2004 Summer Olympics in the context of "Michael Phelps"

Olympic sports are sports that are contested in the Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games. The 2024 Summer Olympics included 32 sports; the 2022 Winter Olympics included seven sports. Each Olympic sport is represented at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by an international governing body called an International Federation (IF).

The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo saw the introduction of four new sports, with karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing making their Olympic debuts. Breakdancing made its debut at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, and ski mountaineering will make its debut at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. Flag football and squash will make their debuts at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, while cricket and lacrosse will return after long absences.

The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the Kingdom of Greece, and the most recent was held in 2024 in Paris, France. This was the first international multi-sport event of its kind, organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) founded by Pierre de Coubertin. The tradition of awarding medals began in 1904; in each Olympic event, gold medals are awarded for first place, silver medals for second place, and bronze medals for third place. The Winter Olympic Games were created out of the success of the Summer Olympic Games, which are regarded as the largest and most prestigious multi-sport international event in the world.

The Summer Olympics have increased in scope from a 42-event competition programme in 1896 with fewer than 250 male competitors from 14 nations, to 339 events in 2021 (2020 Summer Olympics) with 11,319 competitors (almost half of whom were women) from 206 nations. The Games have been held in nineteen countries over five continents: four times in the United States (1904, 1932, 1984, and 1996), three times in Great Britain (1908, 1948, and 2012) and in France (1900, 1924, and 2024), twice each in Greece (1896 and 2004), Germany (1936 and 1972), Australia (1956 and 2000), and Japan (1964 and 2020), and once each in Sweden (1912), Belgium (1920), the Netherlands (1928), Finland (1952), Italy (1960), Mexico (1968), Canada (1976), Russia (1980), South Korea (1988), Spain (1992), China (2008), and Brazil (2016).

Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos (IATA: ATH, ICAO: LGAV), commonly initialised as AIA, is the largest international airport in Greece, serving the city of Athens and region of Attica. It began operation on 28 March 2001 (in time for the 2004 Summer Olympics) and is the main base of Aegean Airlines, as well as other smaller Greek airlines. It replaced the old Ellinikon International Airport.

Athens International Airport is currently a member of Group 1 of Airports Council International (over 25 million passengers). As of 2024, it is the 16th-busiest airport in Europe and the second busiest and second largest in the Balkans, after Istanbul Airport.

The Rio–Antirrio Bridge (Greek: Γέφυρα Ρίου–Αντιρρίου), officially the Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge, is one of the world's longest multi-span cable-stayed bridges and longest of the fully suspended type. It crosses the Rion Strait between the Gulf of Corinth and Gulf of Patras, linking the town of Rio on the Peloponnese peninsula to Antirrio on mainland Greece by road. It opened one day before the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, on 12 August 2004, and was used to transport the Olympic flame.

Greece has competed at every Summer Olympic Games, one of five countries to have done so, and most of the Winter Olympic Games. Greece has hosted the modern Olympic Games twice, both in Athens for the Summer Olympic Games, in 1896 and 2004.

In recognition as the birthplace of the Ancient Olympic Games, Greece always enters the stadium first to lead the Parade of Nations at the opening ceremony, with the notable exception of 2004 when Greece entered last as the host nation. Before each Games, the Olympic Flame is lit in Olympia, the site of the Ancient Olympic Games, in a ceremony that reflects ancient Greek rituals and initiates the Olympic torch relay. The flag of Greece is always hoisted in the closing ceremony, along with the flags of the current and the next host country.

The 2008 Summer Olympics (Chinese: 2008年夏季奥运会), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (Chinese: 第二十九届夏季奥林匹克运动会) and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (Chinese: 北京2008), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) competed in 28 sports and 302 events, one event more than those scheduled for the 2004 Summer Olympics. This was the first time China had hosted the Olympic Games, and the third time the Summer Olympic Games had been held in East Asia, following the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, and the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. These were also the second Summer Olympic Games to be held in a communist state, the first being the 1980 Summer Olympics in the Soviet Union (with venues in Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, and Estonia). The games were the first and only Olympics (both Summer and Winter) held in Beijing with spectators, as the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing were held without spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beijing was awarded the 2008 Games over four competitors on 13 July 2001, having won a majority of votes from members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after two rounds of voting. The government of the People's Republic of China actively promoted the 2008 Games and invested heavily in new sports venues and transportation infrastructure. 37 venues were used to host the events, including twelve constructed specifically for the 2008 Games. The equestrian events were held in Hong Kong, making these the third Olympics for which the events were held under the jurisdiction of two different NOCs. The sailing events were contested in Qingdao, while the football events took place across several different cities.

Kirsty Leigh Coventry Seward (née Coventry; born 16 September 1983) is a Zimbabwean politician, sports administrator and former competitive swimmer. She has served as the president of the International Olympic Committee since June 2025, and is the first woman, the first Zimbabwean, the second non-European president of the International Olympic Committee since Avery Brundage and the first African to hold that position. Coventry served in the Cabinet of Zimbabwe from September 2018 to March 2025 as the Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation until September 2023 and then as Minister of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture. A former Olympic swimmer and world record holder, she is the most decorated African Olympian.

Born in Harare, Coventry attended and swam competitively for Auburn University in Alabama, in the United States. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Coventry won three Olympic medals: a gold, a silver, and a bronze, and in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing she won four medals: a gold and three silver. She was subsequently described by Paul Chingoka, head of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee, as "our national treasure". Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe called her "a golden girl", and awarded her US$100,000 in cash for her 2008 Olympic performance. In 2016, Coventry retired from swimming after her fifth Olympics, having won the joint-most individual medals in women's swimming in Olympic history. She is a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and was elected the Chairperson of the IOC Athletes' Commission, the body that represents all Olympic athletes worldwide, in early 2018. In 2025, she was elected President of the IOC, becoming the first woman and first African to do so. Following her election, President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed Gen. Anselem Nhamo Sanyatwe to replace her as Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation.

Ellinikon International Airport (IATA: ATH, ICAO: LGAT), sometimes spelled Hellinikon, was an international airport that served Athens, Greece, for 63 years. Following its closure on 28 March 2001, it was replaced by the new Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos. The airport was located 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) south of Athens, and just west of Glyfada. It was named after the village of Elliniko, now a suburb of Athens. The airport had an official capacity of 11 million passengers per year, but served 13.5 million passengers during its last year of operations. A large portion of the site was converted into a stadium and sports facilities for the 2004 Olympic Games.

The former airport is now the site of a major development for coastal Athens, which came under criticism because well-preserved historic buildings (from the 1930s) were demolished. In 2020, construction began on the Hellenikon Metropolitan Park, a complex consisting of luxury homes, hotels, a casino, the Inspire Athens tower, a marina, shops, and offices. The first phase is supposed to be ready in between 2027 and 2028.