Olympics - Atlas Obscura
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Lausanne, Switzerland

London 2012 Olympic Truce Wall

The 21st century revival of one of the Olympic Games' oldest traditions, and its legacy.
Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower 2024
forests

Life-Changing Trips: Olympics, Cicadas, and Once-in-a-Lifetime Concerts

Listeners to the Atlas Obscura podcsat share their stories of life-changing trips.
The Podcast Team August 12, 2025
York, Pennsylvania

Weightlifting Hall of Fame

Take a walk through the history of strength sports—from the early Olympic Games to modern day.
Danville, Alabama

Jesse Owens Museum

A fascinating museum near the birthplace of the greatest track and field athlete of all time.
In 2024, the water of the Seine was deemed safe for swimming for the first time in a century. Cleanup efforts may be helping aquatic animals.
science

Found in the Seine: DNA From a Nearly Extinct Mussel

Scientists taking samples from the Parisian river didn't expect to find traces of shellfish that had all but disappeared from France.
Kim Willsher February 10, 2025
Fujisawa, Japan

‘Benzaiten and the Women of the World’

An eclectic fountain commemorating the 1964 Summer Olympics.
Yokohama, Japan

Noge-Miyakobashi Shotengai (Harmonica Alley)

This retro izakaya street is a unique legacy of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
A Belgian fan at the UEFA Euro 2024, European Championship, claims Flemish beef stew trumps coq au vin.
food

The Biggest Sports Rivalries This Year Are Between National Foods

Kielbasa vs. Fondue: Choose your fighter.
Diana Hubbell August 2, 2024
A young woman working out using boxing gloves and a punching bag in 1890.
ancient

The Women Who Overcame Insults and Even Death to Become Athletes

From bow-wielding Amazons to the trash-talking, 18th-century “Mother of Boxing.”
Sarah Durn February 16, 2024
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Jim Thorpe Museum

This small museum inside a larger sports complex honors the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the U.S., and his life of achievement and struggle.
Costumes and cheap beer are staples of most weird sports, says photographer Sol Neelman, but no one takes dressing up quite as seriously as contestants in one of his all-time favorite sports events: Kaiju Live Monster Wrestling (formally known as the Kaiju Big Battel) in Queens, New York.
space exploration

The Year in Weird and Wonderful Sports

From carriage racing to winter surfing to mashed potato wrestling, these competitions captured our imaginations in 2023.
Roxanne Hoorn December 21, 2023
NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins became obsessed with rugby after discovering the sport in college.
astronomy

Passing on the Olympics to Go to Space

Rugby and exploring the cosmos have more in common than you might think.
Jessica Watkins November 21, 2023
1996 Olympic Yachting Cauldron
Savannah, Georgia

1996 Olympic Yachting Cauldron

A monument to one of the few Olympic flames ever to be lit outside of the host city.
A <em>bouquiniste</em>, or traditional seller of vintage and antique books, on the bank of the Seine in Paris in August 2023.
islands

Wonder Is Everywhere: The Island of Cows, a Parisian Bookseller Revolt, and More From Around the Web

Get a peek into what we’re obsessed with right now.
April White September 1, 2023
Medicine Hat, Alberta

Saamis Tepee

A standalone wonder amid the prairie badlands of southeastern Alberta.
Seoul, South Korea

Son Kee Chung’s Greek Helmet

This ancient Corinthian helmet is South Korea’s only national treasure of Western origin.
Athens, Greece

Panathenaic Stadium Passage

Gladiators once walked this ancient, subterranean passage.
Fakkelmannen
Oyer, Norway

'Fakkelmannen' ('The Torchbearer')

This mountainside mural of a person carrying a torch was created for the 1994 Winter Olympics.