland, 2012 9.71 – Tyson Gay (USA) – Berlin, Germany, 2009 9.72 – Usain Bolt (Jamaica) – New York City, USA, 2008 9.72 – Asafa Powell (Jamaica) – Lausanne, Switzerland, 2008 9.74 – Asafa Powell (Jamaica) – Rieti, Italy, 2007 9.74 – Justin Gatlin (USA) – Ad-Dawhah, Qatar, 2015 Meanwhile, the most recently achieved top time was thrown down by American sprinter Fred Kerley in June 2022, when he ran a 9.76 to join his compatriots Christian Coleman (2019) and Trayvon Bromell (2021) as the sixth-fastest 100m runners ever. Since then, the fastest anyone has been was the time of 9.83 run by the UK’s Zharnel Hughes and American Noah Lyles in July 2023, which ranked them joint-15th on the list of all-time fastest performers in the event. Fastest 100m sprinters of all time (at the start of Paris 2024) Usain Bolt (Jamaica) – 9.58 (WR) – 2009 Tyson Gay (USA) – 9.69 – 2009 Yohan Blake (Jamaica) – 9.69 – 2012 Asafa Powell (Jamaica) – 9.72 – 2008 Justin Gatlin (USA) – 9.74 – 2015 Christian Coleman (USA) – 9.76 – 2019 Trayvon Bromell (USA) – 9.76 – 2021 Fred Kerley (USA) – 9.76 – 2022 Ferdinand Omanyala (Kenya) – 9.77 – 2021 Kishane Thompson (Jamaica) – 9.77 – 2024 Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The ultimate all-rounders in sport are ready to go again.
With the years of blood, sweat, tears and dedication required, reaching an elite level at any one sport is an achievement worthy of plenty of plaudits. Now, imagine trying to juggle training for 10 of them. Well, that’s exactly the daunting task that every participant in the decathlon event at the Paris 2024 Olympics will have faced and conquered in order to be there. Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts Such is the nature of the decathlon in testing an athlete’s combined performance across a variety of athletic endeavours, the title of "World’s Greatest Athlete" has been bestowed upon the winner in a tradition that began with Jim Thorpe, the American athlete who won gold in the inaugural Olympic decathlon in 1912. The modern decathlon, which first began to resemble its current format in the early 1900s, is derived from the five-event pentathlon which was a regular feature of the Ancient Olympics, and comprised of wrestling, a sprint, long jump, discus and javelin. At many top-level international competitions, including the Olympics, the decathlon is contested only by men, while women compete in the heptathlon (seven events). But just which sports are involved in the decathlon, and how does it work? RadioTimes.com explains all. Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators Which sports are in the decathlon? The modern decathlon consists of 10 track and field events, which at most international and elite-level competitions are split across two days. In order, these are: Day One 100m Long jump Shot put High jump 400m Day Two 110m hurdles Discus Pole vault Javelin 1500m So, how is the overall decathlon winner decided, with so many different events? Each athlete’s performance in each event is judged on a points system specific to that event. A formula takes into account the athlete’s time (100m, 110m hurdles, 400m, 1500m), distance thrown (discus, javelin) or jumped (long jump) or height leapt (high jump), alongside some pre-determined parameters for that event, to produce a points score for each athlete in each event. Each athlete’s points per event is then added up, with the winner being whoever has the highest total – meaning it’s more about overall performance than placings in the individual events. Joint winners are declared if athletes end a competition level on overall points. Among the other rules are that one false start in the track events is permitted, but a second will see you disqualified, while decathletes are limited to three attempts each in the shot put, javelin and long jump. The current decathlon world record holder is France’s two-time Olympic silver medallist Kevin Mayer, who achieved a total of 9,126 points at the 2018 Décastar event in Talence, France. Mayer finished second behind then-world record holder and two-time Olympic champion Ashton Eaton of the USA at Rio 2016, and was runner-up again in Tokyo three years ago, that time to Canada’s Damian Warner. Warner, who set the Olympic Games record in Tokyo at 9,018 points, also set two best-ever marks in the decathlon for the 100m (10.12 seconds) and the 110m hurdles (13.36 seconds). The Canadian’s performance at those Games landed him fourth in the all-time rankings behind Mayer, Eaton and long-retired Czech decathlete Roman Šebrle, while Warner currently sits second in the decathlon world rankings as of April 2024. Other all-time great decathletes include Eaton’s countryman and fellow back-to-back (1948 and 1952) Olympic champion Bob Mathias and Britain’s Daley Thompson (1980 and 1984 Olympian champion), who alongside Eaton (2012 and 2016) are the only decathletes to win consecutive Olympic titles. Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
What do DNS and DNF mean at the Olympics 2024?
The Olympic Games – home of athletes, action and acronyms.
