Olympics: Behind The Five Rings : Throughline The Olympics originated in Ancient Greece, and were resurrected in the 1890's after a 1,500 year ban. Since then, the International Olympic Committee has been behind every Olympic Games. In this episode, we explore the story of how the IOC turned the Olympics into a huge commercial success and whether the cities that host the games end up winning or losing.

Olympics: Behind The Five Rings

Olympics: Behind The Five Rings

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1018150501/1018970600" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

The Olympics originated in Ancient Greece, and were resurrected in the 1890's after a 1,500 year ban. Since then, the International Olympic Committee has been behind every Olympic Games. In this episode, we explore the story of how the IOC turned the Olympics into a huge commercial success and whether the cities that host the games end up winning or losing.


If you would like to read more from our guests:


We love to hear from our listeners! Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805.

Clarification July 26, 2021

An earlier version of this podcast episode did not say that the 1976 Olympics referred to in Montreal were the Summer Olympics.