Brazil at the Olympics This marked the first time that any country in South America has hosted the games. This also marks the first time that a lusophone country hosted any edition of the Olympic Games. Rio was only the second city in Latin America to host the Summer Olympics, after Mexico City in 1968, and Brazil was only the second country of the southern hemisphere to host the Olympics, after Australia in 1956 and 2000. Brazil has never hosted a winter edition of the Olympic Games. Brazil has hosted the Games on one occasion. According to official data of the International Olympic Committee,
Ancient Olympic Games Ancient Olympic Games The ancient Olympic Games were originally a festival, or celebration of and for Zeus; later, events such as a footrace, a javelin contest, and wrestling matches were added. The Olympic Games (, "Olympia", "the Olympics"; also , , "the Olympiad") were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and one of the Panhellenic Games of ancient Greece. They were held in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin. The first Olympics is traditionally dated to 776 BC. They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule, until the emperor