Aside from a DQ, representing a disqualification, the two acronyms perhaps most commonly seen at the Olympics which athletes and sports fans alike hate to see next to the names of anyone representing their country are 'DNS' and 'DNF'. The two acronyms would most likely be seen on scoreboards displayed in stadiums or on TV, as well as in official results documents, beside an athlete's name and in place of their time or other result. Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts Some more positive codes include 'Q', meaning the athlete has qualified from the heat to advance to the next round of the competition; 'SB', meaning the result is the athlete’s season best performance; 'OR', meaning the athlete has set a new Olympic Games record; and, of course, 'WR' when there is a world record broken. But what about those pesky other two that nobody wants to see? RadioTimes.com explains what DNS and DNF mean at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators View Green Video on the source website What does DNS mean at the Olympics? DNS stands for "did not start", and is the acronym used at the Olympics when an athlete is scheduled to compete in an event but withdraws before it starts and therefore does not compete. Perhaps most commonly seen in the popular track and field events which feature heavily in television coverage of the Games, DNS is also used for the same reason at other sporting events, such as the World Athletics Championships. At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, athletes who tested positive for Covid-19 and had to miss the event they were entered in were commonly listed as DNS, although this varied slightly on a sport-by-sport basis. One high-profile example of a DNS at the last Olympics came in the qualifying heats of the men’s 1,500m track event, when American and then-NCAA record holder Yared Nuguse pulled out at the last minute due to a muscle strain in his quadricep. What does DNF mean at the Olympics? DNF stands for "did not finish", and is the acronym used at the Olympics when an athlete starts an event and fails to complete it. This is classed differently to a disqualification, where more often athletes finish the event but are deemed by judges or officials to have broken the rules somewhere along the line. DNFs could happen for more than one reason, but are perhaps most commonly associated with an athlete pulling up injured and therefore being unable to continue in the event in which they have already started competing. Uganda’s 2012 Olympic gold medallist marathon runner Stephen Kiprotich was a high-profile example of an athlete suffering a DNF at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, having dropped out before the halfway point of that marathon race. DNFs have also happened to top athletes at recent Winter Olympic Games, such as American skier Mikaela Shiffrin: at Beijing 2022, the two-time Olympic champion missed a gate in the slalom event twice in a row, meaning she registered a DNF. Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Most Olympic medals by nation: All-time most successful countries
Nations have 987 attempts to add another Olympic medal – of any colour – to their collection this summer.
A tradition that seems to be carried on alongside every Olympics is the debate over how to organise the medal table. Some national teams and their fans argue for the table comparing medals won per country to be sorted by gold medals first, while some maintain that the overall medal tally is more important. To some, it makes no difference whatsoever. While that back-and-forth will no doubt rage on again during and after the Paris 2024 Olympics, RadioTimes.com takes a look at where nations rank in the all-time summer Olympic medal table. Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts It must be conceded that there are also several ways in which this list could have been compiled, given athletes from some countries used to compete under other national team names at the Olympics. For the sake of inclusion, we’ve gone ahead and ranked it by the total number of medals won by current nations and all of their "precursors". Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators View Green Video on the source website Countries with the most Olympic medals 5. China – 636 medals China – previously the Republic of China, and more recently the People’s Republic of China – ranks fifth in our list, with 636 total medals at the modern summer Olympics. They take that spot whichever way you slice it, too, having accrued the fifth-most gold medals with 263 to date. 4. Great Britain – 916 medals Team GB fans might feel a little hard done by with this ranking, but a total medal tally of 916 is nothing to be sniffed at. Great Britain has competed at all 29 editions of the modern summer Olympics to rake in that haul, which also includes a fourth-highest-ever count of 284 gold medals. Had this been ranked by each national Olympic committee team to have competed at the modern summer Olympics, Britain would jump up into third place. Meanwhile, if we only counted teams which still compete in the same form today, Britain knocks the Soviet Union out of second place. 3. Germany – 1,386 Adding in the medal counts of its previous Olympic team iterations – including West Germany, East Germany and the United Team of Germany – athletes representing Germany have won a total of 1,386 medals at the summer Olympics as of Tokyo 2021. They similarly rank third for gold medals, with 438 combined, and interestingly are the only nation in this top five to have won more silver medals (457) than gold, and more bronze medals (491) than silver. Excluding the aforementioned and now-defunct teams or special delegations of German athletes – which competed at five, five and three summer Olympics respectively, winning 204, 409 and 118 medals each in that time – Germany has 655 medals, which would see it ranked fourth or fifth, depending on the other ways of looking at the all-time medal table outlined above. 2. Russia – 1,624 medals Russia is another complex one to rank given the many titles its athletes have competed under over the years, for various reasons. If, as we have, you factor in each of its past and present Olympic team iterations – thereby including everything from the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union to the 1992 Unified Team and the 2021 Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) squad – then Russia ranks second in the all-time summer Olympic medal rankings with a total of 1,624. 608 of those are gold, too, another second-place ranking. The Soviet Union alone racked up 1,010 of those medals in its years of competing at the Olympics before the former transcontinental country officially known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was dissolved in 1991 – enough to place second on this list when sorted by individual national Olympic committee teams. Russia alone would rank 12th in that list with 423 medals from its six summer Olympic appearances, while the ROC raked in 71 medals in Tokyo three years ago. There will also be yet another new delegation name to possibly add to Russian athletes' overall medal tally at Paris 2024, in the form of "Individual Neutral Athletes". 1. United States – 2,629 medals No matter which way you rank your list of all-time Olympic medal-winning nations, only one country comes out on top: the United States of America. Competing at every modern Olympics with the exception of the 1980 Games in Moscow, which it led a boycott of, the US has tallied 2,629 Olympic medals to date. That’s over 1,000 more medals than any other country past or present, including the combined total of 1,624 from Russia and its current or precursor national Olympic committee teams. Accordingly, the US has also won by far the most Olympic gold medals in history, with a haul of 1,061. Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
What is Chinese Taipei at the Olympics 2024?
