London 2012 Paralympic Games only 50 days away. By U.S.
Paralympics | July 10, 2012, 11 a.m. (ET) From Aug. 29-Sept. 9, London will welcome the world's best Paralympic athletes for the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Opening Ceremony mysteries solved. The Opening Ceremony of London's 2012 Olympic Games have come and gone, leaving many mysteries in their wake.
Here, we answer some of the top head-scratchers from Danny Boyle's incredibly British event. Why do the announcers speak French first?
Ancient Olympics. Ancient Olympics. Olympics interactive: How would the champs of bygone Olympics fare against today’s best sprinters, jumpers, throwers, and swimmers? Photo by VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images.
Compared with the athletes in the first modern Olympics, today’s gold medalists can run faster, swim stronger, and jump and throw farther. But how slow and weak were the champions of yore compared with the best of the 21st century? In which events could the cream of the crop from bygone eras keep up against their modern counterparts? In the visualizations below, we’ve pitted the likes of Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser against winners from olden times. The eight contestants in each of our four events—the 100-meter dash, swimming’s 100-meter freestyle, the long jump, and the discus—were selected with an eye towards bringing together athletes from all different Olympic eras.
Gallery: Olympic medals through the years. 10 surprising facts about the Olympics.