The sordid soirées of the Olympic Village

Major scandals have undermined the reputation of the Olympics

With billions in public money in play and the high stakes of winning gold for one's country, the Olympics have had their fair share of scandals. This Global Investigative Journalism Network list highlights eight groundbreaking investigations by journalists about the Olympics. It includes the 2014 Russian doping scandal, venue corruption in Rio, and the decadeslong cycle of sexual abuse by an Olympic doctor.

The number of cities bidding to host the Olympics has dropped in recent decades

Hosting the Olympics was once an honor and a way to bring people and prestige to a city. But in 2017, only two nations bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. This video walks through how every Olympics since 1960 has run over budget, and how the era of building dozens of new venues for the Games contributed to high cost overruns and corruption.

The evolution of the Olympics from ancient Greece to the modern world

The Olympic Games have evolved from a sacred footrace in 776 BCE honoring Zeus to a global celebration of athletic excellence and unity. Ancient Greek city-states set aside their conflicts under a sacred truce for events like wrestling and chariot racing. Though the Games ended in 393 CE, Pierre de Coubertin revived them in 1896, adding modern elements like the torch relay and the inclusion of women. Watch 1440's breakdown of the historic event here.

A visual guide to the athletic events the Olympics left behind

The series of competitions in today's version of the Olympic Games are the survivors of years of experimentation. This illustrated guide details some of the sports and creative competitions that didn't make the cut. Some sports were dropped due to their lack of visual appeal, while others were simply too specific, like the swim limited to sailors of the Royal Greek Navy.

See artifacts from the ancient Olympics at the Met.

Watch the Space Olympics from the International Space Station

From "synchronized space swimming" to "weightless sharpshooting," crew members in 2021 competed in microgravity versions of events from the summer Games. The "lack-of-floor routine" featured mid-air gymnastics as astronauts floated through space station modules.

An exploration of what makes Olympic curling so difficult and strange

The sport is often maligned for its oddity, but this impassioned video argues it's one of the more impressive (and good-natured) sports in the Olympics. Sometimes labeled "chess on ice," curling at the Olympics uses 44-pound, 60-million-year-old granite stones all extracted from the same Scottish island.

The 1904 Olympic marathon was a bizarre spectacle

When the Olympics first came to the US, the race was still a fringe event with few established rules. That led to an absurd comedy, with competitors ingesting poison, hitchhiking 11 miles of the course, and occasionally sipping brandy.

Photos of Olympians visiting with US presidents

American Olympic athletes have visited the White House for nearly a century, with presidents using these ceremonial receptions to celebrate athletic excellence and connect sports achievement to national pride. The tradition has evolved from modest gatherings into major media events across multiple administrations.

How the Winter Games used to look

Using archival footage from the first Winter Olympics in 1924 to the present day, this video explores 100 years of Winter Olympic competition. Watch different eras of ski jumping, figure skating, and bobsledding. See how athletes use the facilities year-round to train. And learn how swimming facilities used for the Summer Games are transformed into curling ice for the Winter Games.

100 storylines to watch at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics

NBC compiled 100 storylines to watch at the Milan Cortina Winter Games—spanning medal races, comeback bids, historic firsts, and geopolitical questions—to help fans track what could define the 2026 Olympics Winter Games.

Becoming an Olympic swimmer costs tens of thousands of dollars

When you see Olympic athletes win gold, it's the culmination of years of hard work and discipline. But it isn't all sweat equity. Before ever stepping foot on the world stage, these athletes have to pay or find funding for private coaching and lessons, club memberships, and meet fees, with estimates that it costs $25K to $40K to make it to the Olympics.

The 1992 Olympics changed Barcelona

Barcelona wasn’t always a global tourist hotspot. Before hosting the 1992 Olympics, the city’s coastline was blocked by factories, green spaces were scarce, and tourism was minimal. But after securing the Olympic games, everything changed.

An illustrated guide to the ancient Greek version of the Olympics

Go back to the original time and place of the athletic contest with this illustrated guide to the Games. For 1,200 years, the ancient Greeks would gather every four years for the Games in Elis, months after heralds had spread the word of the event to the region's many peninsulas, with its greatest athletes competing for honor.

Contestants in an annual extreme sports competition are encouraged to use steroids and growth hormone, using athletes as guinea pigs.

One halfpipe skier qualified for the Olympics via loopholes

Freestyle skier Elizabeth Swaney reached the 2018 Winter Olympics by completing safe, trick-free halfpipe runs and accumulating ranking points in low-participation events. The story, told humorously in this brief video, highlights how qualification systems can reward persistence and rule optimization over peak athletic performance.

