Olympics Fever

Very soon I'm going to do a post on what it's like to watch the greatest international sporting event in another country. To whet the appetite of those of you who share my complete Olympics obsession, here's a string of links to interesting, often funny and sometimes poignant trivia from the history of the games. Most of these come from mental_floss, which has a great blog full of random trivia and brain teasers.

• The weirdest Olympics events of all times (singles synchronized swimming? Are you kidding?)
• In the same vein, 12 sports that were cut from the Olympics (rugby could make a come-back!)
• Strange paths to multiple medals - my favorite is the Yale/Harvard/Oxford grad who won gold in boxing AND bob-sledding!
• Cassius Clay throwing his gold medal into the Ohio River is one of '13 Medal-Worthy Olympic Performances'
• For those of you obsessed with the structures of the Olympics, like Arup's Bird's Nest, Water Cube, and Nick Burdette's Amazing Bridge of the 2012 Games, here's a story on how past Olympics venues are being used now.
  
• And if that's still not enough, here's 7 completely random Olympics stories that you've probably never heard before (seriously, how could you NOT get a perfect 10 in the gymnastics event of rope-climbing?)