Defending an Olympic title is a major accomplishment, because it signifies international dominance over a 4-year period. Individually, however, it is not that uncommon, and we have examples of 5 Olympians winning individual gold medals at 4 consecutive Olympics – track & field athletes Ray Ewry (1900-08), Al Oerter (1956-68), and Carl Lewis (1984-96); and sailors Paul Elvstrøm (1948-60) and Ben Ainslie (2000-12).

But what about teams that defend an Olympic gold medal? And we are not talking here simply about nations repeating, such as India winning every hockey gold medal from 1928-56, or the USA winning basketball gold from 1936-68, or Canada and the Soviets dominating ice hockey for decades.

What we’re interested in is knowing which teams defended their Olympic titles, with the exact same team members. By team we mean anytime 2 or more athletes compete together in the same event for a single Olympic championship, so this includes tennis doubles, two-man bobsledding, and numerous other 2-person events.

And we find that repeating as a team has been done 43 times, with 2 teams actually winning gold medals at 3 consecutive Olympics. That would be the Slovakian brother tandem of Pavol and Petr Hochschorner, who won in the Canadian doubles slalom canoeing from 2000-08, earning a bronze medal in the event in 2012; and the US beach volleyball team of Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor, who won the women’s event in 2004-12.

There are two candidates with a chance to equal this mark. Americans Serena and Venus Williams won the tennis women’s doubles gold medal in 2008 and 2012 and could win a third in 2016. Canadians Kallie Humphries and Heather Moyse won the women’s bobsledding two-person event in 2010 and 2014, and could add a third in 2018. Theoretically, Walsh and May-Treanor could go for 4 straight in 2016, but May retired from competition after the London Olympics, so that will not happen.

But there was one other team that virtually did this at 3 consecutive Olympics, and they did it with 3 team members. In equestrian team dressage, the Swedish team of Henri Saint Cyr, Gustaf Boltenstern, Jr., and Gehnäll Persson won the gold medal in 1952 and 1956. They also had the highest score in the event in 1948, dominating it, but the team was disqualified that year when it was discovered that Persson was not a military officer, which was then required for Olympic equestrian events, a rule that was changed after 1948.

The entire list is below. At the end of the top line of each entry you will see something like #2, which details how many team members there were. Now obviously, its easier to do this sort of repeat with fewer team members. It is simply never going to happen that a football (soccer) or ice hockey team is going to repeat with the same 23 or so team members.

In fact, it is much rarer to do this with more than 2 team members. It has happened as follows: 6 team members – 1; 5 team members – 1; 4 team members – 3; and 3 team members – 7. The 6-member team repeat was remarkably done by the Hungarian men’s sabre team in 1948-52, while the 5-member team was performed by the Soviet women’s foil team in 1968-72. Doing this with 4-member teams is also quite a feat, having been done by the East German coxless fours rowing team in 1968-72, a team termed by Olympic filmmaker Bud Greenspan as “The Dresden Four;” the Hungarian men’s kayak fours canoe team in 2000-04; and Sweden’s women’s curling team in 2006-10.

Of the 43 times this has been accomplished, 10 have occurred at the Winter Olympics, which is about right, as there are about 3 times as many Summer Olympic events as Winter Olympic events. This has been done 19 times in men’s events, 15 times in women’s events, and 9 times in mixed events.

The first time this was ever accomplished was by the American rowing doubles sculls tandem of Jack Kelly and Paul Costello in 1920-24. It first occurred at the Winter Games in 1928-32 when the French figure skating pair of Andrée Brunet-Joly and her husband, Pierre Brunet, won gold medals at both St. Moritz and Lake Placid.

By far the two most common sports for this to occur have been rowing (10) and canoeing (8), usually in events with only 2 team members. Figure skating is next with 4 occurrences, followed by bobsledding and sailing, with 3 each.

Among nations, China leads with 5 team repeats, but Germany has 7 in a sense – with 1 by the Federal Republic of Germany (West), 4 by the German Democratic Republic (East), and 2 by unified Germany. As independent nations, the United States and the GDR trail China with 4 team repeats, followed by Hungary, Romania, and the Soviet Union, with 3 each.

———-

3    Slovakia (Canoeing Men’s Canadian Doubles, Slalom; 2000-2008; #2) (Pavol Hochschorner, Petr Hochschorner)

3    United States (Beach Volleyball Women’s Team; 2004-2012; #2) (Kerri Walsh, Misty May-Treanor)

2    Hungary (Fencing Men’s Sabre, Team; 1948-1952; #6) (Aladár Gerevich, Rudolf Kárpáti, Pál Kovács, Tibor Berczelly, László Rajcsányi, Bertalan Papp)

2    Soviet Union (Fencing Women’s Foil, Team; 1968-1972; #5) (Yelena Novikova, Galina Gorokhova, Aleksandra Zabelina, Tatyana Samusenko, Svetlana Tširkova)

2    German Demo. Rep. (Rowing Men’s Coxless Fours; 1968-1972; #4) (Frank Forberger, Dieter Grahn, Frank Rühle, Dieter Schubert)

2    Hungary (Canoeing Men’s Kayak Fours, 1,000 metres; 2000-2004; #4) (Gábor Horváth, Zoltán Kammerer, Botond Storcz, Ákos Vereczkei)

2    Sweden (Curling Women’s Curling; 2006-2010; #4) (Anette Norberg, Eva Lund, Cathrine Lindahl, Anna Svärd-Le Moine)

2    The Netherlands (Equestrian Events Men’s Three-Day Event, Team; 1924-1928; #3) (Adolf van der Voort van Zijp, Charles Pahud de Mortanges, Gerard de Kruijff)

2    Norway (Sailing Mixed Three-Person Keelboat (Dragon); 1948-1952; #3) (Thor Thorvaldsen, Sigve Lie, Håkon Barfod)

2    Sweden (Equestrian Events Mixed Dressage, Team; 1952-1956; #3) (Henri Saint Cyr, Gustaf Boltenstern, Jr., Gehnäll Persson)

2    German Demo. Rep. (Rowing Men’s Coxed Pairs; 1976-1980; #3) (Harald Jährling, Friedrich-Wilhelm Ulrich, Georg Spohr)

2    Denmark (Sailing Mixed Three-Person Keelboat (Soling); 1976-1980; #3) (Poul Jensen, Valdemar Bandolowski, Erik Hansen)

2    Italy (Rowing Men’s Coxed Pairs; 1984-1988; #3) (Carmine Abbagnale, Giuseppe Abbagnale, Giuseppe Di Capua)

2    Austria (Sailing Mixed Multihull (Tornado); 2000-2004; #3) (Roman Hagara, Hans-Peter Steinacher)

2    United States (Rowing Men’s Double Sculls; 1920-1924; #2) (Jack Kelly, Paul Costello)

2    France (Figure Skating Mixed Pairs; 1928-1932; #2) (Andrée Brunet-Joly, Pierre Brunet)

2    Fed. Rep. Germany (Canoeing Women’s Kayak Doubles, 500 metres; 1964-1968; #2) (Roswitha Esser, Annemarie Zimmermann)

