WITH our athletes getting ready for the London Olympics, we have decided to take a look at some Olympics facts to get you even more into the spirit.

1 The early Olympic Games were celebrated as a religious festival from 776 BC until 393 AD, when the Games were banned for being a pagan festival (the Olympics celebrated the Greek god Zeus).

2 In 1894, a French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin, proposed a revival of the ancient tradition, and thus the modern-day Olympic Summer Games were born.

3 In 1896. host country Greece won the most medals (total of 47) at the first Olympic Summer Games.

4 The first Winter Olympic Games were held in Chamonix, France, in 1924.

5 Norway has won the most medals (a total of 263) at the Winter Games.

6 At the Summer Games, the United States has won more medals (a total of 2,189) than any other country.

7 No country in the Southern Hemisphere has ever hosted a Winter Games.

8 Three continents — Africa, South America and Antarctica — have never hosted an Olympics.

9 Only four athletes have ever won medals at both the Winter and Summer Olympic Games: Eddie Eagan (United States), Jacob Tullin Thams (Norway), Christa Luding-Rothenburger (East Germany), and Clara Hughes (Canada).

10 The Summer Olympic sports include archery, badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, canoe/kayak, cycling, diving, equestrian, fencing, field hockey, gymnastics, handball, judo, modern pentathlon (shooting, fencing, swimming, show jumping, and running), mountain biking, rowing, sailing, shooting, soccer, swimming, synchronised swimming, table tennis, tae kwon do, tennis, track and field, triathlon (swimming, biking, running), volleyball, water polo, weightlifting, and wrestling.