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Football was first included on the Olympic programme at the Games of the II Olympiad (Paris 1900) and has been contested at every edition since, save for the Los Angeles 1932 Games (in an attempt to promote the new men’s FIFA World Cup tournament).
Women’s football made its Olympic debut at the Atlanta Games in 1996. The USA has finished on top of the podium multiple times, including at Atlanta 1996, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012. Germany won gold at Rio 2016, while Canada are the defending Olympic champions after triumphing at Tokyo 2020.
Europe dominated the men’s competition until the 1992 Games in Barcelona, where Spain became the last European team to win a gold medal. Since the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, African and Latin American teams have won every gold medal, with Brazil repeating as Olympic champions at Tokyo 2020.
Many footballing greats have taken part in the Olympic Games, including Ferenc Puskás in 1952, Lev Yashin in 1956, Samuel Eto’o in 2000, Lionel Messi in 2008, Neymar in 2012 and 2016, Marta in 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020, and Alex Morgan in 2012, 2016 and 2020.
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