The modern Olympic Summer Games are among the world's largest and most-watched sporting events. Every four years athletes from across the globe gather for weeks of intense competition for the glory of a prestigious Olympic gold medal, resulting in exciting triumphs and gut-wrenching failures that live on for years in the hearts and minds of both die-hard sports fans and casual observers. While the Games came under increasingly heavy criticism in the late 20th century for their turn away from pure amateurism and toward the growth of corporate sponsorships, the underlying drama of athletic competition at the highest level continues to captivate billions of people every Olympiad.
