Some Olympic siteseeing

By Brian Shrader

Posted: Aug. 8, 2008

If you're getting ready to watch the Olympics, here are some neat sites:

First, here's a list of strange, discontinued Olympic events, like rope climbing, tug-of-war and live pigeon shooting. Yes. Live pigeon shooting. Thanks to my friend and fellow newsgatherer Adam Carroll for sending me that one.

For those who like to study graphic design, here's a page full of Summer Olympics logos since 1896. That 2012 logo for London is just hideous. It looks like the worst part of 1987 fell off the mantle and broke into five pieces. Oh, and I want someone in the comments section to explain the 1960 Rome logo.

And finally, The New York Times has a great interactive graphic showing the history of Olympic torches. The 2004 torch looks like a fine ink pen.

Anyway, enjoy those sites, and here's hoping for some U.S. gold.

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Jackarmstrong is definitely correct. The symbol seen in the logo is that of Romulus and Remus, the twin brothers who founded Rome. As the story goes, they were nursed by the wolf into maturity and were the sons of the priestess Rhea Silvia and Mars, the god of war. After a dispute over who held the favor of the gods (and as a result the leadership of Rome), Romulus killed Remus and took his place as the first king of Rome. Wikipedia, although not my favorite source, has a good article on their history and the impact of Romulus's reign (including the creation of the Senate and Roman Legions).

Interestingly, the image in the logo is from a famous statue in Rome that was originally thought to date back to 500 B.C. New testing, however, has shown the statue to be from the 13th century (see BBC News at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7499469.stm). Luckily for the Italians, they've still many ancient landmarks to draw in tourist dollars, yen, francs, marks, pounds, et cetera. :)

dhollis2
August 8, 2008 6:29 p.m.

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The Rome symbol is from the founding of Rome. It was believed a wolf nursed the two brothers, Romulus & Remus. Romulus killed his brother Remus and the city was named after Romulus.

jackarmstrong
August 8, 2008 3:23 p.m.

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Oh, dear. I misread it in my haste to post this. I MEANT the 1960 Rome logo! Sorry! I'll correct this in the blogpost!

Brian Shrader
GOLO member since July 3, 2007
August 8, 2008 12:39 p.m.

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Brian, best I can figure with the 64 logo is the red dot is the same red dot that is on the Japan flag then ofcourse the 5 olympic rings underneath.

trvlmom3
GOLO member since December 20, 2007
August 8, 2008 9:34 a.m.

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Some Olympic siteseeing

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