2    Soviet Union (Figure Skating Mixed Pairs; 1964-1968; #2) (Lyudmila Belousova, Oleg Protopopov)

2    Soviet Union (Figure Skating Mixed Pairs; 1976-1980; #2) (Irina Rodnina, Aleksandr Zaytsev)

2    German Demo. Rep. (Luge Men’s Doubles; 1976-1980; #2) (Hans Rinn, Norbert Hahn)

2    German Demo. Rep. (Rowing Men’s Coxless Pairs; 1976-1980; #2) (Jörg Landvoigt, Bernd Landvoigt)

2    Romania (Canoeing Men’s Canadian Doubles, 1,000 metres; 1980-1984; #2) (Ivan Patzaichin, Toma Simionov)

2    New Zealand (Canoeing Men’s Kayak Doubles, 500 metres; 1984-1988; #2) (Ian Ferguson, Paul MacDonald)

2    Switzerland (Bobsledding Men’s Two; 1992-1994; #2) (Gustav Weder, Donat Acklin)

2    Germany (Canoeing Men’s Kayak Doubles, 500 metres; 1992-1996; #2) (Kay Bluhm, Torsten Gutsche)

2    Great Britain (Rowing Men’s Coxless Pairs; 1992-1996; #2) (Steven Redgrave, Matthew Pinsent)

2    China (Table Tennis Women’s Doubles; 1992-1996; #2) (Deng Yaping, Qiao Hong)

2    United States (Tennis Women’s Doubles; 1992-1996; #2) (Mary Joe Fernandez, Gigi Fernandez)

2    Russia (Figure Skating Mixed Ice Dancing; 1994-1998; #2) (Oksana “Pasha” Grishchuk, Yevgeny Platov)

2    China (Badminton Women’s Doubles; 1996-2000; #2) (Ge Fei, Gu Jun)

2    China (Badminton Mixed Doubles; 2000-2004; #2) (Zhang Jun, Gao Ling)

2    Poland (Rowing Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls; 2000-2004; #2) (Tomasz Kucharski, Robert Sycz)

2    Romania (Rowing Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls; 2000-2004; #2) (Constanta Burcică, Angela Alupei)

2    China (Canoeing Men’s Canadian Doubles, 500 metres; 2004-2008; #2) (Meng Guanliang, Yang Wenjun)

2    Hungary (Canoeing Women’s Kayak Doubles, 500 metres; 2004-2008; #2) (Katalin Kovács, Natasa Janics)

2    China (Diving Women’s Synchronized Springboard; 2004-2008; #2) (Wu Minxia, Guo Jingjing)

2    New Zealand (Rowing Women’s Double Sculls; 2004-2008; #2) (Georgina Evers-Swindell, Caroline Evers-Swindell)

2    Romania (Rowing Women’s Coxless Pairs; 2004-2008; #2) (Georgeta Andrunache, Viorica Susanu)

2    Russia (Synchronized Swimming Women’s Duet; 2004-2008; #2) (Anastasiya Davydova, Anastasiya Yermakova)

2    Germany (Bobsledding Men’s Two; 2006-2010; #2) (André Lange, Kevin Kuske)

2    Austria (Luge Men’s Doubles; 2006-2010; #2) (Andreas Linger, Wolfgang Linger)

2    United States (Tennis Women’s Doubles; 2008-2012; #2) (Serena Williams, Venus Williams)

2          Canada (Bobsledding Women’s Two; 2010-2014; #2) (Kallie Humphries, Heather Moyse)

A number of Olympians were to the manor born, a number were born and lived in poverty, and a very few were born of royal blood.  With our recent post concerning King Juan Carlos I of Spain, an Olympian in , now seems a good time to look at Olympians who had royal blood. Here are the Olympians who held royal status in their nations.

[table]

Athlete,NOC,Sport,Era,Notes

Jefri Bolkiah Prince Abdul Hakeem,BRU,SHO,1996-2000,Prince; Brother of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei

Adegboyega Prince Adedoyin,GBR,ATH,1948,Prince; Exact status unknown

Karim Prince Aga Khan,IRI,ASK,1964,Prince; 49th Imam of the Ismaelis; Later the Aga Khan IV of Ismaili Shia Islam

HRH Princess Anne,GBR,EQU,1976,HRH The Princess Royal; Daughter of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Mohammad Asif,AFG,HOK,1936,Shahzada

Esper Beloselsky,RUS,SAI,1912,Prince

Birabongse; Prince Bhanubandh,THA,SAI,1956-1972,Prince; Grandson of King Mongkut of Siam

Arunee Princess Bhanubandh,THA,SAI,1964,Princess

Cristina Princess de Borbón,ESP,SAI,1988,Princess; Daughter of King Juan Carlos I of Spain

Felipe Crown Prince de Borbón,ESP,SAI,1992,Crown Prince; Son of King Juan Carlos I of Spain

Juan Carlos Crown Prince de Borbón,ESP,SAI,1972,Crown Prince; Later King Juan Carlos I of Spain

Joseph Prince de Caramas-Chimay,FRA,FEN,1900,19ème Prince de Caraman-Chimay

Gabriele D’Annunzio,ITA,ART,1912,Principe di Montenevoso

Shuja ud-Din,AFG,HOK,1936,Shahzada

Patricia Galvin de la Tour d’Auvergne,USA,EQU,1960-1964,Patricia Galvin; but later the Princess de la Tour d’Auvergne

Albert Prince Grimaldi,MON,BOB,1988-2002,Prince; Later Sovereign Prince Albert II of Monaco

Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf,SWE,EQU,1936,Crown prince; Son of Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden

Crown Prince Harald,NOR,SAI,1964-1972,Crown Prince; Later King Harald V of Norway

HRH Princess Haya,JOR,EQU,2000,Daughter of King Hussain I; later IOC Member for United Arab Emirates.

Ernst zu Hohenlohe,AUT,FEN,1912,Prince

Max Prince von Hohenlohe,LIE,ASK,1956,Prince

Crown Prince Konstantinos,GRE,SAI,1960,Crown Prince; Later King Konstantinos II of Greece (presently in exile)

Firidun Malkom,IRI,FEN,1900,Prince

Louis Napoléon Murat,FRA,EQU,1900,Prince

Crown Prince Olav,NOR,SAI,1928,Crown Prince; Later King Olav of Norway

Konstantin Prince von Padua,LIE,ASK,1948,Prince

Daria Pratt,USA,GOL,1900,Daria Pratt; later Princess Karageorgevitch of Serbia

Friedrich Karl Prince von Preußen,GER,EQU,1912,Prince of Prussia; Nephew of Emperor Wilhelm I of Germany

Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov,RUS,EQU,1912,Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia

Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein,DEN,EQU,2008-12,Princess

Karni Singh,IND,SHO,1960-80,HH Maharajadhiraj Raj Rajeshwar Narendra Shiromani Maharaja Sri – 24th Maharaj of Bikaner

Mohammad Sultan,AFG,HOK,1936,Shahzada

Hubertus von Fürstenberg-von Hohenlohe,MEX,ASK,1984-2014,Prince; Son of Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Ira of Fürstenberg; the reigning dynasty of Württemberg; a former principality in what is now Germany.

