LOOKING BACK
As we all get ready for the Olympics to get under way in Beijing, it might be interesting to catch up on some 
Olympics history. The New York Times has a cool, interactive chart of the games from 1896 to 2004 that could be pretty enlightening and entertaining.
Both the Geographic and Ranking views offer some interesting glimpses into the history of the games over the last century. For example, France had the most medals in 1900 (101), with the U.S. coming in second at 47 medals.
Looking at the 2004 Rankings view, it's interesting to see the U.S. at number one (102 medals), followed by Russia and China with 92 and 63 respectively. Brazil from the "BRIC" countries comes in 21st with 10 medals, while India comes in with one silver medal for double trap. The UAE took the gold that year in that sport, with it's one medal.
Just because you have over a billion people doesn't mean you're assured of winning a lot of medals, gold or otherwise.
Hope you find other interesting factoids from the chart.
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