Chinese Taipei will compete at the Olympic Games in 2024 – but what actually is it?
More than 10,000 athletes from over 200 countries will descend on Paris in 2024 for the world’s grandest sporting spectacle: the Olympics. But eagle-eyed sports fans may have spotted a group of athletes competing under a flag and country name they didn’t recognise. That’s because Chinese Taipei, abbreviated to TPE on scorecards and elsewhere at the Games, is the name under which athletes from Taiwan compete at the Olympics. Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts Chinese Taipei’s all-time Olympic medal tally is 36, a historic 12 of which – including two of its seven golds – were won at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. With Taiwanese athletes competing in a range of sports in Paris, including the defending Olympic champions in women’s weightlifting and men’s badminton doubles, the nation will no doubt be hoping to add to that haul in what is its 11th consecutive Summer Olympics appearance. RadioTimes.com explains why athletes from Taiwan compete under the flag and name of Chinese Taipei at the Olympics and have done since 1984. Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators View Green Video on the source website What does AIN stand for at the Olympics 2024? Taiwan – officially known as the Republic of China – is an East Asian island nation that lies south-east of mainland China (officially the People’s Republic of China, or PRC). Separated from mainland China by a narrow sliver of the Pacific Ocean called the Taiwan Strait, its capital city is Taipei, while the island’s population of over 23 million people puts it among the world’s most densely-populated countries. In 1949, the Chinese Civil War resulted in the Republic of China, which had until then been the dominant power, being ousted from mainland China and relocating across the Strait to the island territory of Taiwan. But despite that separation, the island has since been the subject of much dispute, with the PRC arguing that Taiwan is part of China, and that the island’s government is illegitimate. Despite initially competing at the Olympics as the Republic of China, pressure from the PRC eventually led Taiwan to compromise back in 1981, when it was agreed with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that it would compete under the name Chinese Taipei, as well as a new flag and anthem. The 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles was therefore the first at which the new name was used. The flag shows the Republic of China’s 'Blue Sky with a White Sun' emblem above the Olympics rings, encircled by a red, white and blue (the Taiwanese flag colours) five-petaled Prunus mei (Taiwan’s national flower). At medal ceremonies, the National Flag Anthem of the Republic of China is also played instead of the National Anthem of the Republic of China. Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
What does EOR stand for at the Olympics 2024?
Not every athlete is able to compete under their national flag at the Games.
For most athletes around the globe, the Olympic Games represents not only the pinnacle of sporting success, but also the chance to represent their country in front of the world. But what happens when, due to world conflicts and situations out of their control, some world-class athletes are forced to flee their nation of origin? With disrupted access to training facilities and the countless other factors which contribute to becoming an Olympian made even more challenging, the participation of these athletes at events like the Olympics is left in limbo. Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts Athletes have found themselves in such situations across much of the history of the modern Olympics, with many prevented from realising their dream. But at the last few Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has worked with bodies such as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to provide a lifeline known as the EOR. RadioTimes.com explains what EOR stands for and everything you need to know about refugee athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators View Green Video on the source website What does EOR stand for at the Olympics 2024? EOR stands for Équipe Olympique des Réfugiés, which is French for the Refugee Olympic Team. Paris 2024 marks the third appearance of an IOC Refugee Olympic Team at the Olympic Games, following Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Meanwhile, the IOC announced in May that this year’s EOR would be the biggest yet, with 36 athletes from 11 countries representing the world’s displaced population this summer. The team – whose athletes the IOC said have been hosted by 15 different National Olympic Committees from other countries around the world – will compete in 12 different sports in Paris: athletics, badminton, boxing, breaking, canoe (both slalom and sprint), judo, road cycling, shooting, swimming, taekwondo, weightlifting and wrestling (freestyle and Greco-Roman). Its chef de mission in Paris will be Masomah Ali Zada, who competed as a member of the 29-strong IOC Refugee Olympic Team at Tokyo 2020, while athletics (seven EOR athletes), judo (six) and taekwondo (five) will be the most represented sports on the EOR in Paris. Announcing the EOR for Paris 2024, IOC president Thomas Bach said: "We welcome all of you with open arms. You are an enrichment to our Olympic Community, and to our societies. "With your participation in the Olympic Games, you will demonstrate the human potential of resilience and excellence. This will send a message of hope to the more than 100 million displaced people around the world." The athletes of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team for Paris 2024 and their respective sports can be found below. Several of them – Dorsa Yavarivafa, Cindy Ngamba, Matin Balsini, Farzad Mansouri and Ramiro Mora – currently reside in the UK, where they have been supported by Team GB and national governing bodies in their respective sports. Adnan Khankan – judo Alaa Maso – swimming Amir Ansari – road cycling Amir Rezanejad Hassanjani – canoe (slalom) Arab Sibghatullah – judo Cindy Ngamba – boxing Dina Pouryounes Langeroudi – taekwondo Dorian Keletela – athletics Dorsa Yavarivafa – badminton Eyeru Gebru – road cycling Farida Abaroge – athletics Farzad Mansouri – taekwondo Fernando Dayan Jorge Enriquez – canoe (sprint) Francisco Edilio Centeno Nieves – shooting Hadi Tiranvalipour – taekwondo Iman Mahdavi – wrestling Jamal Abdelmaji – athletics Jamal Valizadeh – wrestling (Greco-Roman) Kasra Mehdipournejad – taekwondo Luna Solomon – shooting Mahboubeh Barbari Yharfi – judo Manizha Talash – breaking Matin Balsini – swimming Mohammad Amin Alsalami – athletics Mohammad Rashnonezhad – judo Muna Dahouk – judo Musa Suliman – athletics Nigara Shaheen – judo Omid Ahmadisafa – boxing Perina Lokure Nakang – athletics Ramiro Mora – weightlifting Saeid Fazloula – canoe (sprint) Saman Soltani – canoe (sprint) Tachlowini Gabriyesos – athletics Yahya Al Ghotany – taekwondo Yekta Jamali Galeh – weightlifting Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
What does AIN stand for at the Olympics 2024?
