The ancient Olympics were held on a four year cycle, a consistency that was so well known that it is used as a way to date years (“in the 3rd year of the 10th Olympiad”). The modern Olympic Games were created to maintain this tradition.

Practically, anything less than 4 years is too little time to prepare, both for athletes and for host cities. It’s already difficult to find host cities due to the high cost of the event, and doing so on a more frequent basis means that each Games will be more pressured and less of a spectacle.

Additionally, most sports have their own cycle of events between the Games, so the Olympics would be competing with events like the FIFA World Cup, etc.

holding the Olympics every four years keeps it a major event and gives athletes ample time to train and compete at their best. imagine the hype if it were more frequent. And, it’s a tradition that goes way back.

Before 1994 the Winter and Summer Olympics were the same year too - so there really was a 4 year gap between Olympic years.

Now that Winter and Summer Olympics are offset by 2 years, at least we get an Olympics of some sort every 2 years.

I could see maybe once every three years. Though anything quicker than that and the Olympics would become a LOT less special. There also has to be time to have qualifiers, to be able to actually determine who comes to the Olympics itself, that’s quite a process when it’s the entire world competing.

Track and field, swimming and gymnastics all have major televised competitions and championship events if you’re interested more in the performance than the spectacle, and they’re part of the Olympic qualifiers so you’re seeing the people who will be in the Olympics. They’re a lot of fun to watch and also make watching the games better, because you know your athletes and who they’re racing against better. Otherwise if you only watch the Olympics, by the time you get to know everyone their events are almost over.

The track and field World Championship is especially good. They’ve usually got a big crowd and it feels just like you’re watching the Olympics. And at least in the US, the same announcers even do them so it’s basically a mini Olympics for track and field athletes (NBC is in charge of the broadcast too). They are held twice between each Olympics.

This is clearly a lack of education. They taught the Olympics in grade school.

There are other games in between that are also on a 4-year cycle. These are not as big as the Olympics.

European Games

Asian Games

Commonwealth Games

Pan American Games

Pan African Games

It costs a lot. and there are continental events every 4 years. Each sport has world championship every 2 or 4 years as well to fill the gap

Why don’t we make all aggressors put down their swords ( or drones) for the Olympics any more?