Rugby Union At The Summer Olympics
Rugby union has been a men's medal sport at the modern Summer Olympic Games, being played at four of the first seven competitions. The sport debuted at the 1900 Paris games where the gold medal was won by the host nation. It was subsequently featured at the London games in 1908, the Antwerp games in 1920 and the Paris games in 1924. The United States is the most successful nation in Olympic rugby tournaments, having won the gold medal in both 1920 and 1924; France has the most medals, one gold (in 1900) and two silvers (in 1920 and 1924).
Shortly after the 1924 games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) dropped rugby union as an Olympic sport. Since then there have been numerous attempts to bring the sport back to the Olympic program. The most recent effort has been to include the sevens version of the sport, which is played at similar competitions such as the Commonwealth Games, and in October 2009 the IOC voted at its session in Copenhagen to include sevens in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Read more about Rugby Union At The Summer Olympics: Inclusion, Exclusion, Efforts For Re-inclusion, Nations, Notable Rugby Players Involved in The Olympics
Famous quotes containing the words union and/or summer:
“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“I swear to keep the dead upon my mind,/Disdain for all time to be overglad./Among spring flowers, under summer trees./By chilling autumn waters, in the frosts/Of supercilious winter—all my days/I’ll have as mentors those reproving ghosts.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)