Prepare for a new acronym to hit your TV screens over the days to come.
Paris 2024 marks the fifth straight Olympics at which Russia will see its participation limited in some way. Russia has faced some level of sanctions at every winter and summer Games – Rio 2016, Pyeongchang 2018, Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 – since the country’s doping scandal first came to light at Sochi 2014. Its participation, along with that of its neighbour and close ally Belarus, will be limited again in Paris, this time as a result of Russia’s invasion – supported by Belarus – of Ukraine in February 2022 and the ongoing conflict between the two nations. Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts Some sportspeople from both countries will, at the discretion of their sports' governing bodies, be allowed to compete at this summer’s Games as individual athletes – but only after passing a vetting process set out by the International Olympic Committee . The situation has led to the creation of a new acronym at Paris 2024: AIN. RadioTimes.com explains what AIN stands for and how it all works. Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators View Green Video on the source website What does AIN stand for at the Olympics 2024? AIN is an acronym for Athlète Individuel Neutre, the French name for 'Individual Neutral Athlete', and is the IOC country code under which vetted Russian and Belarusian athletes will compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics. A total of 335 Russian athletes competed under the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, bringing home a combined 71 medals, with 20 of them gold. But in Paris – with team sports banned for both nations while qualifying individual athletes face a strict vetting process – no more than a few dozen Russian and Belarusian passport-holding athletes are expected to compete as AINs. A key aspect of the IOC’s vetting process, which is to be carried out by the IOC’s Individual Neutral Athlete Eligibility Review Panel, is that athletes must not have actively supported the war in Ukraine. To be eligible to compete as an AIN at Paris 2024, athletes also must not be contracted or have direct ties to any military or security agencies, and are required to meet all anti-doping criteria and sign the 'Conditions of Participation for Paris'. The same criteria are also used for any of the athletes' support personnel from the two Eastern European nations. Even if Russian and Belarusian athletes pass the vetting process, they will still be barred from taking part in the Paris 2024 opening ceremony. AINs will also compete under a neutral flag – depicting a circular AIN emblem in white on a teal background – at the 2024 Olympics, while an anthem with no lyrics, which has been approved by the IOC, will be played if an AIN wins a gold medal. These medals will not, however, be displayed on National Olympic Committee medal tables. The IOC has said it expects around 36 Russian athletes and 22 Belarusian athletes to compete as AINS in Paris. As of 28th March 2024, 12 AINs with Russian passports and seven AINs with Belarusian passports had qualified for Paris 2024, the IOC said. Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Why does USA not dip their flag at the Olympics opening ceremony?
The Star Spangled Banner will remain high and proud.
The "dipping" of one’s national flag in the Olympics opening ceremony when passing the host nation’s officials is a long-held tradition, meant as a sign of respect to whoever is the host of that year’s Games. In fact, it has been official Olympic policy to do so since the inaugural Parade of Nations at the 1908 Olympic Games. Not us, says the United States. Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts Competing at every Games, summer and winter, since the first modern Olympics in 1896 – except for the 1980 Moscow Games, which it led a boycott of to protest the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan – the US is the winningest nation in Olympic history, with nearly 3,000 total medals. Yet for almost a century – every Olympic Games since 1936, and a few before that too – Team USA has refused to follow the flag-dipping procedure stuck to by (most) other nations over the years. So, why do the Americans, on a stage where they have excelled to an unparalleled degree, refuse to dip their flag at the Olympics? RadioTimes.com explains all. Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators View Green Video on the source website Why does USA not dip their flag at the Olympics opening ceremony? The USA has a long-standing tradition of refusing to dip their flag at the Olympic opening ceremony, which is believed to have started back at the 1908 Games in London. Then, shot put gold medallist and flag bearer Ralph Rose – an Irish-American – kept the 'Stars and Stripes' held high at the opening ceremony, an action believed to be in protest of the English monarchy. The next several Olympics were a mixed bag, depending largely on who the US flag bearer was and their wishes at the time. For example, the American flag was dipped at Sweden 1912, waved high at Belgium 1920, dipped again at Paris 1924 and held aloft at Amsterdam 1928, before the Games were held in Los Angeles in 1932. But in 1936, with Berlin hosting the Olympics – meaning dipping the flag would be a show of respect to Adolf Hitler – the US Olympic Committee made it official policy in advance that the American flag would not be dipped. The following decade it then became US law, under the Flag Code, that "the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing" – meaning since then, individual flag bearers haven’t exactly had much say in the matter. Other countries over the years have declined to dip their own flags, from the old Soviet Union in the 1950s to a whopping 60 of the 64 countries at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) still officially recommends that its tradition is adhered to, and most countries do honour that in the present day. Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Mixed Painting, Engravings, and Etchings fans are not going to enjoy this one...