Sergey Yuryevich,RUS,ART,1924,Prince

[/table]

See also http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/friv/lists.cgi

Rower, investor, philanthropist, social activist

Full name          Virginia Anne “Ginny” Gilder

Used name       Ginny Gilder

Born                     4 June 1958 in New York, NY (USA)

Ht / Wt              170 cm / 67 kg

Affiliations        Boston Rowing Club, Boston (USA)

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/gi/ginny-gilder-1.html

[table]

Year-Games,Sport,Event,Finish,Medal

1984-S,Rowing,Quadruple Sculls,2,Silver

[/table]

Ginny Gilder rowed at Yale, where she was All-Ivy twice. As a freshman she was part of the famed Yale women’s crew that protested the lack of equal facilities for women by participating in a “crew strip.” Gilder won a silver medal at the 1984 Olympics, but also had been a member of the ill-fated 1980 US Olympic team. She was third at the 1983 World Championships in single sculls, and also won the women’s elite singles at the Head of the Charles in 1982-84.

Gilder was raised on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, born to Richard Gilder, a broker who had his investment firm which specialized in leveraged stocks. With the family background in financial instruments, Gilder began a career in investments after college, starting several businesses and non-profits. She formed her own investment firm and was also President of her family’s philanthropic endeavors, which invested in world-wide projects promoting social justice. She started Washington Works, a non-profit to help welfare recipients obtain employment and was the group’s first Executive Director, and was also a co-founder and board member of the Seattle Girl’s School. In 2008 Gilder joined with two other successful businesswomen (Lisa Brummel and Dawn Trudeau) to form Force 10 Hoops LLC, which bought the Seattle Storm women’s team in the WNBA.

 

See also http://www.wnba.com/storm/contact/force10.html

Recently we looked at the costs of the Sochi Winter Olympics and how they compared to all previous Winter Olympic costs. Let’s do a similar analysis today for the Summer Olympics.

We’ll use the same methodology we used for the Winter Olympics. We’ll compare constant costs by using historical inflation values for the US dollar against 2000 dollar values. We will then also compare constant costs against the number of athletes competing and the number of athletes x sports, again because the more athletes, the more costs involved, and the more sports (or disciplines), usually the more stadia that need to be constructed. In all cases, we have used the original currency figures and corrected against US dollars for that era.

So here are the absolute numbers and the numbers corrected against inflation.

[table]

Year,Cost,Value (2000$),ConstantCost

1896,$0.45,23.610,$19060

1900,$0.70,22.250,$31460

1904,$0.30,20.763,$14448

1908,$0.39,19.000,$20527

1912,$0.67,17.740,$37486

1920,$0.50,9.629,$51927

1924,$1.00,9.736,$102710

1928,$1.18,9.576,$123219

1932,$1.00,10.958,$91261

1936,$30.00,12.162,$2466642

1948,$2.90,7.472,$388137

1952,$4.94,6.400,$771684

1956,$13.60,6.213,$2189087

1960,$71.20,5.724,$12439216

1964,$1926.00,5.446,$353624584

1968,$175.00,4.988,$35083379

1972,$611.90,4.112,$148812522

1976,$1382.70,3.098,$446312378

1980,$2000.00,2.296,$871131414

1984,$546.00,1.673,$326303634

1988,$4047.00,1.467,$2758928690

1992,$7000.00,1.224,$5717756457

1996,$1686.00,1.094,$1540991021

2000,$5600.00,1.000,$5600000000

2004,$11600.00,0.905,$12815660214

2008,$44000.00,0.803,$54764542742

2012,$14600.00,0.741,$19698345130

[/table]

Above, cost is listed in millions of US$ while constant cost is listed in thousands of US$. One thing to note above – 1900, 1904, and 1920 original costs are estimates. The figures are simply not available. For 1900 and 1904 it is mainly because the Games were held as parts of the World Fairs, and those figures are available for World Fair costs, but it cannot be determined exactly how much was allocated to the Olympic events.

So as expected, even corrected against inflation, Beijing was by far the most expensive Summer Olympics ever. In fact, as we’ll show later, it was more expensive, in constant dollars, than all previous Summer Olympics. Beijing is actually close to being more expensive than all other Olympic Games, in real and constant costs, even adding in the costs for London in 2012.

What about if we compare using constant dollars against number of athletes? And we’ll also use constant dollars against a new figure – number of athletes x number of sports – to take into effect both factors that tend to increase the size of cost of Olympics.

[table]

Year,CC,Ath,Spts,CC/A,CC/A-S

1896,$19060,176,9,$108.29,$12.03

1900,$31460,1224,21,$25.70,$1.22

1904,$14448,650,18,$22.23,$1.23

1908,$20527,2023,23,$10.15,$0.44

1912,$37486,2377,16,$15.77,$0.99

1920,$51927,2664,22,$19.49,$0.89

1924,$102710,3067,19,$33.49,$1.76

1928,$123219,2878,16,$42.81,$2.68

1932,$91261,1334,16,$68.41,$4.28

1936,$2466642,3956,21,$623.52,$29.69

1948,$388137,4073,19,$95.30,$5.02

1952,$771684,4932,19,$156.46,$8.23

1956,$2189087,3344,19,$654.63,$34.45

1960,$12439216,5350,19,$2325.09,$122.37

1964,$353624584,5137,21,$68838.74,$3278.04

1968,$35083379,5557,20,$6313.37,$315.67

1972,$148812522,7113,23,$20921.20,$909.62

1976,$446312378,6073,23,$73491.25,$3195.27

1980,$871131414,5259,23,$165645.83,$7201.99

1984,$326303634,6798,25,$47999.95,$1920.00

1988,$2758928690,8453,27,$326384.56,$12088.32

1992,$5717756457,9386,29,$609179.25,$21006.18

1996,$1540991021,10339,31,$149046.43,$4807.95

2000,$5600000000,10648,34,$525920.36,$15468.25

2004,$12815660214,10561,34,$1213489.27,$35690.86

2008,$54764542742,10901,34,$5023809.08,$147759.09

2012,$19698345130,10520,34,$1872466.27,$55072.54

[/table]

CC=constant costs (thousand US$); CC/A=constant costs/athlete; CC/A-S=constant costs/athlete-sport.

Once again, Beijing was way more expensive, in terms of constant costs per athlete and constant costs per athlete-sports, than any other Summer Olympics. We will also show that it was more expensive for both parameters than all previous Summer Olympics combined.

One other thing to note is how much the costs have inflated, against constant costs relative to the size of the Games. In 1908, London spent less than 50 cents on each athlete x sport (or against the size of the Games), in 2000 dollars, while Beijing spent almost $148,000 on the same parameter – an actual Olympic inflation rate of just under 30 million%!

In the following we will compare each Summer Olympics to the combined costs of all previous Summer Olympics. Here are those numbers.

[table]

Year,CAPCC,CAPC/A-S,Notes

1896,—,—,

1900,1.651,0.102,

1904,0.286,0.093,

1908,0.316,0.030,

1912,0.438,0.066,

1920,0.422,0.056,

1924,0.587,0.105,

1928,0.444,0.144,

1932,0.228,0.201,

1936,5.013,1.164,>previous

1948,0.131,0.091,

1952,0.231,0.137,

1956,0.532,0.503,

1960,1.972,1.189,>previous

1964,18.863,14.550,>previous

1968,0.094,0.090,

1972,0.365,0.238,

1976,0.802,0.676,

1980,0.869,0.909,

1984,0.174,0.127,

1988,1.254,0.709,

1992,1.153,0.721,

1996,0.144,0.096,

2000,0.458,0.282,

2004,0.719,0.507,

2008,1.788,1.393,>previous

2012,0.231,0.217

[/table]

CAPCC=compare all previous constant costs; CAPCC/A-S=compare all previous constant costs/athlete-sport.

