OLYMPIC TOURNAMENT SEARCHABLE DATABASE
(1908-2024)
(Next update: 12-02-2024)
I'm presenting here a very powerful and complete searchable database containing all the 3,733 games played in the Olympic Football Tournament (also including Pre-Olympic qualifiers), from its inception in 1908 to Paris 2024 edition (in progress). You will be able to make queries about editions, years, cities, rounds, national squads, and scores, either specifically or by combining different fields.
National squads are listed with their international English name, together with their original local name (if necessary) in parentheses. But don't worry: as input for the search box you can also use plain text (with no accents or especial diacritics), truncated forms (first, middle, or last letters of the team's name), or localized spellings (the common name of the team in English or Spanish), and the database will generate the desired results. The use of this database is very easy and intuitive: simply specify or combine the desired data, and the program will generate the list of games that matches those criteria. Remember that you don't have to fill all the fields and also that your query should be logical.
EDITION |
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Only Final Stage
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YEAR |
From
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To
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GAME DETAILS |
Venue
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Round
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MATCH |
OPTION 1 (recommended): DATA
INPUT
Free text. Broad search (non-context sensitive). |
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vs. |
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Fixed order of games |
OPTION 2: SELECT MENU
English names. Narrow search (context sensitive). |
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SCORE |
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INSTRUCTIONS AND TIPS
Following is a brief introduction and explanation of the different
searchable fields:
1) EDITION. Select the desired Olympic Tournament
edition. By default, the database will retrieve ALL the games played in the
competition, from the continental pre-olympic qualifiers to the Final Stage.
If you only want to retrieve the matches of this final round in the host country
(Olympic Tournament proper), you should select YES in "Only Final Stage."
It's also possible to use the option "Only Final Stage" as a filter
combined with each of the fields VENUE and ROUND below.
2) YEAR. Select the first and the last year
for the period containing your search. If you only select "year from"
or "year to," the search will include, respectively, all the Olympic
Tournament games beginning or ending in that year. You should also keep in
mind that these natural years don't match the editions above, since normally
the pre-olympic rounds are played 1-2 years before the Final Stage.
3) GAME DETAILS. You can further refine your
search by selecting VENUE (the place where a game is played, written in its
original spelling or a transcription into Latin alphabet) and ROUND (the different
continental confederations of the pre-olympic qualifiers or the last rounds
of the Final Stage). You will notice in the field ROUND an index of different
phases, corresponding to the changes in the competition format of the Olympic
Tournament, but all except the ones with the label "PRE-OLYMPIC"
are Final Stage rounds. Regarding the pre-olympic qualifiers, please have
in mind that the division of continental FIFA confederations has not always
been clear in the history of the competition, and some countries are included
in a confederation group different from their geographical location (especially
the border countries between Europe-Asia, Europe-Africa, Africa-Asia, and
Asia-Oceania). The names in this index only reflect the names of the rounds
in the different editions of the pre-olympic tournaments. Please, note the
following abbreviations attached to some of these preliminary rounds: N/C.America (North/Central America), S.America (South America). [NOTE: Due to database requirements, the apostrophe (') is missing
in the following city names: L'Aquila.]
4) MATCH. There are two search options to retrieve
games between national teams: a) Data input:
The search box will accept almost any combination of plain text, truncated
forms, or localized names (English, Spanish, and even the original
spelling in the native language/-s and alphabet/-s,
which in time can be truncated), as long as it uniquelly identifies
a specific team; by default, the query under this option is reversible,
so the match "Country A" vs. "Country B" will generate
games "Country A-Country B" (Country A plays home in home-and-away
preliminary rounds or comes first in the official competition calendar of
the Final Stage) and "Country B-Country A" (Country A plays away).
If you want to restrict the search to "home" or "away"
games (only meaningful for pre-olympic rounds, as explained before), mark
the checkbox "Fixed order of games." It should be obvious now that
you should never mark this checkbox if you select a Final Stage edition or
round, with single-game matches, since this won't retrieve all the games of
a specific national squad. Another advantage of this search method is that
it generates the full historical record of a national team, including name
changes (like USSR > Russia). b) Select menu:
The English name of the country can be selected in this drop down index; please,
note that this option, although very quick and easy to use, can only generate
the fixed order of games specified in the search criteria (that is, "Country
A" vs. "Country B," but not the corresponding "Country
B" vs. "Country A") and doesn't show the name changes of the
selected teams. Because this option is context sensitive to the calendar order
of games, in order to make sure you retrieve all the matches of a specific
team you have to select it in both the first and second menus. [NOTE: In order to transcribe the local spelling of teams, in most
cases I've used standard Unicode fonts to represent characters different from
the Latin alphabet, so your Internet explorer should recognize and display
them correctly. However, for some complex scripts, I'm using the following
TTF fonts, which you might want to download and install in order to avoid
visualizing "squares" and properly read these names: Khmer
OS Metal Chieng (Khmer of Cambodia), GF Zemen
Unicode (Tigrinya of Eritrea and Amharic of Ethiopia), Malithi
Web (Sinhala of Sri Lanka), Mangal (Hindi
of India and Nepali of Nepal), SutonnyBanglaOMJ (Bengali of Bangladesh), Saysettha OT (Lao of Laos), Myanmar2 (Burmese of Myanmar).]
5) SCORE. This field lists the basic scores
in all the games of the Olympic Tournament. The retrieved games also show
the score at halftime (in parentheses). Please, note the following abbreviations
attached to some scores, containing additional information on the games: a.e.t. (after extra time), r. (replay), w.o. (walkover or forfeit), p.k. (penalty kicks), n.p. (not played).
By combining these basic fields, you can make countless queries
according to your specific interest. After you complete your query, the resulting
match list is displayed in the following ascendent order: 1) by
edition; 2) by round (within the pre-olympic qualifiers, the order is continental group-stage-date,
although it doesn't show); 3) by specific
date (even within the same year there is a chronological
order, although it doesn't show).
Finally, you will notice a link in every single score of the
generated list of games. Only the Final Stage matches
and all the pre-olympic round games of Spain contain full game statistics (line-ups, stadiums, dates, kick-off times, referees, goals, and relevant
incidents). In the case of the countless preliminary round games, the link
will simply take you to the edition file (although you might find it useful
to check the specific game date and have an overall view of the qualifying
groups, together with other explanations about the competition format). |