Why does it take 4 years for the Olympics?

soldier who brought news of a victory over the Persians from Marathon to

Athens in 490 B.C. In 1924, the marathon was standardized at 26 miles and

385 yards. Appropriately, a Greek, Spyridon Louis, won the first marathon at

the 1896 Athens Games.

Pierre de Coubertin became IOC president in 1896 and guided the Olympic

Games through its difficult early years, when it lacked much popular support

and was overshadowed by world’s fairs. In 1924, the first truly successful

Olympic Games were held in Paris, involving more than 3,000 athletes,

including more than 100 women, from 44 nations. The first Winter Olympic

Games were also held that year. In 1925, Coubertin retired. The Olympic

Games have come to be regarded as the foremost international sports

competition. At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, more than 10,000

athletes from 200 countries competed, including nearly 4,000 women. In 2004,

the Summer Olympics returned to Athens, with more than 11,000 athletes

competing from 202 countries. In a proud moment for Greeks and an exciting

one for spectators, the shotput competition was held at the site of the classical

Games in Olympia.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The International Olympic Committee decided today to separate the

Summer and Winter Olympiads after the 1992 Games, breaking a 70-year-old tradition

The 89-member committee, the supreme Olympic authority, agreed to stage the Winter Games in 1994

and continue thereafter at four-year intervals, midway between the Summer Games, which also are held

every four years.

IOC officials said only a handful of members opposed the change, which needed a two-thirds majority for approval.

The change will require a modification of the Olympic charter, which stipulates that Summer and Winter

Games must be held in the same year. The Winter Olympics were first organized at Chamonix, France, in