This may not seem obvious so let’s look at it. In 1936 Berlin was 5.013 times more expensive, in constant costs, than all previous Summer Olympics combined, and it was 1.164 times more expensive in terms of constant costs per athlete-sport. When a Summer Olympics is more expensive on both parameters, I have used the note “>previous”.

It turns out that only 4 times a Summer Olympics has been more expensive on both parameters or “>previous” (it actually occurred 6 times for the Winter Olympics, despite less celebrations). This occurred at the following Summer Olympics:

[table]

Year,CAPCC,CAPC/A-S

1936,5.013,1.164,>previous

1960,1.972,1.189,>previous

1964,18.863,14.550,>previous

2008,1.788,1.393,>previous

[/table]

And those four times occurred at Berlin in 1936, Rome in 1960, Tokyo in 1964, and Beijing in 2008. For Berlin, Tokyo, and Beijing, this is relatively easily explained. All three cities wanted to “show the world something.” Berlin and Hitler wanted to show the superiority of the German Reich. Tokyo wanted to show the world that it had recovered from the horrors of World War II and was now a modern superpower. Beijing wanted to demonstrate that it was now one of the world’s superpowers, and put on the biggest show ever. It did, especially when one considers that the usually quoted cost of the Opening Ceremony alone is $300 million, in 2008 dollars, which would actually be about $405 million in constant 2000 dollars. Nice party, but I can hold one like that, too, if you give me $405 million to do it with.

Rome at first site seems harder to explain but can be easily. Rome actually did not build as many stadia as some cities, holding some of the sports and events in ancient Roman stadia, such as wrestling, which was contested at the Basilius of Maxentius. And the Rome OCOG used several facilities in the Foro Mussolino, which had been constructed during the Fascist Era.

However, I refer you to http://itopiarometheeternalcity.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/rome-1960-olympics-as-catalyst-for.html, a blog article on Rome 1960 entitled, “Rome 1960: The Olympics as a Catalyst for Urban Change.” In this article, the author notes that Rome used the 1960 Olympics to effect major urban and infrastructural changes to their city, which involved designing a comprehensive system of transportation infrastructure throughout the city. For one of the first times the entire Olympic Village was constructed de novo and later converted to public housing. So when one considers that Rome re-did their city, making multiple desired infrastructural improvements, the extreme costs of the 1960 Olympics can be better understood. One can actually make a case that extreme Olympic inflation, with cities using the Olympics to improve their city and show it off to the world, began with Rome in 1960.

And this is one of the problems with this analysis. How much of the above quoted costs are for the operating costs of an Olympics, and how much are for infrastructural improvements to the host cities? Often, the host cities have wanted to make these changes for years but never had the money or the political capital to pull the trigger. But by subsuming the costs under the aegis of Olympic costs, they could get them done. Recent examples include the significant expansion and improvement of Hartsfield International Airport for the 1996 Atlanta Games, and the ring road around Athens and the subway from Athens to Piraeus, all built prior to the 2004 Olympics, but long desired by the Greek capital.

So its difficult, but one thing is obvious. Beijing was the most expensive Olympics ever in terms of constant dollars, but should not be considered the biggest spendthrift in terms of constant dollars analyzed against actual size of the Olympics. The all-time champion for that, Winter or Summer, is Tokyo in 1964, which was either 18 or 15 times more expensive than all previous Olympics, depending on how you analyze it. That is a record far surpassing the biggest such numbers for the Winter Olympics, which were for Grenoble in 1968, at about 7 times costs of previous Winter Games.

One other thing of interest to me was Barcelona in 1992, which also wanted to highlight its city, and did so beautifully, and is often considered one of the greatest of modern Olympics. But it did so relatively efficiently, costing slightly more than previous Olympics in constant dollars, but not more expensive than all previous when compared against the size of the Games.

Earlier today King Juan Carlos I of Spain announced his intention to abdicate after 39 years as monarch. What is less known, at least outside Spain, is that Juan Carlos was once an Olympic yachtsman who sailed as part of a crew skippered by the Duke of Arión in the Dragon class at the Munich Games of 1972. Indeed there is a strong connection between Spanish royalty and the Olympic movement both as competitors and administrators that stretches back over a century.

Let’s take a look at the Spanish royals who have been linked to the Olympic Games in one form or another – using the King himself as a starting point

Juan Carlos, Crown Prince de Borbón (later King Juan Carlos I)

[table]

Year-Games,Sport,Event,Place

1972-Summer,Sailing ,Dragon class, 15
[/table]
Whilst his Olympic sailing career was not wildly successful it did qualify him for a unique place in history as the only Olympian to officially open the Olympic Games. An achievement which came to pass at the 1992 Games in Barcelona.

His wife.
Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark (later Queen Sofía of Spain)
Queen Sofía went to the Rome Olympics of 1960 at the age of just 21 as part of her brother’s crew in the Dragon class. She was an unused reserve at the Games and could not share in their gold medal triumph.
[table]

Year-Games,Sport,Event,Place

1960-Summer,Sailing ,Dragon class, DNS

[/table]
His son.
Felipe, Crown Prince de Borbón, The Prince of Asturias (soon to be King Felipe)
The flag bearer for Spain at the opening ceremony of the Barcelona Olympics and the most successful Spanish royal in terms of his results (although there is one more obscure better performance as we’ll find later).
[table]

Year-Games,Sport,Event,Place

1992-Summer,Sailing ,Soling class, 6

[/table]
His daughter.
Cristina, Princess de Borbón (later Duchess of Palma de Mallorca)
Her appearance at the 1988 Olympics was brief and rather uninspiring. Appearing only as a substitute in the last race of a 7 race series, her boat failed to finish. She was the Spanish flag bearer at the opening ceremony.
[table]

Year-Games,Sport,Event,Place

1988-Summer,Sailing ,Tornado class, 20

[/table]
His son-in-law
Iñaki Urdangarín (later Duke of Palma de Mallorca)
Whilst competing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where he helped Spain won a bronze in the sport of handball, he met Princess Cristina. Little over a year later the two were married. In recent years he has been dogged by allegations of corruption involving his business dealings.

[table]

Year-Games,Sport,Event,Place

1992-Summer,Handball ,Men, 6
1996-Summer,Handball ,Men, Bronze
2000-Summer,Handball ,Men, Bronze

[/table]

His brother-in-law
Crown Prince Konstantinos (later King Konstantínos II of Greece)
One of only 2 future kings to be Olympic champions (both in sailing), his reign was ended when Greece became a republic in 1973. He was an IOC member between 1963 and 1974.
[table]

Year-Games,Sport,Event,Place

1960-Summer,Sailing ,Dragon class, Gold

[/table]

His sister
Princess Pilar de Borbón, Duchess of Badajoz
Her links to the Olympic movement come as an administrator rather than a competitor.
She served as the President of the International Equestrian Federation from 1994 to 2005 and was a member of the IOC between 1996 and 2006.

