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The 2016 Games brings Chicago the chance host the most incredible array of athletes from around the world, testing their awe-inspiring athleticism in our parks, our streets, our beaches, our stadiums, our city. We will be united during these 17 days of sport, leaving a lasting legacy for the city of Chicago and the people who live here. The Olympic Games have a long history that we aspire to add to. Athletes will compete in hundreds of events — some of which have been played for thousands of years, and others so new that they are currently writing their own history. From our beautiful lakefront to our breathtaking skyline, from our amazing parks to our diverse neighborhoods, Chicago is the perfect stage for this extraordinary show of athleticism.

Aquatics

History
Before 1908, when the Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) began to regulate aquatic events, the Olympic Games played host to a variety of unusual competitions including underwater swimming, obstacle swimming and plunge for distance. Before the waveless, temperature-controlled pools of today, competitions were held in the ocean, the River Seine and a little lake in St. Louis.

Competition
Now with unified regulations, Olympic Aquatics consist of diving, swimming, synchronized swimming and water polo.

Diving
Diving events include the men’s and women’s 10 meter platform and three meter springboard. At the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, synchronized diving, or diving in pairs, was introduced. A panel of judges score a dive based on approach, take-off, execution and entry into the water.

Swimming
Swimming events include four different strokes: freestyle, butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke. Men’s and women’s races are held over a range of distances, covering between 50 and 10,000 meters.

Synchronized Swimming
Originally known as water ballet, synchronized swimming debuted as an Olympic sport in 1984. Opened only to women, the sport offers two events: duet and team. Competitions are performed to music and scoring is based on the execution of specific moves, the degree of difficulty and risk, innovative choreography and a seemingly effortless performance.

Water polo
Prohibiting participants from touching the bottom or side of the pool during four seven-minute quarters, water polo is a game of endurance that also tests passing technique, shooting skill and competitive strength.

Water polo initially began as an aquatic version of rugby during the mid-1800s, and became so popular that it was admitted into the Games in 1900. Women’s water polo was recently added in the Sydney 2000 Games.

Archery

History
Thought to date back to the Stone Age, the practice of archery enabled humans to become the most efficient hunters on earth. Now practiced as a recreational sport, archery is well known for its place in the legend of Robin Hood. This famous fable lives on, with the term "Robin Hood" referring to an arrow whose shaft is split by a second arrow.

The first Olympic sport open to women, archery was introduced to the Games in 1900. However, with no standardized rules, the sport disappeared from the Olympic Games for more than 50 years. The 1972 Games in Munich readmitted archery, with rules implemented by the Federation Internationale de Tir a l'Arch (FITA).

Competition
An archery target is 1.22 meters in diameter, which, standing the required 70 meters away, appears to be the size of a thumbtack held at arm’s length.

The bullseye measures 12.2 centimeters in diameter and counts for 10 points. The outer ring counts as one point and the rings in between increase one point in value as they near the center.

Athletics

History
Athletics (also known as Track and Field) embodies the Olympic motto, "Citius, Altius, Fortius," meaning faster, higher, stronger.

Runners have competed in foot races since the original ancient Games at Olympia, and athletics remains today as one of the most popular Olympic sports.

Competition
Athletics can be divided into four areas: track, field, road and combined events.

Track Events
Men and women compete in sprints (100m, 200m, 400m), middle-distance running (800m, 1500m) and long-distance running (5000m, 10,000m), hurdling (100m and 400m for women, 110m and 400m for men), relays (4 x 100m and 4 x 400m) and the 3000m steeplechase.

Field events
Field events include the long jump, triple jump, high jump, pole vault, shot put, discus, javelin and hammer throw. The women’s pole vault and hammer throw debuted at the Sydney 2000 Games.

Road events
This competition includes men’s and women’s marathons, the men’s 20km and 50km race-walks and the women’s 10km race-walk.

Combined events
Women compete in the heptathlon and men compete in the decathlon, a series of track and field events held over two days.

Badminton

History
Badminton can be traced to ancient Greece, China, Japan and India, but was not introduced to the Olympic Games until 1992.

As the fastest racket sport in the world, badminton requires great reflexes, speed and stamina. The shuttlecock, made of cork and goose feather, has been recorded at incredible speeds of 260 kilometers per hour.

Competition
Olympic badminton is played by men and women in singles, doubles and mixed doubles matches. The best of three games wins the match, and every competition involves a single-elimination tournament to determine the winners.

Basketball

History
Basketball was invented in 1890 by Dr. James Naismith, an instructor at a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts to keep his students in shape during the winter. This American game has gone on to become one of the most popular sports in the world.

The game entered the Olympic Games in 1936, and the United States took home every gold until 1972. In the year 1988, Olympic basketball was opened up to professional players, leading to the infamous "Dream Team" of players like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in the 1992 Barcelona Games.