Charting how many Olympic tickets are sold

This chart compares the total number of tickets sold for Summer Olympic sporting events with the number of tickets available. The article sources the data from the International Olympic Committee website and goes back to the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

Cold War rivalries fueled fierce competition in international sports

From Olympic medal counts to hockey showdowns, the US and USSR used sports to showcase ideological superiority. Athletic victories were framed as proof that each system—capitalist or communist—produced stronger, more disciplined citizens.

The all-time list of every modern Olympic sport

Curious about which sports were played at the 1894 Olympics? Want to learn the rules of Breaking? This list gives a comprehensive overview of every Olympic sport ever played, sortable by game type and specific Olympic year. Click into a sport to see a brief overview, a list of rules, and an explainer video.

The marathon was not an event in the ancient form of the Olympics

The ancient Olympics started with just one footrace, a roughly 3-mile jaunt dubbed the "dolichos." Over the centuries, it blossomed into multiple running events, field events, combat sports, and equestrian events—all performed in the nude. This list showcases eight more lesser-known facts about the ancient Games.

The Olympics were just one of four Panhellenic Games in ancient Greece

Within every "Olympiad" (or four-year period), different Games were held each year in Greece—it was not just the single Olympics every four years. The Hellenic Museum in Australia explores each of the Panhellenic Games: the Isthmian Games, the Nemean Games, the Pythian Games, and the Olympic Games. Each section explores the history, which god was worshiped, and what winners received.

The sports competition developed on the Alaskan tundra

Alaska's NYO Games invite high school athletes from the state's over 270 indigenous tribes to compete in numerous events based on survival tactics developed by their ancestors. This short documentary from Great Big Story walks through some of the more grueling events and speaks with the Games' coaches and young athletes about how the event preserves their shared culture.

Why young people in the UK are hanging out at saunas

In the UK, Finnish-style saunas doubled from 45 to over 100 in 2024. This recent surge is driven by young people seeking healthy and affordable spaces to meet others and socialize. While Gen Z also turns to sobriety more due to costs and health concerns, these rejuvenating leisure spots are providing a perfect home to alcohol-free gatherings. Read more about the rising trend here.

The 2026 Milan-Cortina Games are the most geographically spread out ever

As part of the planning committee's efforts to reduce costs and minimize infrastructure impact, existing ski resorts, rinks, and stadiums were used for the Winter Olympics in northern Italy. This inherently spreads events out, with venues scattered over a roughly 8,500-square-mile area of the country. See a map of the venues here.

Axelle Berthoumieu bit Ireland's Aoife Wafer during the Women’s Rugby World Cup quarter‑final in 2025

Biting, waxing pool balls, and modifying ski suits are just a few of the various instances of bad sportsmanship in 2025. It appears that cheating is much harder to get away with in the era of smartphones.

How Eurovision became a part of queer culture

Academic Matt Weaver analyzes how the Eurovision Song Contest's camp aesthetics, inclusive mission, and international stage have attracted a sizeable gay following and how that audience is sometimes at odds with the political positions of the contest's competing nations.

Two festival-goers were hospitalized after receiving trendy peptide injections, raising safety questions that may extend beyond the event.

Olympians view sleep as a performance tool, prioritizing routine and environment

Elite athletes emphasize consistent sleep routines, dark and cool environments, the well-placed nap, and tools like eye masks, white noise machines, and supplements like melatonin (particularly for jet lag). This priority belies a core principle: recovery and performance are inseparable. Read more ways Olympians "sleepmaxx" here.

The modern Olympic truce originated in a real pause in ancient conflict

Back in Ancient Greece, neighboring city-states were constantly at war. So when the Olympics started in 776 BCE, they needed a way to keep the peace. This video from the International Olympic Committee discusses the origins of the Olympic Truce and its reinstatement at the 1994 Games in Lillehammer.

French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin revived the ancient Olympic Games

When Baron Pierre de Coubertin was just 11, Germans began excavations at the site of the original ancient Olympics. It was a formative moment that fueled his dream of reviving the Olympic Games to cultivate educational discipline, national spirit, and international peace. This deep dive explores the lengthy process Coubertin went through and the challenges he overcame to bring the first modern Olympics to Athens in 1894.

The ancient Games at Olympia ended after 1,500 years due to economic issues

The ancient Olympics came to an end in 393 CE, and some historians point to Christian Roman emperor Theodosius I's ban on celebrating pagan festivals. This article explores an alternative theory: a bad economy. The writers cite the Theodosian Code, which makes no mention of the Olympics, and multiple records that mention the Olympics after Theodosius' death.

