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,
Olympic Games Olympiad, was used by Greeks as one of their units of time measurement. The Games were part of a cycle known as the Panhellenic Games, which included the Pythian Games, the Nemean Games, and the Isthmian Games. The Olympic Games reached their zenith in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, but then gradually declined in importance as the Romans gained power and influence in Greece. While there is no scholarly consensus as to when the Games officially ended, the most commonly held date is 393 AD, when the emperor Theodosius I decreed that all pagan cults and practices be eliminated.