10 outlandish facts about the Olympic Games.

1. Hiroshi Hoketsu was the oldest competitor at London, at the age of 71. He also appeared in the 1964 Tokyo Games at the age of 23.

2. More athletes than spectators attended the 1908 Paris Games. More than 2.5 million passed through Stratford during the London Games. <think they've made a mistake here somewhere>

3. Olympic gold medals haven't been pure gold in years. The 1912 Olympics was the last time that gold medals were solid gold. Ever since, they've been silver with gold plating.

4. 200km of cable was used underground for powering the Olympic Park.

5. Tug of War was an Olympic sport until 1920.

6. The Olympic rings are yellow, green, red, black, and blue because at least one of those five colours appears in every flag in the world. <My personal favourite>

7. The first athlete ever to get an Olympic drug suspension was a Swedish pentathlete at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. He tested positive for ALCOHOL because he drank a few beers before the pentathlon.

8. China’s one of the contenders in almost every Olympic event now . . . but they didn’t win their first medal until 1984. They won one in the 50 metre pistol event.

9. The 1936 Berlin Games were the first to be televised. In contrast, 2012’s opening ceremony was estimated to have been viewed by over 1 billion people worldwide.

10. Whilst it’s sad that the 2012 Games are already at an end, the 1908 Olympics in London lasted for 187 days… they began in April and finished in October.