The top 10 most unbreakable Winter Olympics records

Some athletes and teams dominate a sport or an era. This video compiles the records least likely to be surpassed (and excludes those that are impossible due to rule changes). From the Dutch sweep of four podiums in speed skating to Eric Heiden's five individual gold medals at Lake Placed in 1980, watch this list of the Games' most enduring feats.

Ancient Romans took trips to the coast to beat the heat and relax.

'Sweat dating' is a dating approach in which partners select each other based on body odor.

Dubbed 'stalkers,' some Ukrainian youth illegally explore Chernobyl's exclusion zone

A subculture of thrill-seekers, driven by a desire for rebellion and adventure, is representative of dark tourism in the region. Some stalkers sneak past militia posts to venture into abandoned ruins, risking radiation exposure while scavenging for ruins of the past.

WeWork held controversial ‘summer camp’ retreats for employees

Step inside one of WeWork’s “summer camp” retreats full of drugs, alcohol, and exorbitant company spending.

The story of Olympian Ryan Wedding's rise and fall as drug kingpin

After a disappointing finish representing Canada in the slalom at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Wedding turned to growing cannabis and selling cocaine. After serving prison time, he upped his game and came to control major drug routes in North America, finding himself on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List. He was captured in Mexico City in January 2026.

The X Games is an annual extreme sports competition

The official X Games site offers event schedules, athlete profiles, competition results, and news for both summer and winter editions—along with videos and highlights from skateboarding, BMX, motocross, and other action sports.

Interest in the X Games is growing fast among younger teens

The 2025 X Games Salt Lake City delivered double-digit viewership growth—up 12% across ESPN platforms from 2024—with a 328% surge among 12- to 17-year-olds.

Olympic track runner Jesse Owens recounts his win in Hitler's Germany in 1936

Jesse Owens won four gold medals at these Games, but nearly failed to qualify for the long jump event. Despite the polarizing political climate, German athlete Luz Long offered advice and encouragement to Owens—his direct competitor—resulting in a lasting friendship Owens later called his "greatest Olympic prize."

Inside entrepreneur Bryan Johnson's race to live forever

Created by entrepreneur Bryan Johnson in 2022, the Rejuvenation Olympics asks participants to find ways, including exercise and dietary supplements, to slow their biological aging. But some of these tactics are extreme in cost or nature—such as Johnson's regular injections of blood from his teenage son.

Check out a comprehensive guide to all 1,248 World Cup athletes that breaks down their biographies, strengths, and place in the tournament's larger narratives.

Hockey romance novels have become an unexpected sensation

The combination was not an obvious hit, but books like "Hockey With Benefits," "Body Check," and "Puck and Prejudice" (a Jane Austen fan fiction) have grown popular thanks to a romance novel boom and an interest on TikTok. Now, HBO and Amazon are taking note with streaming adaptations. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Ancient Greek gymnasium: where philosophy met fitness

In ancient Greece, gymnasiums were not just places of physical training, but centers of intellectual life. This article explores the ways in which exercise, philosophy, and education were deeply intertwined, reflecting a cultural belief that physical fitness was essential for mental development.

Even athletes aren't immune to the sports-betting craze

While gambling scandals occasionally blew up before 2018, the widespread legalization of sports betting provided athletes with more opportunities to bet on the games they were playing.

Astronauts exercise on the International Space Station

Astronauts maintain bone, muscle, and cardiovascular health with physical activity. It's crucial that they make time to exercise for approximately two hours per day. This resource offers a behind-the-scenes look at how high-intensity workouts help prevent muscle atrophy, bone density loss, and aerobic decline during monthslong space missions.

Winter Olympic sports highlight various laws and principles of physics

Figure skaters leverage the conservation of angular momentum during spins by tightening their bodies, and the skintight suits used in ski jumping help reduce drag. Centripetal force allows speedskaters to make tight turns, while friction on skis helps ski mountaineers climb slopes. No action can violate the conservation of energy.

The inclusion of NBA stars in the '92 Olympics changed basketball's global standing

The Olympics finally permitted professional basketball players to play in 1992 Summer Games and the NBA produced one of the greatest basketball teams ever assembled: The Dream Team. Billions worldwide watched Jordan, Bird, and Magic dominate to win gold, inspiring future Hall of Famers and increasing the NBA's viewership.

The ancient Greeks and Romans were known to take vacations.

Pompeii had cafés, nightlife, public baths, and even local elections

This BBC History guide highlights how recognizably modern Pompeii was, from its cafés and bustling public bathing complexes to its theaters, bars, and active voting culture. Historian Mary Beard reveals the city’s surprisingly contemporary feel.