Whistler British Columbia Canada

The following is the first part in a three part series we are offering on Winter and Summer Olympics trivia and history in celebration of the Vancouver Whistler 2010 Winter Olympic Games. If you have any interesting factoids or similar points please send them to us.

Despite the democratic aura of the game’s participatory program, kings and heads of states used to open the Olympic games in each country and carry weight regarding policy decisions.

The Movie “Chariots of Fire” about Olympians Harold Abrams and Eric Liddell was begun because the producer sat up one night in a hotel room with nothing to read but a random book about the Olympics of that year.

Silver medals used to be the winning medals in each sport.

In the Tokyo Olympic games of 1964, a Dutch judo world champ named Antonius Geesink trounced the native Japanese judo competitors. This was the first Olympics where judo was allowed as a sport.

Tokyo’s 1964 Olympic Games were the first years volleyball was admitted as a competitive sport, and the gold medal was won by the Russian men and the historically tall Japanese women.

Decathlon winner German Willi Holdorf won the gold, but after the final 1,500 meters event had to be helped off the field.

Tim Hutton’s father Jim Hutton starred in a movie (Walk, Don’t Run) with Cary Grant about the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. In the movie Hutton is an American loathe to confess his sport. At the end of the film Grant must compete as well to convince Hutton to end up with the woman he loves (Samantha Eggar). The sport? Comically fast and skimpily dressed speed walking.

American powerhouse Don Schollander dominated the water in 1964 Tokyo pools. Winning two individual and two relay golds, Schollander started an Olympic water revolution in American team sports.

In Tokyo in 1964 the final pole vault competition lasted seven hours. Fred Hanson(USA), Wolfgang Reinhardt(GER), and Klaus Lehnertz(GER) medaled (finally).

A dozen years after his Olympic gold in show jumping in 1952’s Helsinki, Pierre Jonqueres D’Oriola of France won it again.

“Smokin’” Joe Frazier won gold for boxing in Tokyo’s 1964 Games. He would proceed professionally to three bouts with Muhammad Ali/Cassius Clay and a 1973 defeat from George Foreman.

The 1968 French Grenoble Olympics were so dominated by the triple gold medal win of native son Jean-Claude Killy they were dubbed the “Killylympics”. Killy rivaled the 1956 Aussie’s Toni Sailer record.

The Grenoble Olympics had sufficient problems for athletes and media and fans getting between venues that it laid the groundwork for advanced locale site ease of use and demand for organized services for later Games selection.

The skiing and Alpine events were so much a prize feature of the 1968 Grenoble Olympic games the official poster showed the Olympic rings schussing snowily downhill.

In the 1968 luge competition, the women’s Olympic team from East Germany was disqualified for warming up the runners on their sleds before their race event.

Peggy Fleming defined the female face of the 1968 Games with her grace and elegance, winning the gold medal in Grenoble in a near-classic performance of artistry and athletic virtuosity. The Russian pair the defended their title, and an Austrian man named Wolfgang Schwarz won the men’s skating event.

Italian Francesco Nones broke the “butter cookie curtain” in Grenoble 1968 on cross country racing, cracking Scandinavian and Russian monopoly of the sport for the first time ever.

Italians Eugenio Monti and Luciano di Paulis capped a stunning 40-year luge career in Grenoble with two golds. The 1968 Olympic final competition from the West Germans was so fierce their two-man bobsleigh gold came from the best time after four luge runs.

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