Olympic Games The Olympic Games , or Olympics , are an international multi - sport event taking place every four years comprising of summer and winter games . Originally held in ancient Greece , they were revived by a French nobleman , Pierre Frèdy , Baron de Coubertin in the late 19th century . The Summer Olympics have been held every fourth year since 1896 , except in 1916 , 1940 , and 1944 due to the World Wars . A special edition for winter sports , the Olympic Winter Games , was first held in 1924 . The first winter Olympics competitions were originally held as a non - Olympic sports festival , but were declared to be official Games by the International Olympic Committee in 1925 . Originally these were held in the same year as the Summer Olympics , but since 1994 the Winter Games and the Summer Games have been held two years apart . Appearances . Los Angeles 1984 . The Muppets appeared in " An Olympic Gala " , the television special kicking off the games . Nagano 1998 . Animal was the mascot of the U . S . Snowboarding Team for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano , Japan . This was the first year that snowboarding was recognized by the Olympics , and the team adopted Animal as their mascot . The drummer made a television appearance on CBS with reporter Kennedy , who stapled his feet to a snowboard , and a series of short promos written by Craig Shemin and Jim Lewis . The appearance was shot on Whistler Mountain outside of Vancouver , rather than Nagano , Japan where the Games were held , and included a segment that was omitted from CBS ' s broadcast . To demonstrate how a snowboarder might stop , Animal was shown to have crashed into a truck , a bathroom door , and a tree . Shortly after the material was shot , Sonny Bono was killed in a skiing accident , and the segment was left unaired . Vancouver 2010 . The Coca - Cola Polar Bear made appearances at the 2010 Winter Olympics . London 2012 . " Elmo Should Go to the Olympics " ( or , ElmOlympian ) was a social media campaign by Sesame Workshop , launched on June 4 , 2012 , the social media blitz followed Elmo as he made preparations for the 2012 Olympic Games in London , England . On June 7 , 2012 , Elmo appeared on " Today " to promote his cause . Two new videos were released on July 23 , the first announcing that Elmo would be joined by Abby and Grover at the Olympics , and the second with Elmo talking to Sarah Hughes . As of the second set of videos , the Facebook campaign page had been taken down , and text references to the Olympics were scrubbed from new videos . Boxer Marcus Brown was featured in a third video . A USA Boxing representative said the segment was filmed in New York in mid - June , shortly after the USA Olympic boxing team was formally announced . Brown was recommended to producers , who were looking for New York - based Olympians . Tim Morehouse and Daryl Homer , two American fencers , discuss teamwork in another video . Morehouse met up with Elmo , Grover , and Abby at the Olympics itself , August 11 , tweeting pictures of the encounter . During their stay in London , Elmo , Abby and Grover appeared on " Today " ( August 9 ) , " Milkshake ! " ( August 10 ) , and " Rove Live " ( August 11 ) . Sochi 2014 . To promote the release of Muppets Most Wanted , and to coincide with the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi , the Muppets were featured in a series of TV spots and web videos themed around the Winter Olympics . Additionally , a set of web videos supporting team Canada were released on Walt Disney Studio ' s Canadian YouTube channel featuring the Muppets . PyeongChang 2018 . The " Sesame Street " Muppets appeared with a variety of Olympians in advance of the 2018 Winter Olympics , in short spots for NBC : Elmo and Cookie Monster sing " The Olympic Song " with Olympians Snowboarder Chloe Kim , Figure Skaters Nathan Chen and Karen Chen , and Freestyle Skiers David Wise and Gus Kenworthy .