Most distantly related, through Queen Sofía, are British royalty. Her cousin, Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh, officially opened the 1956 Olympics whilst his wife, Queen Elizabeth fulfilled the same role in 1976 and 2012. Their daughter and granddaughter, Princess Anne and Zara Phillips, are also Olympians.

Fernand Sanz
There is one further member of Spanish royalty whose existence may have been ignored forever had it not been for the work of Spanish Olympic historian Fernando Arrechea. King Juan Carlos’s great-grandfather was Alfonso XII who reigned from 1874 to 1885. As well as having three children with María Cristina of Austria, Alfonso also sired two sons with his mistress, the opera singer Elena Armanda Sanz Martínez de Arizala. The youngest of these sons was Fernand Sanz, who became one the finest amateur sprint cyclists in France and, at the age of 19, was only narrowly beaten to the gold medal by Albert Taillandier at the 1900 Olympic Games. He later went to find success as an amateur boxer as well.
[table]

Year-Games,Sport,Event,Place

1900-Summer,Cycling,Sprint, Silver

[/table]

Alpine skiier, Speed skiier, race car driver

Full name      Divina Mary Galica

Used name   Divina Galica

Born                 13 August 1944; Bushey Heath, Watford, Herts. (GBR)

[table]

Year-Games,Sport,Event,Place

1964-Winter,Alpine Skiing,Downhill, 30

,,Giant Slalom,23

,,Slalom,AC

1968-Winter,Alpine Skiing,Downhill,32

,,Giant Slalom,8

,,Slalom,AC

1972-Winter,Alpine Skiing,Downhill,26

,,Giant Slalom,7

,,Slalom,15

1992-Winter,Speed Skiing,Individual,19

[/table]

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ga/divina-galica-1.html

Divina Galica is one of the all-time best British alpine skiers. Her best results occurred in the giant slalom, placing seventh and eighth at the Olympics, and 10th in the 1970 World Championships. Never scoring a World Cup win, Galica did twice reach the podium in a downhill World Cup. In the 1968 World Cup overall standings, she ranked 13th.

After being asked for a celebrity race in 1974, Galica started a career in automobile racing. In 1976, she entered the British Grand Prix, becoming only the third woman to attempt to compete in Formula One. Her appearance was also notable for driving a car with number 13, which was only available in the sport on special demand since the 1926 death of Giulio Masetti while racing with 13. Galica did not qualify for the race, nor did she on two subsequent attempts in 1978. She did continue to race in numerous classes until the late 1990s, and also returned to skiing.

At the 1992 Winter Olympics, Galica competed in the demonstration sport of speed skiing. The following year, she joined a select group of women to have broken the 200 km/h barrier, reaching 200.669 km/h.

Galice later switched her auto racing experience to Thundersports S2000 sports cars, and became an instructor with Skip Barber Racing Schools, and later a senior vice-president of Skip Barber Racing. In 2005 Galica left Skip Barber Racing to become a director of iRacing.com.

Which Olympians have climbed Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world? We know of 4 such feats, as follows:

[table]

Athlete,NOC,Sport,Era,Notes

Manuela Di Centa,ITA,CCS,1984-98,Climbed Everest in 2003.

George Mallory?,GBR,ALP,1924,Attempted to climb Everest in 1922 and 1924.

Gota Miura,JPN,FRS,1994-98,Climbed Everest in 2003.

Steve Williams,GBR,ROW,2004-08,Climbed Everest in 2011.

[/table]

There was some circumstantial evidence that Mallory may have peaked on Everest in 1924, although it now considered that he did not summit and died on the descent. He was posthumously given an Alpinism gold medal by the IOC. His body was found on the mountain in 1999.

Mallory’s gold medal was actually given to his Mount Everest expedition of 1922, which definitely did not summit. The members of that crew, who could also be considered as Olympians on Everest were: Charles Granville Bruce (GBR); Bill Strutt (GBR); Henry Morshead (GBR); John Noel (GBR); Tom Longstaff (GBR); Geoffrey Bruce (GBR); Howard Somervell (GBR); Arthur Wakefield (GBR); Edward Norton (GBR); Colin Crawford (GBR); John Morris (GBR); George Finch (AUS); Tejbir Bura (NEP); Narbu Sherpa (IND); Lhakpa Sherpa (IND); Pasang Sherpa (IND); Pembra Sherpa (IND); Antarge Sherpa (IND); Temba Sherpa (IND); and Sange Sherpa (IND).

The 1922 expedition made 3 attempts to summitt, with 7 Sherpas dying in an avalanche on the 3rd attempt. The medals were given to Lieutenant Bill Strutt, as Charles Granville Bruce was unavailable while preparing for another ascent. Coubertin spoke of why the medals were given to this group:

“For the first time a gold medal is awarded for alpinism, and it is awarded to the glorious expedition to the Mount Everest. Not content with having almost succeeded, they are preparing a renewed effort to finish the ascent.

Mr. Representative of the mission, we welcome your presence for the beautiful heroism displayed. At the foot of the highest mountain in Europe, we present you and your wonderful companions with this small testimony of the admiration with which all nations have followed your journey towards the untouched peaks of the highest mountain in the world. We accompany this gesture by prayers for the completion of a work that will honor not only your country but all humanity.”

See also http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/friv/lists.cgi

As a group that delves in the world Olympic statistics, when Aleksandr Zubkov won a gold medal in bobsledding at Sochi this February, something immediately struck us about that victory. Zubkov had first competed in the Winter Olympics in 1998, but this was his first gold medal – 16 years from his Olympic début to the gold medal. We wondered – is this a record, and what are the records for the longest time it takes an athlete to win an Olympic medal or gold medal, from their Olympic début, to the day they win the medal.

Now we are only considering times to the actual year of the Olympics in which the medal was won. We’re not going to get into cases like Ingemar Johansson, the Swedish heavyweight boxer, who was disqualified in the 1952 final and was not awarded a silver medal initially, only to receive it in 1982 after the IOC rescinded that decision. Other similar cases are several of the more recent doping disqualifications several years after the Olympics, notably Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong, the case of Jim Thorpe, whose family finally received his gold medal (again) in 1983, or the 1952 boxing bronze medalists who did not receive their medals until 1970 (see my recent article on this in Journal of Olympic History – “The 1952 Olympic Boxing Bronze Medals”)

So we’ve worked out the stats on this somewhat arcane bit of Olympic trivia, and yes, Zubkov took longer to win a gold medal than any male winter Olympic gold medalist ever. Its somewhat unusual that it takes this long for Olympic medalists or gold medalists to win their first medals, or golds. Since 1896, there have been 26,403 Olympic athletes win medals (out of a total of 126,587 known Olympic competitors), and 21,727 of those medalists won the medals at their début Olympics – or about 82% of the time. For the gold medalists, there are 9,706 of them, of which 7,127 won their gold medals at their first Olympics – or about 76%.

So its unusual to wait as long as these athletes did – and it takes more than waiting. It takes a lot of training and perseverance.