Depending on their sport of choice, many athletes will have hung up their cleats, goggles, or other sporting gear and called it a day in the world of elite sport by the time they’re in their 40s (at least). Some may be lucky enough to retire fully from the world of work at that point, while others transition into more mundane jobs, and others still try their best to stick around the sports they’re passionate about by trying their hand as commentators or media personalities. Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts But every now and again there comes along an athlete who proves that age really is just a number. With some debate about the top spot – based on factors like official recognition and what is widely considered to be an Olympic 'sport' – RadioTimes.com walks through the top five oldest summer Olympians in history. Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators View Green Video on the source website Oldest Olympians of all time 5. Mary Hanna – Age: 66 years old The newest entry on this list is Australian equestrian competitor Mary Hanna, who competed at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 at the age of 66. Hanna had already been Australia’s oldest ever Olympian with her appearance at the Rio 2016 Olympics aged 61. 4. Lorna Johnstone – Age: 70 years You might begin to notice a theme here – until we get to the top of the rankings, that is. British equestrian competitor Lorna Johnstone is the oldest female Olympian and fourth-oldest Olympic athlete, having been 70 years old at the 1972 Olympics. 3. Hiroshi Hoketsu – Age: 71 years old Japanese equestrian competitor Hiroshi Hoketsu finds himself third on this list thanks to his appearance at the London 2012 Olympics at the age of 71. Hoketsu was the oldest athlete at those games and at Beijing 2008, where he was 67. Having made his Olympic debut aged 23 at the 1964 Games in Tokyo, he did not compete at the Olympics again for over four decades. Hoketsu even attempted to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics, where at 75 years old he could have become the oldest-ever Olympian, but his horse reportedly fell ill. 2. Arthur von Pongracz – Age: 72 years, 49 days old Austrian equestrian competitor Arthur von Pongracz ranks second on this list of oldest Olympic athletes, having appeared at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. There, he placed fourth in the men’s team dressage event, his highest Olympic placing after previous showings in 1924 and 1928. 1. Oscar Swahn (or is it?) – Age: 72 years, ~280 days old Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn is the man officially recognised as the oldest Olympian at the time of competition, having taken part in the 100m team running deer (shooting at a moving target) single and double-shot events at the 1920 Olympics aged 72. There is some disparity over exactly how old Swahn was down to the day, with the Guinness World Record listing him as 72 years, 281 days old, while an article on Olympics.com says he was 72 years, 279 days old. Either way, Swahn is widely regarded as the oldest Olympian, oldest Olympic medallist and oldest Olympic champion, the latter from his gold medal-winning exploits in 1912, aged 64. That is, of course, unless you count the art competitions, which were included in the early years of the modern Olympics but discontinued decades ago and find themselves no longer recognised by the International Olympic Committee. With those art events included, British graphic artist John Copley could be deemed to be the oldest Olympian and medallist, having won a silver medal in Mixed Painting, Engravings, and Etchings in 1948, when just a month shy of his 74th birthday. Get even more down in the weeds and you’ll find that the work of American artist Winslow Homer was a participant in the painting category at the 1932 summer Olympics. Despite Homer having died in 1910, if he was still alive at the time he "contested" at that Olympics he would have been 96 years and 157 days old. Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Most Olympic gold medals: All-time most successful Olympic champions
Celebrating the best of the best of the best of the best of the best.
