The Olympic Games 2024 are only a handful of days away. Top athletes from hundreds of countries have flocked to the French Capital in Paris for the 33rd edition of the Olympic Games, the biggest multi-sporting spectacle in the world.
India has sent a 257-member contingent comprising 117 athletes and 140 support staff members for the Paris Games. The biggest Indian squad will be in Athletics where 29 athletes will be taking part.
But how many countries have sent athletes for the Summer Games? For the Paris Olympics, athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team (EOR) will participate.
In the previous Olympic Games in Tokyo, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, 206 nations took part in the Summer Games. Only North Korea boycotted the Tokyo Games. In the 2016 Olympic Games too, 206 nations took part in. However the participants were minimal at the time the Olympics was new.
In the first Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens, 11 to 16 nations took part it with the number varying as per the official report and the one mentioned by IOC. In 1900, the IOC report says that 24 nations took part at the Summer Games.
Before World War I in 1914, 28 nations took part in the 1912 Games, which grew to 29 in the 1920 Games. The nations participated in the 1924, 1928, 1932 and 1936 Games read 44, 46, 32 and 49. The Olympic Games of 1940 and 1944 were cancelled due to World War II.
For the first time, the counting of participating nations went over 50 in the 1948 London Games, where 59 countries took part in. It stayed between the 50 and 99 mark till the 1968 Olympics, which saw over 100 nations participating for the first time - 112 nations participated at the 1968 Summer Games.
