Olympic Oath

The inspiration for an oath came from the Ancient Olympic Games where competitors swore on a statue of Zeus.

Giuliana Minuzzo was the first woman to take the athletes' oath at the winter games in 1956, while Heidi Schuller did likewise at the Summer Olympics in 1972.

The oath has changed over the years to remove nationalism and to reflect drugs in sport and equality.

When the Youth Olympics were created the IOC decided to have an oath for coaches as they realised that young athletes look to them particularly.

In 1970 the IOC amended rule 57 of the charter and decreed that a judge from the host nation would also take an oath.

The first judges' oath was taken at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo by Fumio Asaki and Heinz Pollay performed the task at that year's summer games in Munich.

However, in an attempt to eliminate nationalism from the oath ceremony, all have sworn on the Olympic Flag since the 1984 games.

[6] In 1999, the IOC created the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in an effort to form a more organized battle against doping.

In addition the number of oath takers at each games were expanded from three to six, to ensure a member of each gender was represented in each oath as part of a commitment to promote women in sport at all levels and in all structures, as stated in the Olympic Charter.

Victor Boin taking the first oath in Antwerp .
The oath being taken collectively at the first winter games in 1924 at Chamonix
Minuzzo was the first woman to take the athletes oath at the winter games.
Suzanne Morrow-Francis was the first woman to take the official's oath at the winter games in 1988 .