The Olympics - Duerr's

The Olympics

Today marks the official start of the 2012 Olympic Games, held in our fair city of London.

England’s capital city will become the first city to officially host the Olympics three times, having already hosted the Games in 1908 and 1948.

This year the London Olympic Park spans a huge 500 acres, which is the same size as the Alton Towers theme park, but animal lovers out there need not worry as more than 100 toads and 2,000 newts were saved from the site during construction!

Great Britain was one of 14 countries to compete in the very first Olympics in 1896 and since then has competed at every Games. Over the years, our athletes have won a phenomenal 715 medals in the Summer Olympics, and if that wasn’t impressive enough we are the only country to have won at least one gold medal every time.

Our most successful sport over the many years and many competitions has been athletics, bringing us a total of 118 medals, with 49 of those being gold, and 78 silver.

But did you know London only held the 1908 games because an erupting volcano made events in the planned host-capital Rome unsafe.

Come on TeamGB

Image credit; Flickr: Edvvc

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