 

Longest Time – Olympic Début to Medal, Men, Summer

[table]

Range,Name (NOC-Sport; Début Year-Year of Medal)

36,Ian Millar (CAN-EQU; 1972-2008)

32,Louis Noverraz (SUI-SAI; 1936-1968)

24,Ioannis Theofilakis (GRE-SHO; 1896-1920)

24,Henri Jobier (FRA-FEN; 1900-1924)

24,Juan Esteban Curuchet (ARG-CYC; 1984-2008)

24,Nick Skelton (GBR-EQU; 1988-2012)

20,Paulin Lemaire (FRA-GYM; 1900-1920)

20,Raymond Bru (BEL-FEN; 1928-1948)

20,Édouard Yves (BEL-FEN; 1928-1948)

20,Norman Cohn-Armitage (USA-FEN; 1928-1948)

20,Herman Whiton (USA-SAI; 1928-1948)

20,Marcel Stern (SUI-SAI; 1948-1968)

20,Hugo Simon (AUT-EQU; 1972-1992)

20,Michael Matz (USA-EQU; 1976-1996)

20,Peter Eriksson (SWE-EQU; 1984-2004)

20,Peter Charles (GBR-EQU; 1992-2012)

20,Carl Hester (GBR-EQU; 1992-2012)

[/table]

Ian Millar

The above are the 17 of the 20 times that it has taken an athlete 20 or more years to win their first Olympic medal. Two of the others are given in the lists: Max Houben (BEL-ATH/BOB; 1920-1948), with 28 years, and Ann Jensen-van Olst (DEN-EQU; 1988-2008), with 20 years. Houben actually competed in athletics in 1920 and competed at the Winter Olympics in bobsledding from 1928-48, so his Winter record is actually only 20 years, but it was 28 years from his first Olympic participation to his first Olympic medal, placing him third all-time, after Millar and Noverraz above. The third, not in any list, is Norwegian Yngvar Bryn, who won a silver medal in 1920 pairs figure skating. Although technically at the Summer Olympics, we count it with the Winter sports, and Bryn made his only other Olympic appearance in 1900 in athletics, 20 years before he won his figure skating medal.

Also notable on the above list is Michael Matz, who went 20 years before winning an Olympic medal in equestrian. Matz later became well-known for two non-Olympic events. In July 1989 he was aboard United Airlines flight 232 when it crashed and burned in Sioux City, Iowa. Matz heroically led three young children to safety from the plane, and then later returned to the burning wreckage to rescue an 11-month-old child. In 1998 Matz began training thoroughbred racehorses, among which was Barbaro, who won the 2006 Kentucky Derby, trained by Matz. In the Preakness, in which Barbaro was a heavy favorite, he broke down shortly after leaving the starting gate. After months of difficult surgeries and attempts to save his shattered right hind leg, the horse was put down in January 2007.

 

Longest Time – Olympic Début to Medal, Women, Summer

[table]

Range,Name (NOC-Sport; Début Year-Year of Medal)

20,Anne Jensen-van Olst (DEN-EQU; 1988-2008)

16,Cindy Neale-Ishoy (CAN-EQU; 1972-1988)

16,Nonka Matova (BUL-SHO; 1976-1992)

16,Jackie Silva (BRA-BVO; 1980-1996)

16,Ildikó Mincza-Nébald (HUN-FEN; 1992-2008)

16,Homare Sawa (JPN-FTB; 1996-2012)

12,37 athletes tied with 12.

[/table]

 

Jackie Silva won her Olympic medal, a gold, in 1996 beach volleyball, but she had made her Olympic début as an indoor volleyball player in 1980. Of note above, is the 16-year gap from début to medal for Japanese footballer Homare Sawa, a huge amount of time in such a physically demanding sport.

 

Longest Time – Olympic Début to Medal, Men, Winter

[table]

Range,Name (NOC-Sport; Début Year-Year of Medal)

20,Max Houben (BEL-BOB; 1928-1948)

18,Jari Kurri (FIN-ICH; 1980-1998)

18,Chris Chelios (USA-ICH; 1984-2002)

16,Todd Lodwick (USA-NCO; 1994-2010)

14,Brian Leetch (USA-ICH; 1988-2002)

14,Mike Richter (USA-ICH; 1988-2002)

14,Brian Shimer (USA-BOB; 1988-2002)

14,Scott Young (USA-ICH; 1988-2002)

14,Albert Demchenko (RUS-LUG; 1992-2006)

14,Oswald Haselrieder (ITA-LUG; 1992-2006)

14,Gerhard Plankensteiner (ITA-LUG; 1992-2006)

[/table]

 

Max Houben’s record is actually longer than 20 years. He made his Olympic début in 1920 in athletics, running the 200 metres and 4×100 relay at Antwerp. So it was actually 28 years from his Olympic début to his first Olympic medal, but that crossed over from Summer to Winter Games.

A similar situation exists for Norwegian Yngvar Bryn, who won a silver medal in 1920 pairs figure skating, which technically took place at the Summer Olympics, although we count that as with the Winter sports. Bryn made his first Olympic appearance in 1900 in athletics, running the 200 and 400 metres, so it was 20 years from his first Olympic appearance to his first medal, but again mixing Summer and Winter (in a sense).

Also of note in the above lists are the number of ice hockey players. Though a very physically demanding sport, this was caused by the introduction in 1998 of NHL players to the Olympics, which allowed several NHL veterans to return to the Olympics many years after their débuts.

 

Longest Time – Olympic Début to Medal, Women, Winter

[table]

Range,Name (NOC-Sport; Début Year-Year of Medal)

16,Maki Tabata (JPN-SSK; 1994-2010)

16,Alla Tsuper (BLR-FRS; 1998-2014)

12,Sylvie Daigle (CAN-STK; 1980-1992)

12,Blanca Fernández Ochoa (ESP-ASK; 1980-1992)

12,Svetlana Boyarkina-Zhurova (RUS-SSK; 1994-2006)

12,Tatyana Navka (RUS-FSK; 1994-2006)

12,Kristina Šmigun-Vähi (EST-CCS; 1994-2006)

12,Sabina Valbusa (ITA-CCS; 1994-2006)

12,Maëlle Ricker (CAN-SNB; 1998-2010)

12,Teja Gregorin (SLO-BIA; 2002-2014)

12,Tomoka Takeuchi (JPN-SNB; 2002-2014)

12,Christina Bertrup (SWE-CUR; 2002-2014)

[/table]

Maki Tabata

 

Sylvie Daigle competed at five Olympics, winning a gold medal in short-track speed skating in 1992, but she competed at her first two Olympics – 1980-84 – in long-track speed skating.

 

Longest Time – Olympic Début to Gold Medal, Men, Summer

[table]

Range,Name (NOC-Sport; Début Year-Year of Gold)

24,Henri Jobier (FRA-FEN; 1900-1924)

24,Juan Esteban Curuchet (ARG-CYC; 1984-2008)

24,Nick Skelton (GBR-EQU; 1988-2012)

24,Sergey Martynov (BLR-SHO; 1988-2012)

20,Anders Peter Nielsen (DEN-SHO; 1900-1920)

20,Heikki Savolainen (FIN-GYM; 1928-1948)

20,Herman Whiton (USA-SAI; 1928-1948)

20,Gustaf Adolf Boltenstern Jr. (SWE-EQU; 1932-1952)

20,Peter Charles (GBR-EQU; 1992-2012)

20,Carl Hester (GBR-EQU; 1992-2012)

20,Fredrik Lööf (SWE-SAI; 1992-2012)

[/table]

 

These 11 athletes are the only ones to take 20 or more years to win an Olympic gold medal – never happened by a woman or at the Winter Olympics. Most of the sports on this list are sailing, shooting, equestrian, or fencing, but especially noteworthy is Juan Esteban Curuchet, who won a gold medal in the 2008 Madison cycling event, 24 years after his Olympic career began.

