It's Olympics Time!

The Olympics come once every four years, and the Opening Ceremony is, perhaps, my favorite event of every Olympic cycle. Even though the Opening Ceremony will begin at 2am local time, I am staying awake to watch the 3.5 hour ceremony. And it will be totally worth it.

Like in 2012, I will be working to make an Olympic Fact of the Day. These are weird facts that really dig into what is considered "useless facts." As a taste of what these might be like, here are the 2012 facts:

Saturday, July 28: On the first day of competition, Kazakhstan won a gold medal, but Great Britain didn't win any.

Sunday, July 29: 7 of the 16 remaining female table tennis players represent European countries. Only 2, however, were not born in China (1 each for Belarus and Romania).

Monday, July 30: 15-year old Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania won all three rounds of the 100m breaststroke by swimming her three fastest times ever: in her heat (1:05.56), in her semifinal (1:05.21), and in the final (1:05.47).

Tuesday, July 31: Qatar won its third bronze medal in Olympic history today. Nasser Al-Attiyah, however, is the first of the three born in Qatar (the two previous medalists were born in Somalia [1992] and Bulgaria [2000]).

Wednesday, August 1: Only 1 European squad, Great Britain, is in the Men's Football quarterfinals; the only other time in Olympic history that only 1 European team made it to the quarterfinals was 2004, when Italy represented the continent. This excludes the 1904 Olympics, when the football tournament only feature 1 Canadian and 2 American teams.

Thursday, August 2: Of the top 4 female gymnasts in the all-around, 2 are Christian, 1 is Jewish, and 1 is Muslim.

Friday, August 3: Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong's bronze medal in Women's Keirin Cycling was the first for a non-independent country in the 2012 Olympics.

Saturday, August 4: Binnaz Uslu of Turkey finished 15th in her heat for the 3000m Steeplechase, more than 30 seconds after 14th place and approximately 1 minute past the qualifying time for the finals.

Sunday, August 5: Synchronized Swimming is one of only two Olympic events--with Rhythmic Gymnastics--in which only women compete.

Monday, August 6: Daniyal Gadzhiyev's bronze medal in Men's 84kg Greco-Roman Wrestling was Kazakhstan's 7th medal of these Olympics, but its first non-gold.

Bonus Fact: Grenada and Cyprus joined Guatemala in winning their first ever Olympic medals today. Grenada's Kirani James won gold in the Men's 400m, while Cyprus's Pavlos Kontides won silver in Laser Sailing. Erick Barrondo of Guatemala won silver in the Men's 20km Walk on Saturday.

Tuesday, August 7: Three bronze medals were awarded in the Men's High Jump--one each for Canada, Great Britain, and Qatar. The event, which has been contested in every Olympics since 1896, has only had three bronze medalists one other time (1992), although there were three silver medalists at the 1908 Games.

Wednesday, August 8: Great Britain didn't win any medals today, the first time that's happened since the first day of competition.

Thursday, August 9: Of the 7 sports that have pool play prior to the knockout stages, US women have won gold medals in 3 of them (beach volleyball, soccer, water polo) and are in gold medal matches in 2 others (basketball, indoor volleyball) on Saturday. The US women's field hockey team plays to not be in last place tomorrow, and the US didn't enter a team for handball.

Bonus Fact: 29 bronze medals were handed out today to 26 different countries (Italy, Kazakhstan, and the US each got two).

Friday, August 10: The Rhythmic Gymnastics competition is dominated by Eastern Europeans. Of the 10 finalists, 2 represent Russia, 2 are from Ukraine, and 1 each from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, and Poland. Israel's Neta Rivkin was born to Russian emigres. The lone exception (sort of) is South Korea's Son Yeon-Jae...who trains in Russia.

Saturday, August 11: The finals of the Women's K-1 200m Canoeing race featured two women named Teresa Portela. Portela of Spain finished fourth, while Portela of Portugal finished eighth.

Sunday, August 12: A Gabonese man has won the country's first ever medal.

