Olympic Hymn

Olympic Hymn

English: Olympic Anthem
Official anthem of Olympic Games
Also known as	Greek: Ολυμπιακός Ύμνος French: Hymne Olympique
Lyrics	Kostis Palamas
Music	Spyridon Samaras, 1896
Adopted	1958
Music sample
Olympic Hymn - Original Version

The Olympic Hymn (Greek: Ολυμπιακός Ύμνος, Olympiakós Ýmnos), also known informally as the Olympic Anthem, is a choral cantata by opera composer Spyridon Samaras, with lyrics by Greek poet Kostis Palamas. Both poet and composer were the choice of Demetrius Vikelas, a Greek Pro-European and the first President of the International Olympic Committee.

History

The anthem was performed for the first time for the ceremony of opening of the first edition at the 1896 Athens Olympic Games. In the following years every hosting nation commissioned to various musicians the composition of a specific Olympic hymn for their own edition of the games. This happened up to the edition at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.

The Anthem by Samaras and Palamas was declared the official Olympic Anthem by the International Olympic Committee in 1958 at the 55th Session of the IOC in Tokyo. Since 1960, it has been used at the Opening Ceremonies of each Olympic Games.

If the anthem is to be performed in English, then the English sung version is used, which has been usually in English-speaking countries. If it's to be performed in a language other than English or Greek, then the original version is translated to the language it is to be performed in. The only Olympics the English sung version was translated to other languages was in Vancouver. Dave Pierce, the music director during those games, had his associate, Donovan Seidle, arrange the anthem, translating some of the stanzas to French.

Languages in which anthem was performed

The anthem has been recorded and performed in many different languages, usually as a result of the hosting of either form of the Games in various countries. The IOC requires that the anthem be performed in either English or Greek.

Olympics	City	Language Performed	Notes
1960 Winter	Squaw Valley	English
1960 Summer	Rome	Italian
1964 Winter	Innsbruck	German
1964 Summer	Tokyo	Japanese	Sung in Japanese at the Closing Ceremony.
1968 Winter	Grenoble	French
1968 Summer	Mexico City	Spanish
1972 Winter	Sapporo	Japanese
1972 Summer	Munich	Instrumental	An instrumental arrangement was used during the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
1976 Winter	Innsbruck	German
1976 Summer	Montreal	French
1980 Winter	Lake Placid	English
1980 Summer	Moscow	Russian & Greek	Anthem was performed in Russian at opening ceremony, but in Greek in closing ceremony.
1984 Winter	Sarajevo	Serbo-Croatian
1984 Summer	Los Angeles	English
1988 Winter	Calgary	Greek	Decision was made to have it performed in Greek.
1988 Summer	Seoul	Korean
1992 Winter	Albertville	French
1992 Summer	Barcelona	Spanish, Catalan, and French	At the opening ceremony, Alfredo Kraus sang the first two stanzas in Catalan and the rest of the hymn in Spanish and French. At the closing ceremony, Plácido Domingo performed it entirely in Spanish.
1994 Winter	Lillehammer	Norwegian	Performed at both the opening and closing ceremonies by Sissel Kyrkjebø
1996 Summer	Atlanta	English
1998 Winter	Nagano	Japanese	Performed by Nagano Festival Orchestra and sung by Nagano City Chidren's Chorus Group in Japanese.
2000 Summer	Sydney	English & Greek	This was the only Olympics in which the anthem was performed in both of the languages the IOC requires the anthem to be performed in. At the opening ceremony, the hymn was recorded and performed in Greek by the Millennium Choir of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in recognition of the substantial Greek population of Australia. At the closing ceremony, it was performed in English.
2002 Winter	Salt Lake City	English
2004 Summer	Athens	Greek	The rendition that was performed was arranged by John Psathas.
2006 Winter	Torino	Instrumental/Abbreviated version	At these Olympics, an abbreviated version was performed at both the opening and closing ceremonies.
2008 Summer	Beijing	Greek	Decision was made to have it performed in Greek at both the opening and closing ceremonies.
2010 Winter	Vancouver	English & French	This was the only Olympics that the anthem was performed in both of the official languages of the Olympics. This was done to reflect Canada's languages. Measha Brueggergosman at the opening ceremony and Ben Heppner at the closing ceremony sang the first two, the fourth, and sixth stanzas in English and the remainder in French.
2010 Summer Youth	Singapore	Greek	Sung in Greek with French and English lyrics shown on screen as the Anthem was performed.
2012 Winter Youth	Innsbruck	Instrumental	The abbreviated version was played in the closing ceremony, while full version played at the opening. The arrangement is similar to the one used in the 1972 Summer Olympics

See also

• Olympic symbols