Winning an Olympic medal is an incredible accomplishment that many strive for, but comparatively few manage to achieve. Even fewer still can say they’ve climbed to the very top of the podium and felt the weight of an Olympic gold medal around their neck. And far from achieving that monumental feat just once, some athletes can say they’ve been crowned as Olympic champions more than once. Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts But who, then, can boast the title of most successful Olympic champion? There are quite a few tied places in the all-time leaderboard, yet only one reigns supreme. A few more British athletes may stand a chance of fighting their way onto this list by the time all is said and done at the 2024 Paris Olympics, including swimmer Adam Peaty, equestrian Charlotte Dujardin and gymnast Max Whitlock. Wondering who comes out on top? RadioTimes.com brings you all the details. Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators View Green Video on the source website Athletes with the most Olympic gold medals 5. Edoardo Mangiarotti, Ryan Lochte (and more) – 6 gold medals It’s a big tie for fifth place in the all-time gold medal tally at the summer Olympic Games, with 15 athletes having won six Olympic titles. Edoardo Mangiarotti gets first mention given those six golds were just some of the 13 Olympic medals (the highest total of all 15 of these Olympians) that the Italian fencer won between 1936 and 1960. Just behind him in total medals with 12 – half of which were gold – between 2004 and 2016 is American swimmer Ryan Lochte. The rest of the current six-time Olympic champions are as follows: Belgian archer Hubert Van Innis, Japanese gymnast Akinori Nakayama, Italian fencer Valentina Vezzali, Swedish canoeist Gert Fredriksson, Hungarian canoeist Danuta Kozák, British cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, Belarusian gymnast Vitaly Scherbo, German equestrian Reiner Klimke, Hungarian fencers Pál Kovács and Rudolf Kárpáti, Italian fencer Nedo Nadi, then-East German swimmer Kristin Otto and American swimmer Amy Van Dyken. 4. Nikolai Andrianov, Boris Shakhlin, Isabell Werth (and more) – 7 gold medals Eleven athletes in the history of the modern summer Olympics have grabbed one more gold medal than that first batch did. Among them are Russian and Soviet gymnasts Nikolai Andrianov and Boris Shakhlin, who each at one point held the title of most decorated male Olympian with their respective total caches of 15 and 13 medals. One of a few athletes on this list who could add to their existing haul this year is German equestrian Isabell Werth, who won seven golds among her 12 Olympic medals between 1992 and 2021. Werth is expected to compete at Paris 2024 alongside two fellow seven-time Olympic champions, the American swimming duo of Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel. Other athletes with seven summer Olympic golds to their names are: Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská, former Soviet gymnast Viktor Chukarin, American runner Allyson Felix, cyclist and all-time Team GB medals leader Sir Jason Kenny, Hungarian fencer Aladár Gerevich and Russian synchronised swimmer Svetlana Romashina. 3. Birgit Fischer, Sawao Katō, Jenny Thompson (and more) – 8 gold medals Six Olympians, meanwhile, have finished their careers with a total of eight summer Olympic gold medals. The first to do so was American track and field athlete Ray Ewry, who between 1900 and 1908 had a 100 per cent record of Olympic titles in the standing long jump, high jump and triple events, with golds for all of his eight medals. That record of eight individual gold medals stood for just over a century. Japanese gymnast Sawao Katō (from 1968-1976), American swimmers Matt Biondi (1984-1992) and Jenny Thompson (1992-2004) and German canoeist Birgit Fischer (1980-2004) were the next to achieve the feat of totalling eight Olympic gold medals in their careers, while Jamaican runner Usain Bolt in 2016 joined Ewry as the athletes with the most Olympic medals (eight) that are all gold. 2. Larisa Latynina, Paavo Nurmi, Mark Spitz, Carl Lewis – 9 gold medals There’s a four-way tie for athletes on nine Olympic gold medals – the second-highest tally in history – between Larisa Latynina, Paavo Nurmi, Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis. A total of 18 Olympic medals between 1956 and 1964 makes Latynina, a former Soviet gymnast, the most successful female Olympian of all time, while Finnish distance running phenom Nurmi paired his nine golds from 1920 to 1928 with three silver medals. Lewis was a star for the US in both track and field, winning nine gold medals (and one silver) from 1984-1996 across the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and long jump events. American swimming sensation Spitz won his first two Olympic gold medals alongside a silver and a bronze in 1968, before grabbing seven more golds (along with seven world records) in his seven events at the 1972 Games in Munich for an achievement bettered by only one athlete... 1. Michael Phelps – 23 gold medals The greatest Olympian of all time in the eyes of many, Michael Phelps's tally of 23 Olympic gold medals is a total that may never be beaten. Eight of those came in his eight events at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, breaking the record held by fellow American swimmer Spitz, with the rest of his record 28 total Olympic medals – including three silvers and two bronzes – coming between 2000 and 2016. Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Will Russia compete at the Olympics 2024?
Paris 2024: another Olympic Games, and another international sporting event with limited participation by Russian athletes. However, unlike the last two Olympics – where a doping scandal and subsequent bans imposed by anti-doping authorities saw many Russians first barred from competing entirely, and then only allowed to do so under a neutral name – it’s for a non-sporting reason this time. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 sparked an ongoing conflict between the two Eastern European neighbours and subsequent calls for athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus to be banned from the world’s greatest sporting contest entirely. Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts When allowed to compete under the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), 335 Russian athletes won a combined 71 medals – 20 of which were gold – at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. But this time dozens at most are expected to compete in Paris from either country, and they will be permitted to do so only as individuals athletes. RadioTimes.com explains how some athletes from Russia and Belarus are able to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators View Green Video on the source website Are Russian athletes banned from Olympics 2024? The short answer is no, not entirely. Russia will not compete as a formal entity at the Games, but not all individuals are banned. While Russian and Belarusian teams in team sports remain unable to qualify, there is an avenue through which certain individual athletes from the two countries can compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Despite initial consideration of a blanket ban, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said it will allow some Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the 2024 Olympics provided they qualify and also pass a vetting process. The IOC’s Individual Neutral Athlete Eligibility Review Panel is the body tasked with carrying out eligibility evaluations for every athlete with a Russian or Belarusian passport who has or could earn a qualification spot at the Paris 2024 Olympics. These checks will also examine all members of these athletes’ entourage that could attend the Games. A key aspect of the vetting process is that the athletes must not have actively supported the war in Ukraine. Athletes must not be contracted to any military or security agencies and are required to meet all anti-doping criteria and sign the ‘Conditions of Participation for Paris’. The IOC have also announced that any athletes from Russia and Belarus who do pass the vetting process will still be barred from participating in the historic Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony – which is set to be held along the River Seine – but that “an opportunity will be provided to them to experience the event”. A flag for these “Individual Neutral Athletes”, dubbed “AINs” by the IOC, in Paris has also been approved, as well as an anthem which has no lyrics. The anthem will be played, and flag flown, if an AIN athlete wins a medal, though these medals will not be displayed on a National Olympic Committee medal table. The IOC has said it expects about 36 Russian and 22 Belarusian athletes to be competing as neutrals in Paris. Depending on qualifying standards and per-country athlete quotas, the maximum number is understood to be 54 and 28 respectively. Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Most Olympic medals: All-time most successful Olympians
Every Olympian is to be celebrated – but a handful are truly extraordinary.