And 27 fun wrap-up facts about the medals:

1. 85 countries won Olympic medals, and only 2 are non-independent countries (Hong Kong and Puerto Rico).
2. 71 countries won at least one bronze medal. 65 countries won at least one silver medal. 54 countries won at least one gold medal.
3. The US won the most medals overall, at 104, followed by China (87), Russia (82), Great Britain (65), and Germany (44).
4. The US won the most gold medals, at 46, followed by China (38), Great Britain (29), Russia (24), and South Korea (13).
5. The US won the most silver medals, at 29, followed by China (27), Russia (25), Germany (19), and Great Britain (17).
6. Russia won the most bronze medals, at 33, followed by the US (29), China (22), Great Britain (19), and Japan (17).
7. There were 302 medal ceremonies, giving out 302 golds, 304 silvers, and 356 bronzes. If you disaggregate the medals (i.e., multiple medals for teams/groups), 639 gold medals, 635 silver medals, and 684 bronze medals were handed out.
8. 1,958 athletes received some sort of medal during the games, or 18.27% of all athletes who went to the games.
9. Medals were handed to US athletes 256 times (including instances like 18 female soccer medals). Second was Russia, with 140, Great Britain (126), China (124), and Australia (114).
10. 147 gold medals were handed out to the US, followed by China (56), Russia (50), Great Britain (48), and Germany (45).
11. 63 silver medals were out to the US, followed by Japan (44), China (40), Russia (38), and Australia (37).
12. 59 bronze medals were handed out to Australia, followed by Russia (52), Great Britain (48), the US (46), Japan (33), and Canada (33).
13. The US had the most athletes walk home with at least one medal, at 208. Following the US was Russia (129), Great Britain (114), China (102), and Australia (99).
14. But not every country had a lot of athletes. So in terms of percentage of athletes who got medals, 45.45% of Montenegrin athletes won medals, followed by Trinidad and Tobago (43.33%), the US (39.25%), Jamaica (38.00%), and the Netherlands (35.96%).
15. Of countries that won medals, the worst percentages were Venezuela (1.43%, or 1 of 70 athletes), Morocco (1.49%, or 1 of 67 athletes), Egypt (1.77%, or 2 of 113 athletes), and Hong Kong and Algeria (both 2.38%, or 1 of 42 athletes).
16. None of Brazil's 59 medalists won more than one medal. Same goes for Canada (55), Croatia (35), New Zealand (27), and Mexico (26).
17. In a note of futility, none of Austria's 70 athletes won a medal. Other countries with more than 30 athletes but no medals include Nigeria (55), Israel (37), Ecuador (36), Chile (35), Angola (34), Cameroon (33), and Senegal (31).
18. India's 6 medals are the most without a gold (2 silver, 4 bronze). North Korea's 6 medals are the most without a silver (4 gold, 2 bronze), and Switzerland's 4 medals are the most without a bronze (2 gold, 2 silver).
19. Five countries--Algeria, Bahamas, Grenada, Uganda, Venezuela--won 1 gold medal and nothing else.
20. Six countries--Botswana, Cyprus, Gabon, Guatemala, Montenegro, Portugal--won 1 silver medal and nothing else.
21. Four countries--Greece, Moldova, Qatar, Singapore--won 2 bronze medals and nothing else. Seven countries--Afghanistan, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan--won 1 bronze medal and nothing else.
22. Tunisia is the only country that won 1 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze medal.
23. Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan are the only former Soviet Republics not to win a medal.
24. On average, each Montenegrin medal was for 15 athletes (Montenegro's only medal was for its 15-member Women's Handball team). Similarly, the Bahamas's 10gold medal went to 6 athletes. The highest number of athletes on average otherwise are Croatia (5.82 athletes/medaling event), Argentina (4.75 athletes/medaling event), and Norway (4.50 athletes/medaling event). The US was 19th, average 2 athletes per medaling event.
25. Eleven delegations of less than 20 athletes won medals. The smallest was Botswana (4 athletes entered), followed by Afghanistan (6), Grenada (10), Kuwait (11), Qatar (12), Bahrain (12), Cyprus (13), Uganda (16), Tajikistan (16), Guatemala (19), and Saudi Arabia (19). Of these, Saudi Arabia had the most athletes win a medal (4 athletes in one event), but Qatar is the only one to win a medal in more than one event.
26. By continent, Africa won 34 medals (11 gold, 12 silver, 11 bronze). Asia won 243 medals (79 gold, 72 silver, 92 bronze). Europe won 441 medals (133 gold, 145 silver, 163 bronze). North America won 166 medals (61 gold, 47 silver, 58 bronze). Oceania won 48 medals (12 gold, 19 silver, 17 bronze). South America won 30 medals (6 gold, 9 silver, 15 bronze).
27. By Regional Grouping: The Western Hemisphere won 196 medals (67 gold, 56 silver, 73 bronze). Middle Eastern countries won 29 medals (8 gold, 10 silver, 11 bronze). Sub-Saharan Africa won 27 medals (9 gold, 9 silver, 9 bronze). Countries of the former Soviet Union won 164 medals (47 gold, 44 silver, 73 bronze). Countries of the former Yugoslavia won 15 medals (5 gold, 4 silver, 6 bronze).