Nick Skelton took 24 years to win his gold medal, but it could have been longer. He was named to the 1980 British Olympic team, but that team did not compete in Moscow, because of the boycott. Thus it was 32 years from being named to his first Olympic team to his gold medal.

Nick Skelton

 

Longest Time – Olympic Début to Gold Medal, Women, Summer

[table]

Range,Name (NOC-Sport; Début Year-Year of Gold)

16,Lia Manoliu (ROU-ATH; 1952-1968)

16,Jackie Silva (BRA-BVO; 1980-1996)

16,Josefa Idem-Guerrini (ITA-CAN; 1984-2000)

16,Eldece Clarke-Lewis (BAH-ATH; 1984-2000)

16,Pauline Davis-Thompson (BAH-ATH; 1984-2000)

16,Trine Solberg-Hattestad (NOR-ATH; 1984-2000)

16,Rumyana Dzhadzharova-Neykova (BUL-ROW; 1992-2008)

16,Fofão (BRA-VOL; 1992-2008)

12,24 athletes tied with 12.

[/table]

 

Jackie Silva competed at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics in indoor volleyball, returning to the Olympics in 1996 when beach volleyball was added to the Olympic Program, and winning her first Olympic medal, a gold alongside Sandra.

 

Longest Time – Olympic Début to Gold Medal, Men, Winter

[table]

Range,Name (NOC-Sport; Début Year-Year of Gold)

16,Aleksandr Zubkov (RUS-BOB; 1998-2014)

14,Maurilio De Zolt (ITA-CCS; 1980-1994)

14,Tomas Jonsson (SWE-ICH; 1980-1994)

14,Mats Näslund (SWE-ICH; 1980-1994)

14,Giorgio Vanzetta (ITA-CCS; 1980-1994)

14,Vladimír Růžička (CZE-ICH; 1984-1998)

14,Fulvio Valbusa (ITA-CCS; 1992-2006)

12,12 athletes tied with 12.

[/table]

 

Aleksandr Zubkov set this record at Sochi only a few months ago, and was the inspiration for this statistical research. As noted above several ice hockey players are on this list because of NHL veterans returning to the Olympics years after their Olympic débuts.

 

Longest Time – Olympic Début to Gold Medal, Women, Winter

[table]

Range,Name (NOC-Sport; Début Year-Year of Gold)

16,Alla Tsuper (BLR-FRS; 1998-2014)

14,Kateřina Neumannová (CZE-CCS; 1992-2006)

12,Sylvie Daigle (CAN-STK; 1980-1992)

12,Svetlana Boyarkina-Zhurova (RUS-SSK; 1994-2006)

12,Tatyana Navka (RUS-FSK; 1994-2006)

12,Kristina Šmigun-Vähi (EST-CCS; 1994-2006)

12,Maëlle Ricker (CAN-SNB; 1998-2010)

12,Shen Xue (CHN-FSK; 1998-2010)

12,Tina Maze (SLO-ASK; 2002-2014)

10,Manuela Di Centa (ITA-CCS; 1984-1994)

10,Emese Nemeth-Hunyady (AUT-SSK; 1984-1994)

10,Sylke Otto (GER-LUG; 1992-2002)

10,Gabriella Paruzzi (ITA-CCS; 1992-2002)

10,Kari Traa (NOR-FRS; 1992-2002)

[/table]

Alla Tsuper

 

Two athletes on the above lists competed in two Olympic sports, and one of them competed both at the Winter and Summer Olympics. Kateřina Neumannová was a cross-country skiier at the 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, and 2006 Winter Olympics, winning her first medal in 1998 and her first gold medal in 2006. She also competed as a cyclist at the 1996 Summer Olympics. As noted above, Sylvie Daigle competed at 5 Olympics, competing in long-track speed skating in 1980 and 1984, and short-track in 1988, 1992, and 1994.

In addition, we should mention Clara Hughes, another Canadian, and a cyclist-speed skater. Hughes made her first Olympic appearance in 1996 in cycling, winning two bronze medals in the road race and individual time trial. She also competed in cycling in 2000 and 2012, but won no medals. She competed at the Winter Olympics in speed skating (long-track) in 2002, 2006, and 2010, winning her first gold medal in 2006 in the 5,000 metres, fully 10 years after her Olympic début, but that crossed from Summer to Winter Olympics.

Hughes is one of only 5 Olympians to have won medals in both the Winter and Summer Olympics, joining Eddie Eagan (USA-BOB/BOX), Jacob Tullin Thams (NOR-SAI/SKJ), Christa Luding-Rothenburger (GDR-CYC/SSK), and Lauryn Williams (USA-ATH/BOB). Williams was added to this list in Sochi with her bobsledding silver medal, after a gold medal at London in 2012 in the 4×100 relay.

Olympic fencer, Gold Medalist,Hungarian Jew, Nazi concentration camp victim

Born     14 December 1904; Budapest (HUN)

Died     20 January 1943; Zavidovo, Tver (RUS)

[table]

Year-Games, Sport,Event,Finish,Medal

1928-Summer,Fencing,Sabre Individual, 2,Silver

,,Sabre Team,1,Gold

1932-Summer,Fencing,Sabre Individual, 5

,,Sabre Team,1,Gold

[/table]

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/pe/attila-petschauer-1.html

Attila Petschauer competed at the 1928 and 1932 Olympics, winning team sabre gold both years and an individual sabre silver in 1928. At the European Championships, Petschauer won silver medals individually in 1925 and 1929, and bronze medals in 1923, 1927, and 1930. He also helped Hungary win team sabre European titles in 1930-31.

In World War II most Hungarian Jews were deported to concentration camps, but Petschauer’s status as an elite sportsman exempted him initially. But in 1943 he was deported to the Davidovka concentration camp in the Ukraine. During a prisoner line-up Petschauer was called out by the commanding officer of the camp, Lt. Col. Kálmán Cseh von Szent-Katolna, who had competed in equestrian for Hungary at the 1928 Olympics. It was mid-winter and bitter cold, but the guards forced Petschauer to undress and climb a tree, and while up there, they sprayed him with freezing water. He died shortly thereafter. Petschauer’s story was told in the 1999 film “Sunshine,” starring Ralph Fiennes.

OK, Sochi ended a couple months ago, and the pricetag we keep hearing is $51 billion (US) for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Now keep in mind that it is very difficult to sort out what part of that is for operating costs, and what is for infrastructure costs. In the case of Sochi, Russia basically built two towns from scratch – Adler and Krasnaya Polyana – along with the road between the two. But still, $51 billion is what everyone sees.

