The Olympic Games is the biggest sporting event on the planet. It has developed beyond all recognition since Baron Pierre du Coubertin first raised the idea of reviving the Ancient Olympic ideal in 1889. The first modern Olympic Games, appropriately held in Athens in 1896, featured only 241 athletes from 14 countries; at the London 2012 Games, around 4,200 athletes from 147 countries competed in front of a global television audience of 6.7 billion. Some of the greatest stories in world sport have been written and names have been etched into sporting folklore during Olympic competition. ''Olympic and World Records'' is a collection of the finest achievements on sport's greatest platform. Fully updated with special features on the London 2012 Olympic Games and the records set during this festival of sport, ''Olympic and World Records'' is essential reading for any fan of the Games - the greatest and most revered spectacle in world sport - and an outstanding record of the greatest summer of sport ever witnessed on (and off in the case of sailing) these shores.