Competition
Olympic basketball is played in four 10-minute periods with five-minute overtimes if a game is tied. Except for the host country and the reigning World Champion, all 12 Olympic teams must qualify through a continental championship a year in advance of the Games.

Boxing

History
Introduced to the Olympic Games by the Greeks in the late 7th century BC, boxers wrapped strips of leather around their fists in a match that ended once one man went down or conceded. The sport evolved to deadly proportions, with leather wrapping exchanged for gloves studded in metal — usually ending in death for the losing opponent.

When the Modern Olympic Games resumed in 1896, boxing was not included because its popularity was limited only to the United States. St. Louis reinstated the sport in 1904, but it was again banned at the 1912 games in Stockholm. In 1920, boxing finally found its place as a consistent Olympic sport and has introduced boxers like Muhammad Ali and three-time gold medallist Teofilo Stevenson to the world.

Competition
In 1992, an electronic scoring machine to make judges' officiating more objective was introduced. Only blows registered within one second by at least three of five judges are counted.

Canoe/Kayak

History
Propelled through the water with a single-bladed paddle made from wood, canoes have been used as a form of transportation for thousands of years. Kayaks, developed in the Arctic, were originally made of whalebone, driftwood and sea lion skin. While the materials have changed, the basic architecture of ancient canoes and kayaks remain the same.

Competition
In a canoe race, which is only open to men, the competitor paddles from a kneeling position with a single-bladed paddle. In kayaks, open to both men and women, the competitor paddles the closed-boats from a sitting position with a double-bladed paddle. In flatwater, women race in the 500m K1, K2 and K4 (denoting one, two or four paddlers, respectively, in a kayak). Men compete in the 500m and 1000m K1 and K2, 1000m K4 and 500m and 1000m C1 and C2 (canoe). The slalom events, involving men’s K1, C1 and C2 and women’s K1, require the paddlers to maneuver through 20 to 25 gates in turbulent water over a 300m course. Competitors aim to complete the course in the shortest time, with any penalty points adding to their finish time.

Cycling

History
The original bicycle design — an enormous front wheel, a small rear wheel and the rider teetering high above the ground — was modified in 1885 by J.K. Starley in England, who used a chain and gearing system to allow for the modern, sleek design of racing bicycles today.

Competition
Cycling competitions in the Games include road, track, mountain biking and BMX. The newest addition, BMX, will debut in the Olympic Games for the first time at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Eight riders compete in each heat — an obstacle course of jumps and banked corners that test the rider’s skill, endurance and speed.

Equestrian

History
Unique to all other Olympic sports, equestrian competitions are the only sport involving animals as teammates, and one of the few Olympic sports where men and women compete on completely equal terms. Chariot races and horse riding have been a part of the ancient Olympic Games from the beginning. Rather than focus solely on speed, the modern equestrian competitions of dressage, jumping and eventing showcase grace, agility and technique.

Competition
The three disciplines include: jumping, dressage and eventing. Jumping consists of clearing a series of obstacles with penalties taken if a fence is disturbed. In dressage, the rider guides the horse to perform intricate steps that are said to resemble ballet on horseback. Scoring is performed by judges who evaluate how well the horse executed the moves. Eventing combines the above two disciplines, and adds a third competition of riding a cross-country course on horseback.

Fencing

History
No longer a duel to the death, modern fencing uses protective clothing which includes special wires connected to an electronic scoring system to indicate whether a hit has been made. Fencing is one of only four sports that has been featured at every modern Olympic Games, and the first to allow professionals in a medals competition.

Competition
Three types of fencing weapons - the foil, épée and sabre - are used to score hits against an opponent. During bouts, competitors feint, lunge, parry and riposte to score points against one another.

Football

History
More commonly known as soccer in the United States, this popular sport’s origins have been traced back to the ancient Chinese, Greeks and Romans. The first team sport admitted into the Olympic Games, European teams dominated football until 1992. In 1996, woman’s football was introduced, leading to two gold medals for the U.S.

Competition
Professionals are allowed to play in the men’s tournament, yet rules restrict teams to players under 23 years old, with the exception of three over-age players. Currently, no age restrictions apply for the women’s tournament. The Beijing 2008 Games will increase the number of women’s teams to 12; the men’s tournament is set at 16 teams.

Gymnastics

History
Fusing strength and agility with the style and grace of a true performance, gymnastics has a long history dating back to the first Olympic Games. In ancient Rome, Persia, India and China, similar skills were practiced to prepare men for battle. The Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) formed in 1881 as the governing body of gymnastic sport. FIG comprises three Olympic disciplines: artistic, rhythmic and trampoline.

