Most Olympics hosted by city: Paris, London lead full list of Summer Games locations since Athens 1896

Jacob Camenker

Most Olympics hosted by city: Paris, London lead full list of Summer Games locations since Athens 1896 image

The Olympics are heading to Paris in 2024, and the French capital should set a beautiful and familiar backdrop for the Summer Games.

Paris has been one of the most frequent hosts of the Olympics over the 128-year history of the event. It has hosted the Summer Games twice before and will now join another European city as the only cities to host the Olympics three times. 

Here's a look at the cities and countries that have hosted the Olympics the most, as well as a year-by-year look at the Olympic host cities.

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Most Olympics hosted by city

Just five cities have hosted the Summer Olympics more than once dating back to the event's origination in 1896. The 2024 Olympics will allow Paris to join London as the only cities to host the Summer Olympics three times.

Below are the full details of the cities that have hosted the Summer Olympics on multiple occasions:

CityTimes hosting the Summer OlympicsYears
London, United Kingdom31908, 1948, 2012
Paris, France31900, 1924, 2024
Los Angeles, United States21932, 1984
Athens, Greece21896, 2004
Tokyo, Japan21964, 2020

It's worth noting that Los Angeles is scheduled to join London and Paris among the ranks of three-time host cities in 2028.

Additionally, four cities — St. Moritz, Switzerland; Innsbruck, Austria; Lake Placid, United States; and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy — have all hosted the Winter Olympics twice. Beijing, China is the only city to ever host both the Summer and Winter Olympics, achieving the feats in 2008 and 2022, respectively.

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Olympic host cities by year

A total of 24 different cities have hosted the Olympics throughout the event's history. They are as follows, by year:

YearCityCountry
1896AthensGreece
1900ParisFrance
1904St. LouisUnited States
1908LondonUnited Kingdom
1912StockholmSweden
1920AntwerpBelgium
1924ParisFrance
1928AmsterdamNetherlands
1932Los AngelesUnited States
1936BerlinGermany
1948LondonUnited Kingdom
1952HelsinkiFinland
1956Melbourne*Australia
1960RomeItaly
1964TokyoJapan
1968Mexico CityMexico
1972MunichGermany
1976MontrealCanada
1980MoscowSoviet Union
1984Los AngelesUnited States
1988SeoulSouth Korea
1992BarcelonaSpain
1996AtlantaUnited States
2000SydneyAustralia
2004AthensGreece
2008BeijingChina
2012LondonUnited Kingdom
2016Rio de JaneiroBrazil
2020TokyoJapan
2024ParisFrance
2028Los AngelesUnited States
2032BrisbaneAustralia

Equestrian events were held in Stockholm, Sweden at the 1956 Olympics.

The Olympics have also been canceled three times during the event's existence. The first came in 1916 when the Berlin Games were canceled as a result of World War I. Berlin later hosted the Olympics in 1936, the last Olympics before a 12-year lull necessitated by World War II.

The 1940 Olympic Games were originally set to be hosted in Tokyo, Japan but were relocated to Helsinki, Finland after the outbreak of World War II. The war later forced the International Olympic Committee to cancel the games; the 1944 Summer Games in London were also canceled because of the war.

London hosted the Olympics when they returned in 1948, marking the second time the city hosted the Summer Games. Helsinki was awarded the 1952 Olympics, and Tokyo returned to the rotation in 1964, 19 years after WWII ended.

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Most Olympics hosted by country

Seven countries have hosted the Summer Olympics multiple times. The United States leads the way, as it has hosted the Summer Games four times.

Below is a look at the countries to host the Summer Olympics multiple times:

CountryTimes hosting the Summer OlympicsYears
United States41904, 1932, 1984, 1996
United Kingdom31908, 1948, 2012
France31900, 1924, 2024
Australia21956, 2000
Japan21964, 2020
Germany21936, 1972
Greece21896, 2004

The United States will host the Summer Games for a fifth time in 2028, while Australia will improve its total to three in 2032. The IOC has not yet announced any host cities beyond that point.

Jacob Camenker

Jacob Camenker Photo

Jacob Camenker first joined The Sporting News as a fantasy football intern in 2018 after his graduation from UMass. He became a full-time employee with TSN in 2021 and now serves as a senior content producer with a particular focus on the NFL. Jacob worked at NBC Sports Boston as a content producer from 2019 to 2021. He is an avid fan of the NFL Draft and ranked 10th in FantasyPros’ Mock Draft Accuracy metric in both 2021 and 2022.