Football At The Summer Olympics 2024
Football has arguably become a global sports with the modernisation and growth in the overall nature of the sport as witnessed over the years. Incidentally, football as a sport came into existence with its roots going all the way back to Ancient China, however, the real growth of the game started coming into the limelight when it was played on the streets of medieval England. Such has been the dominance of the game across the globe that football is currently one of the most famous sport around the world. Interestingly, Canada are the defending champions at this moment having won the Gold Medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. In this article piece, check out the history of football at the Summer Olympics as seen in the last few years.
Football at the Summer Olympics 2024
In an astonishing fact, during the early days in the medieval region of England, a large group of personnels would attempt to drag a pig's bladder (By any possible means), which would be markers at the opposite ends of a town, was a sort of playing games of football. Although, these events came in the counting of being violent to a great extent, but they were very much popular as well. During the 16th century, the English schools made football a formiddable sport by bringing a huge transformation in its rules and significance.
While talking about the history of Women's Football at the Olympics, the Olympics news guide states that the tournament is played in the same format as in the FIFA competitions. A total of two teams take part in a 90-minute football contest i.e. divided into two halaves of 45-minutes each. Similarly, the Men's football tournaments are contested in the likewise manner with some changes in the formation of teams. Talking about the 2024 Summer Olympics rules and regulations, all of the Men's teams should have players with a minimum age of 23 years old or less. However, as many as three footballers are allowed to be included in the side even if they are born before 1 January, 2001. Incidentally, football is one such sport where the matches begin even before the start of Summer Olympic games list due to more number of games played. In the 2000 Olympics hosted in Sydney, the football competition kickstarted as many as two days prior to the start of the main event.
Talking about football's history at the mega sporting tournament, Football was first started being a part of the Summer Olympic Games in Paris 1900 and was contested every edition of the competition since then. On the other hand, Women's football was first included at the Olympics during the Atlanta Games in 1996. While considering the history of the sport, the USA teams have won the gold medal multiple times in the Olympics history, Atlanta 1996, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012. Canada were the Gold Medal winners in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games held in Tokyo while Germany won the football tournament in 2016 Rio Olympics.
It was Europe who came up with a stunning performance in the Men's event at the 1992 Olympic Games taken place in Barcelona. Spain finished as the last European side to win the Gold Medal at the global sporting mega event. It was after the 1996 Olympic Games that took place in Atlanta, the likes of African and Latin American sides have managed to win the prestigious Gold Medal while Brazil repeated their feat as Olympic Gold Medalist during the previous football event of the tournament.
While talking about the top footballers who have participated in the past few editions of the Olympic Games and made their nation proud at the grandest stage of all. The likes of Ferenc Puskas in 1952, Lev Yashin in 1956 and Samuel Eto'o in 2000 featured at the Olympic Games. On the other hand, star football players like Lionel Messi in 2008, Neymar in 2012 and 2016, Marta in 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020, and Alex Morgan played in the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games.
Talking about the Men's Football event at the 2024 Olympic Games, teams like Spain, Argentina, Morocco, Egypt, Dominican Republic, New Zealand, Paraguay, Israel, Mali, France, United States, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Columbia and Ukraine have already qualified. Even with the inclusion of star player like Sunil Chhetri, India are yet to play a single edition of the Olympic Games so far. Cristiano Ronalo while playing for Portugal team has also not won a Gold Medal ever in the history of Olympic Games.
