The Montreal Olympic Games not only welcomed athletes from around the world, they also made history thanks to a number of “firsts.” Now that’s something to be proud of!
- First Canadian city to host the Olympics
- First time the flame travelled from Greece to the host country via electronic signals sent by satellite
- First time the Olympic cauldron was lit by two non-gold medallists: a young English-Canadian woman and a young French-Canadian man
- First perfect score of 10.00 in Olympic history awarded in gymnastics (thanks to Nadia Comăneci)
- First to offer women’s events in basketball, rowing and handball
- First Olympic field hockey competition played on artificial turf (Percival Molson Memorial Stadium)
- First track cycling competitions in Olympic history to be held in an indoor velodrome
- First time so many women competed at the Olympics: 1,247 female participants (out of more than 6,000 total participants)
- First Games to officially test athletes for anabolic steroids, a banned substance that artificially improves athletic performance