Competition
In artistic events, men compete in floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bars. Female gymnasts compete on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor. Rhythmic gymnastics is strictly a women’s competition. The gymnasts, accompanied by music, perform on a floor area with rope, hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon. In 1999, the trampoline was admitted into the gymnastics competition at the Olympic Games. Open to both men and women, trampoline competitions debuted during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

Handball

History
G. Wallström introduced Sweden to the sport of "handball" in 1910, a game based on "Raffball" (snatch ball) and "Königsbergerball" (Konrad Koch, 1846-1911). The sport debuted at the 1936 Games in Berlin, where it has since evolved to its present indoor form. A women’s division opened in 1976 and has become one of the most highly attended Olympic sports.

Competition
This fast-paced game involves two teams of seven players who pass, throw, catch and dribble a small ball with their hands while trying to score goals. After two 30-minute halves, the team with the most points wins the game.

Hockey

History
The original ball and stick game, the sport of hockey (also known as field hockey) is recorded as far back as 2,000 BC in Persia, but was truly developed later as a British sport. Hockey for men first debuted at the Olympic Games in 1908 and in 1980 for women. For three decades, India dominated the sport, winning all six Olympic gold medals and 30 consecutive games from 1928 to 1956.

Competition
Until the 1970s, Olympic hockey was mainly played on natural grass. Now playing on a synthetic field, teams are placed into two pools of six for men and five for women. The top two teams in each pool proceed to the semi-finals. Semi-final winners play for the gold and silver medals. Semi-final losers play for the bronze.

Judo

History
A traditional Japanese wrestling sport, judo was developed by Dr. Jigoro Kano in the 1880s. Judo means the "gentle way" in Japanese, reflecting the emphasis of yielding to an opponent’s strength to overcome them, rather than using brute force. At the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, the host country was allowed to add one sport. The sport was judo, and the Japanese took three of four gold medals. The fourth, an open weight class competition, was lost to a Dutchman named Anton Geesink, who showed that size, does in fact, matter. After the 1984 Olympic Games, the open weight class was discontinued and men and women now compete in seven weight classes.

Competition
Judo competitors compete against one another in a bout, which lasts five minutes for men and four minutes for women. Techniques such as arm locks, holds and throws are used to gain points. One hold, the choke hold, is a legitimate judo hold where the main component is choking or strangling an opponent by encircling the neck with an arm, the legs or the lapels; also called a "strangle hold."

Modern Pentathlon

History
As legend has it, a young French cavalry officer of the 19th century was sent on horseback to deliver a message. He rode across the uneven terrain, through enemy lines, and was confronted by a soldier with his sword drawn. Challenged to a duel, the officer won, only to have his horse shot out from under him by another enemy soldier. Without a horse, the officer continued on — swimming across a raging river before finally delivering the message. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, modeled the modern pentathlon event on this officer. In what was to be a competition to determine the greatest all-around sportsman, pentathletes compete in shooting, fencing, swimming, show jumping and running — five unrelated events testing multiple aspects of athleticism.

Competition
The order of the events is as follows: shooting, fencing, swimming, riding and running. The riding is a cross-country steeplechase course. Fencing is a series of one-touch bouts with épée swords. For many years, the shooting was done with a rapid-fire pistol, but this was changed in 1992 to an air pistol. Since 2000, when women competed for the first time, the swim has become a 200m freestyle and the run is a 3000m cross-country event.

Rowing

History
Competitive rowing precedes most Olympic sports in its recorded modern history. This ancient form of travel has been a competition in every Olympic Game — aside from the year 1896, when rough seas forced a cancellation of the events.

Competition
A rower has one oar in sweep rowing, an oar in each hand in sculling. Boats have one, two, four or eight rowers. The eights have a cox, who steers the boat and directs the crew, but, in all other boats, one rower steers by controlling a small rudder with a foot pedal. Men and women each compete in single, double and quadruple sculls, lightweight double scull, the eight and coxless pair. Men also race in coxless four and lightweight coxless four. All boats race in heats, with the top finishers advancing directly into the semi-finals or the six-boat final. The other boats get a second chance, with the top boats again qualifying. The progression system — and any semi-finals — depends on the number of boats in each event.

Sailing

History
Sailing, known as yachting until the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, became an international sport in 1851. First appearing in the 1900 Games, sailing is one Olympic competition whose rules and regulations are constantly changing. As time has passed, smaller and smaller boats are preferred, with fewer crew members. Women have always been allowed to compete alongside men in this sport, but in 1984, an exclusive sailing event was introduced for women. The program now consists of men’s, women’s and mixed sailing events.

Competition
Boats are sailed in races around courses, which incorporate a variety of different sailing angles, upwind, downwind and reaching. A race may last between 30 and 75 minutes, depending on the event.

