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Facts and figures

Did you know?...

The official motto of the Olympic games is "citius, altius, fortius" which is latin for "faster, higher, stronger".

  • The BOA will be sending approximately 270 athletes to Beijing, to participate in 26 sports
  • The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing will begin at 8.08pm on the 8/8/2008. The number 8 is lucky in China
  • Five of Team GB’s gold medals awarded at Athens in 2004 were won by a cumulative total of just 0.05 seconds
  • It costs £70,000 to transport the Team GB sailing boats to Beijing and back
  • Kelly Holmes’ middle-distance double victory at Athens 2004 made her the first British woman to win two golds at the same Games
  • The Beijing Olympic Games is the first time the games will be held in the People's Republic of China and coincides with a period of vast economic growth in Asia
  • The 2008 Olympic Programme will observe the inclusion of the BMX discipline for the first time
  • The five Olympic rings represent the union of the five continents, and the colours used were those that appeared in all the different national flags in 1913
  • The first fully solar powered Olympic Village was in Sydney in 2000
  • There will be 70,000 volunteers working at the Beijing Olympic Games
  • 10,708 athletes will take part in the Beijing Olympic Games
  • The National Stadium in Beijing seats 91,000 people
  • From a 10 metre dive you enter the water at 35mph
  • The first Modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 saw 211 athletes from 14 nations compete in 43 events
  • During the first Modern Olympic Games cricket and football events were cancelled due to lack of entrants
  • The Melbourne Olympics of 1956 saw women allowed into the Olympic Village for the first time
  • During the closing ceremony, the athletes are not separated by nationality, but are encouraged to enter and mix together in the centre of the stadium
  • Great Britain is one of only three countries to be represented at every Olympic Games. (France & Switzerland are the others)

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© 2008 British Olympic Association