For many athletes, making it to the Olympic Games is a lifelong goal – an achievement that would be a dream come true in itself. And for all of those athletes who reach their sport’s biggest stage, only a select few will walk away with one coveted Olympic medal, let alone multiple. But have you ever wondered who has managed to win not just a few Olympic medals, but the most in history? Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts Australian swimmer Emma McKeon is among those looking to break into the elite club of top-five all-time most decorated Olympians as she aims to add to her 11-medal tally in Paris – her final Olympics – while another swimmer, Team USA’s Katie Ledecky, also stands a chance at that feat with her current haul of 10 medals. But as things stand ahead of Paris 2024, read on for RadioTimes.com’s list of the top-five most successful Olympians in the history of the summer Games. Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators View Green Video on the source website Athletes with the most Olympic medals 5. Paavo Nurmi (and more) – 12 medals Heading into the Paris 2024 Olympics, it is currently a nine-way tie for the title of fifth-highest medal count at a summer Olympic Games. Finnish distance runner Paavo Nurmi edges just above the rest of that pack, by way of having the most gold medals (nine) out of his total haul between the 1920 and 1928 Olympics. Nicknamed the “Flying Finn”, Nurmi set 22 official world records from the 1,500m to the 20km during his 14-year career and was never beaten in the 10km or cross-country events. Also accruing 12 medals across their Olympic career was German canoer Birgit Fischer, who between 1980 and 2004 won eight gold and four silver medals. Joining Nurmi and Fischer with the tally of 12 career Olympic medals of varying colours (followed by their active years) are Japanese gymnast Sawao Katō (1968-1976), German equestrian Isabell Werth (1992-2020) – who could yet add to that count in Paris – and Russian gymnast Alexei Nemov (1996-2000) as well as a quartet of American swimmers: Jenny Thompson (1992-2004), Ryan Lochte (2004-2016), Dara Torres (1984-2008) and Natalie Coughlin (2004-2012). 4. Boris Shakhlin, Edoardo Mangiarotti, Takashi Ono – 13 medals The pack thins as we step one more rung up the all-time rankings, where there are three athletes currently tied for fourth on the all-time summer Olympic Games medal table. First up is former Soviet Union gymnast Boris Shakhlin, who grabbed 13 medals (seven gold, four silver, two bronze) across seven different events at his three Games between 1956 and 1964. Italian fencer Edoardo Mangiarotti, also with 13 total Olympic medals under his belt, won two of his six golds 24 years apart, having first won the team épée event at Berlin 1936 before returning to the top of the podium in Rome in 1960. Takashi Ono, meanwhile, claimed 13 medals for Japan in various Olympic gymnastics events between 1952 and 1964 – one of which was a joint gold with Shakhlin in the vault at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. 3. Nikolai Andrianov – 15 medals The man who passed Shakhlin to become (at one time) the male athlete with the most Olympic medals now ranks third in the all-time tally. A former Soviet and Russian gymnast, Nikolai Andrianov won his 15 medals (seven gold, five silver, three bronze) across three summer Games between 1972 and 1980, with the five pieces of silverware picked up at his final Olympics taking him past Shakhlin to be crowned the most decorated male Olympian in history – a title he held for nearly three decades. 2. Larisa Latynina – 18 medals Sixty years on from her last Games, former Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina is still the most successful female Olympian in history. Latynina won six medals at each of her three Olympic appearances between 1956 and 1964 for a combined career tally of 18 (nine gold, five silver, four bronze) that made her the winningest Olympian of all-time… until the next and final entry in our list came along. 1. Michael Phelps – 28 medals No-one compares. Double digits ahead of any other athlete in history, American swimmer Michael Phelps holds the record for the most Olympic medals of all time with an astonishing tally of 28 medals (23 gold, three silver, two bronze) on the world’s grandest sporting stage. Phelps – one of the indisputable ‘greatest of all time’ (GOATs) in any sport – also holds the record for most gold medals in a single summer Olympics for his historic eight-from-eight performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Thousands, if not millions, of children across the world take part in their chosen sport (or sports) every day, striving for their own personal greatness in the hope that someday they might hit somewhere close to the dizzying heights of sporting idols like Michael Phelps, Lionel Messi or Michael Jordan. And for some of those children, the dream of reaching the pinnacle of their sport just so happens to be realised while they are still, in fact, children. Historic evidence has shown this is more likely to happen in some sports than others, with events in gymnastics and skateboarding often benefitting from athletes having a lighter frame and therefore sometimes giving an advantage to younger competitors. Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts At the most recent Olympic Games, in Tokyo in 2021, several 13 and 14-year-olds took part in various skateboarding events on the sport’s Olympic debut, including Team GB’s youngest-ever summer Olympian, Sky Brown. However, recent years have seen minimum age limits imposed by most National Olympic Committees, while the governing bodies of some sports, including gymnastics, have set an age requirement of their own – meaning some of the top spots on the list of all-time youngest Olympians may never be surpassed. RadioTimes.com walks through the top five youngest Olympians to ever compete at a summer Games. Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators View Green Video on the source website Youngest Olympians of all time 5. Kokona Hiraki – Age: 12 years, 243 days Japanese skateboarder Kokona Hiraki was 12 years and 243 days old when she won a silver medal in the women’s skateboarding park event at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, making her the youngest medallist since Sørensen in 1936. Sky Brown, the then-13-year-old British skateboarder, secured the bronze, becoming Team GB’s youngest Olympic medal winner in the process. 4. Hend Zaza – Age: 12 years, 204 days The youngest summer Olympian from this century is Syrian table tennis player Hend Zaza, who at 12 years and 204 days old was the youngest Olympian at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and also the youngest competitor at an Olympic Games since 1992. 3. Inge Sørensen – Age: 12 years, 21 days Danish swimmer Inge Sørensen, who is also the youngest-ever medal winner in an individual Olympic event with her bronze in the 200m breaststroke, appeared at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin at just 12 years and 21 days old. 2. Luigina Giavotti and the 1928 Italian gymnastics team – Age: 11 years, 301 days The youngest-ever female Olympian was Italian gymnast Luigina Giavotti, who won a silver medal in the women’s all-round team event when she appeared at the 1928 Olympics at 11 years and 301 days old. A special mention here goes to Giavotti’s teammates in that silver medal-winning effort, Ines Vercesi and Carla Marangoni, who were aged 12 years and 99 days and 12 years and 269 days old, respectively. If ranked individually, Vercesi would be fourth on the list. 1. Dimitrios Loundras – Age: 10 years, 216 days The youngest documented Olympian is Greek gymnast Dimitrious Loundras, who took part in the 1896 Athens Olympics – the first of the ‘modern Olympic Games’ – at the age of just 10 years and 216 days old. Loundras even won a bronze medal at those Games in the team competition, meaning he also owns the title of youngest ever Olympic medallist. Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Who are the Team GB flag bearers at the Olympics 2024 opening ceremony?
The ultimate honour at the Olympics opening ceremony.
At each Olympic Games, before the world’s athletes captivate audiences with their sporting prowess, there comes the unique spectacle that is the opening ceremony. Each opening ceremony is unique to the host city, but they typically feature a range of musical and artistic performances as well as a parade of the athletes competing, grouped into the countries they represent. This is known as the parade of nations. During the parade of nations, one – or sometimes two – athletes from each country has the honour bestowed upon them of being their nation’s designated flag bearer. Each flag bearer is tasked with walking at the front of their country’s delegation while holding, and waving, a large flag of their respective country. The first Summer Olympic Games to feature an opening ceremony and parade of nations was London 1908, with cricketer Kynaston Studd acting as the flag bearer for Team GB that year. Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts A host of athletes, both male and female, from across the spectrum have since joined him on the list of Team GB flag bearers, including figure skater Mollie Phillips who became the first woman to lead out her national team at any Olympic Games when she did so at the 1932 Winter Olympics in New York. If you’re wondering who is carrying the flag for Team GB at the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony this summer, RadioTimes.com has you covered. Don’t miss a minute of the Games with our complete 16-day Olympics TV Guide download, including how to watch all the action on TV, online, on catch-up and on the radio. Read more: Olympics TV coverage | Olympics radio coverage | Olympics presenters and commentators View Green Video on the source website Who are the Team GB flag bearers at the Olympics 2024 opening ceremony? The Team GB flag bearers at the Olympics 2024 opening ceremony have been confirmed as diver Tom Daley and rower Helen Glover who will lead the Team GB contingent. While the flag bearers are formally chosen by the British Olympic Association, each sport involved in Team GB is asked to nominate one of their own competitors to produce a shortlist, which is then voted on. The chosen flag bearer or flag bearers also receives a certificate to commemorate their selection. Daley and Glover will follow sailor Hannah Mills and rower Moe Sbihi, who carried the Union Jack at Tokyo 2020, while tennis player Sir Andy Murray did so at Rio 2016. GB cyclist Sir Chris Hoy was Britain's flag bearer at London 2012, with swimmer Mark Foster (Beijing 2008), judoka Kate Howey (Athens 2004) and rower Sir Matthew Pinsent (Sydney 2000) preceding him. At the end of the last millennium, rower Sir Steve Redgrave became the only Brit to carry the flag more than once at a Summer Olympic Games, doing so at both Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996. The new issue of Radio Times magazine is out now – subscribe to Radio Times here. Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.