The Olympic Hymn, also known informally as the Olympic Anthem, is a musical piece composed by Spyros Samaras with words written from a poem of the Greek poet and writer Kostis Palamas. Both the poet and the composer were the choice of Demetrius Vikelas, a great Greek Pro-European and the first President of the IOC. The anthem was performed for the first time for the ceremony of opening of the first edition at the 1896 Athens Olympic Games. In the following years every hosting nation commissioned to various musicians the composition of a specific Olympic hymn for their own edition of the games. This happened up to the edition at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. The Anthem by Samaras and Palamas was declared the official Olympic Anthem by the International Olympic Committee in 1958 and it was performed again from the edition of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Writer Paul Smirnoff used the anthem and its greek lyrics in his book "Gotterdammerung" as a rebel song.

The hymn has been recorded and performed in many different languages, usually as a result of the hosting of either form of the Games in various countries. Recent examples include Spanish (Mexico City 1968 and Barcelona 1992), German (Innsbruck 1964, Munich 1972 and Innsbruck 1976), English (Lake Placid 1980, Los Angeles 1984, Atlanta 1996 and Salt Lake 2002), Russian (Moscow 1980), Korean (Seoul 1988), Japanese (Tokyo 1964, Sapporo 1972, and Nagano 1998), French (Grenoble 1968, Montreal 1976 and Albertville 1992), Serbo-Croatian (Sarajevo 1984) and Norwegian (Lillehammer 1994).

For the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the hymn was recorded and performed in Greek by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Sydney with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, in recognition of the substantial Greek population of Australia. In addition to its appearance at Athens 2004, the decision was also made to use a Greek arrangement at the 1988 Winter Olympics at Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

The hymn was played in Moscow in 2001 prior to the announcement of the election of Jacques Rogge as IOC President. On many occasions the hymn has also featured before the announcement of the winning Olympic bid. One such example was in 2003 before Rogge announced Vancouver, Canada as the city that would host the 2010 Winter Olympics, though on that occasion only the introduction was used. blank">http://ms.radio-canada.ca/archives/2004/en/wmv/olympicbids20030702et2.wmv At the election of _Sochi as host city for the 2014 Winter Games, no rendition of the anthem was used.