Shooting

History
Shooting was originally a means of survival, but as hunting grew to be less of a necessity, shooting as a sport was born. This growing sport has increased from just three events in the 1896 Olympic Games to 17 events today.

Competition
Shooting events are divided into four different groups: shotgun, rifle, pistol and running-target events. In a shotgun event, competitors shoot at clay targets propelled in different directions. The rifle and pistol events are held on shooting ranges as competitors shoot at targets from distances of 10, 25 and 50 meters.

Table Tennis

History
Once played as a polite after-dinner game in England in the 1890s, table tennis features players who now volley balls at up to 160 kilometers per hour. The Kill, the Hit and the Chop are among the different shots common in this sport. Rackets, first made from cigar box lids, are now developed from rubber coated wooden and carbon-fiber with various rubber compounds and glues applied for greater speed and spin.

Competition
Men’s and women’s singles and teams are played in matches, where the best of five games wins. In singles, the top 16 seeds proceed directly to the main draw, while another 48 players enter a qualification round. A second group of 16 advances from the qualification round and compete in a single-elimination tournament. The semi-finals winners play for the gold and silver medals, while the semi-finals losers play for the bronze. A similar format is used for teams, the difference being that 32 teams are involved.

Taekwondo

History
Chosen as the definitive Korean martial art, taekwondo is trademarked by its powerful combination of kick movements. Taekwondo, which means "the way of kicking and striking," only recently became an official Olympic Sport at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. During those Games, 103 athletes — 55 men and 48 women — from 51 countries took part in the taekwondo competition. The exact origins of taekwondo are unknown, but it is believed that the sport most likely developed from the combination of other Asian martial arts with traditional Korean kickboxing techniques.

Competition
Four weight classes divide the competitors, who compete in a single-elimination tournament for the gold and silver medals. The eliminated competitors then compete again for the bronze. Competitors are awarded a point for each legitimate blow and are deducted points for penalties.

Tennis

History
Tennis may very well owe its popularity to the game of croquet. In 19th century England, the well-manicured croquet lawns became the perfect venue for the new game of lawn tennis. Lawn tennis went on to become increasingly popular throughout the world, and has since become known simply as tennis.

Competition
Played on a court of grass, clay or an artificial surface, Olympic tennis is played in men’s and women’s singles and doubles. The single-elimination tournament leaves the semi-final winners to play for the gold and silver medals, while the semi-final losers battle for the bronze.

Triathlon

History
While the history of many Olympic sports can be trace back to only vague time periods during the ancient development of man, the triathlon simply dates back to the 1970s. Debuting at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, this new sport has grown rapidly and has gained worldwide recognition.

Competition
A triathlon is aptly named for the three sports involved: swimming, cycling and running. The official distance for the triathlon was set at a 1.5km swim, a 40km cycle and a 10km run for both women and men. The race between events is continuous, making the smooth transition from sport to sport a vital strategy.

Volleyball

History
In 1892, at a YMCA in Massachusetts, Dr. James Naismith organized the first game of basketball to entertain his students. Three years later, a friend of Naismith’s named William Morgan, invented his own game. Originally named "Mintonette," the game quickly adopted the name it is known as today: volleyball. Beach volleyball would follow — first only recreationally (in 1927, it was the chief recreational activity of a French nudist colony) — until the sport reached professional levels and made its Olympic debut at the Atlanta Games in 1996.

Competition
While the rules are similar, an indoor volleyball match appears very different from beach volleyball because of the number of teammates allowed in each game. Six teammates play on each side during an indoor volleyball match, while beach volleyball is played in teams of two.

Weightlifting

History
One of the few sports included in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, weightlifting has a long history as a means to measure strength and power since the early days of man. Power, speed, technique, concentration and timing are key factors in this sport. Women participated for the first time at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000. While European men have dominated the men’s weightlifting throughout the years, many of the top female weightlifters hail from Asia.

Competition
Lifters perform two types of lifts — the snatch and the clean and jerk. In the snatch, the bar is lifted in one movement to arm’s length above the head. In the clean and jerk, the bar is lifted to the shoulders; the competitor stands up straight, and then jerks the bar to arm’s length above the head. Lifters are allowed three attempts at each lift, and their best snatch and best clean-and-jerk figures are added to determine the winners.

Wrestling

History
Widely recognized as the world’s oldest competitive sport, wrestling appeared in a series of Egyptian wall paintings dating back as many as 5,000 years ago. Wrestling was not only included in the first ancient Olympic Games, but would become the star event.

Competition
In Greco-Roman wrestling, the wrestlers use only their arms and upper bodies. However, in 1904, a second wrestling event, named freestyle, was added to the Olympic Games. This event allows wrestlers to use both their upper and lower bodies for holding, pushing, lifting and tripping their opponent.

Olympic Sports