As the title states, this geographic entry is about the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil will be the first city in South America to host the Summer Olympic games. It will be the 3rd host city from the Southern Hemisphere (Mebourne and Sydney are the first and second respectively).
Rio de Janeiro is the first city to host the Summer Olympics exclusively in the WINTER?
Yes, this is the case. It is winter in the host city of Rio de Janeiro. The sports are for the Summer Olympics, but the season is winter in the majority of Brazil.
Rio de Janeiro, at 22.9068° S, is located in the Southern Hemisphere. As we learned in school, when it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere. This is why. The Earth reaches is maximum axial tilt towards the sun at the latitude of 23° 26′ below and above the Equator. When the sun reaches 23° 26′ N(Tropic of Cancer), it is the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, Between June 20 and June 21 every. It is the longest day of the year in North America. What causes it to be summer in North America causes it to be the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. The axial tilt of the Earth is furthest away from 23° 26′ S (Tropic of Capricorn), it is the winter solstice.
Considering that the 2016 Summer Olympics are being held in August, this is exclusively winter in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is not the first time a Summer Olympiad has been held outside of Summer. This happened for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, held in between Sydney, Australia’s winter and spring, as it was held from 15 September 2000 to 1 October 2000. The 1956 Summer Olympics were held during the spring time in Melbourne, Australia. The equestrian events, however, were held in Stockholm, Sweden in June 1956 due to quarantine issues. The 1896 games were held in April, in Athens, Greece. The 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were held completely in autumn, as was the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
As for the 2016 Summer Olympics, it leaves something for all of us to consider. Yes, it is summer for North America and Europe, where alot of media outlets covering the games are headquartered, and it’s summer where the International Olympic Committee is located, in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is winter in the host city though, the first time it is exclusively winter for the Summer Games in the host city.
TheGeoScholar 