So how expensive was this when one looks at all the Olympic Games? Not easy to compare them over the years, because so many things change. But let’s try. First of all, we’ll use the standard numbers that are out there, often from the Official Results, for the nominal contemporary costs in US dollars. We’ll then correct these for inflation against the US dollar. Economists tell us this is not a perfect correction, and that it is better to use something called purchasing power parity (PPP), but those numbers for the inflated rates of PPP in each nation are not available going back to 1924 (or 1896 for the summer). So we’ll use historical inflation against the dollar, using the 2000 US dollar as the benchmark figure.

Now the Games also get bigger over the years so we should look at how much they cost relative to the size of the Games, using 2000 US dollars. The best numbers to use to look at the size of an Olympics are the number of athletes and the number of sports. The reason for this is obvious in terms of the numbers of athletes – more means larger Olympic Village(s), more means more security (in this era), and more means more transport issues getting those athletes around all the venues. Sports are also important because when you add a new sport, or discipline by the IOC definitions, you often need to add a new venue or stadium to host the sport, which is not inexpensive.

So here are the absolute numbers and the numbers corrected against inflation.

[table]

Year,Cost,Value (2000$),ConstantCost

1924,$3.83,9.736,$392.87

1928,$3.83,9.576,$399.427

1932,$30.60,10.958,$2792.58

1936,$19.13,12.162,$1572.48

1948,$5.10,7.472,$682.59

1952,$24.23,6.400,$3784.99

1956,$79.05,6.213,$12724.07

1960,$184.88,5.724,$32299.16

1964,$49.73,5.446,$9129.79

1968,$2422.50,4.988,$485654.20

1972,$4207.50,4.112,$1023253.29

1976,$240.98,3.098,$77782.69

1980,$475.58,2.296,$207144.16

1984,$414.38,1.673,$247641.15

1988,$1402.50,1.467,$956115.02

1992,$3570.00,1.224,$2916055.79

1994,$1657.50,1.154,$1436334.52

1998,$18615.00,1.038,$17927446.57

2002,$1912.50,0.939,$2036845.33

2006,$2677.50,0.848,$3155778.11

2010,$6375.00,0.771,$8268119.82

2014,$51000.00,0.699,$72983051.74

[/table]

Above, cost is listed in millions of US$ while constant cost is listed in thousands of US$.

So even corrected against inflation, Sochi is by far the most expensive Winter Olympics ever. In fact, as we’ll show later, it was more expensive, in constant dollars, than all previous Winter Olympics.

What about if we compare using constant dollars against number of athletes? And we’ll also use constant dollars against a new figure – number of athletes x number of sports – to take into effect both factors that tend to increase the size of cost of Olympics.

[table]

Year,CC,Ath,Spts,CC/A,CC/A-S

1924,$392.87,292,9,$1345,$149

1928,$399.42,461,8,$866,$108

1932,$2792.58,252,7,$11082,$1583

1936,$1572.48,668,8,$2354,$294

1948,$682.59,668,9,$1022,$114

1952,$3784.99,694,8,$5454,$682

1956,$12724.07,821,8,$15498,$1937

1960,$32299.16,665,8,$48570,$6071

1964,$9129.79,1094,10,$8345,$835

1968,$485654.20,1160,10,$418667,$41867

1972,$1023253.29,1008,10,$1015132,$101513

1976,$77782.69,1129,10,$68895,$6890

1980,$207144.16,1072,10,$193231,$19323

1984,$247641.15,1273,10,$194534,$19453

1988,$956115.02,1424,10,$671429,$67143

1992,$2916055.79,1801,12,$1619131,$134928

1994,$1436334.52,1738,12,$826430,$68869

1998,$17927446.57,2180,14,$8223599,$587400

2002,$2036845.33,2402,15,$847979,$56532

2006,$3155778.11,2494,15,$1265348,$84357

2010,$8268119.82,2536,15,$3260300,$217353

2014,$72983051.74,2749,15,$26548946,$1769930

[/table]

CC=constant costs (thousand US$); CC/A=constant costs/athlete; CC/A-S=constant costs/athlete-sport.

Once again, Sochi was more expensive in terms of constant cost per athlete and constant cost per athlete-sport than all previous Winter Olympics combined. It is interesting that 3 other Winter Olympics were also very expensive relatively speaking – 1968 Grenoble, 1972 Sapporo, and 1998 Nagano. Grenoble, Sapporo and Nagano were similar to Sochi in terms of huge amounts of infrastructural costs to host those Winter Olympics.

This can be understood better if you compare each Winter Olympics to the combined costs of all previous Winter Olympics. Here are those numbers.

[table]

Year,CAPCC,CAPC/A-S,Notes

1924,—,—,

1928,1.017,0.724,

1932,3.525,6.141,>previous

1936,0.439,0.160,

1948,0.132,0.053,

1952,0.648,0.303,

1956,1.322,0.661,

1960,1.445,1.247,>previous

1964,0.167,0.076,

1968,7.615,3.556,>previous

1972,1.862,1.892,>previous

1976,0.049,0.044,

1980,0.126,0.119,

1984,0.133,0.107,

1988,0.454,0.334,

1992,0.953,0.504,

1994,0.240,0.171,

1998,2.418,1.245,>previous

2002,0.080,0.053,

2006,0.115,0.076,

2010,0.271,0.181,

2014,1.881,1.249,>previous

[/table]

CAPCC=compare all previous constant costs; CAPCC/A-S=compare all previous constant costs/athlete-sport.

This may not seem obvious so let’s look at it. In 1928, St. Moritz was 1.017 more expensive than all previous Winter Olympics, which was only 1924 Chamonix, in terms of constant costs. But it was actually cheaper than 1924 in terms constant costs/athlete-sport, at only 0.724 times the Chamonix CC/A-S.

For Lake Placid in 1932, it was 3.525 times more expensive than Chamonix (1924) and St. Moritz (1928) in terms of constant costs, and 6.141 times more expensive in terms of constant costs/athlete-sport. When a Winter Olympics is more expensive on both parameters, I have used the note “>previous”.

It turns out that 6 times a Winter Olympics has been more expensive on both parameters or “>previous”. This occurred at the following Winter Olympics:

[table]

Year,CAPCC,CAPC/A-S

1932,3.525,6.141

1960,1.445,1.247

1968,7.615,3.556

1972,1.862,1.892

1998,2.418,1.245

2014,1.881,1.249

[/table]

So these are the 6 spendthrift Winter Olympic hosts. Looking at the causes, 1932 Lake Placid was expensive because they had to build both a bobsled run and ski jumps, and because Chamonix and St. Moritz were so inexpensive. Squaw Valley in 1960 was expensive because, like Sochi with Adler and Krasnaya Polyana, that resort was built almost from scratch – although they did skip building a bob run.

Sapporo in 1972, Nagano in 1998, and Sochi in 2014 were all expensive because of huge infrastructural costs, but the interesting thing here is that Sochi does not look so bad, comparing at about the same rate of Games inflation as 1972 and 1998.

Grenoble in 1968 was really an industrial city, despite its location in the Alps, and most of the sports venues and resort had to be specially built for the Games, including a stadium that was used only for the Opening Ceremony. The citizens in the area would be paying for the costs through 1995, and Grenoble in 1968 should be considered the most expensive Winter Olympics ever, relative to previous Winter Olympics. Compared to Grenoble in 1968, Sochi looks positively a bargain.