Olympic Party Games for Themed Olympic Party

The Olympics are a special event that only happens every 4 years and whether it is the Summer or Winter Olympic Games it is hard not to get caught up in the excitement of one of the world’s most amazing events.

We have tried to mix in a variety of game diy ideas featuring an Olympic theme including outdoor games, Olympic word games, Bingo and simple activities you can do with the kids. Basically, these games work for a birthday party, Olympic viewing party or just fun ideas on a Saturday afternoon. Just adjust the content based on whether it is the summer or winter Olympics.

Olympic Challenge
Supplies: Open space, depends on activities you choose to play

One of the most impressive Olympic Events is the Decathlon, which is made up of 10 Track & Field Events.

Now you can make your own Olympic Challenge for your Olympic themed party by taking 5 or more Olympic themed events and making they unique challenges. Note: You can try to do 10 events but for a Birthday party 5 is much more managable.

The Game Plan is to Host a Variety of Challenges and award points for 1st (5 pts.), 2nd (3 pts.) and 3rd (1 pt.) place for each event. Choose a variety of events and try to use real Olympic Games if possible to stay with the theme. We also advise you try to mix up the style of the games so that the same person doesn’t win everything.

Challenge Ideas: Race from one end of the yard and back (100 meter dash), Standing long jump (Long jump), Toss a tennis ball shot put style and mark distances (Shot put), create an obstacle course as an event and then get creative with have the players throw something through a target or hit a target before moving on (time each contestant in this event), have a pool add a swimming event, sack race, shoot basketballs from several spots and record how many attempts it takes to make all the shots, the person with the fewest attempts wins 1st place. Now that you have the idea you can mix in other Olympic challenges and even trivia or Olympic word games to make it more entertaining.

Once you have finished your events tally up the points and award your medals!


Olympic Bingo
Supplies: Blank Bingo cards, pen, paper, scissors to cut up bingo list, bingo markers – candy or pennies

In this DIY bingo game you will create a list of all the Olympic events. You’ll need a least 40, so you may have to use both summer and winter game events.

Type up the event list and hand out blank bingo cards and ask the guests to write 1 Olympic event in each square. FYI – The center square of your 5×5 bingo card should be a free space. The guests will randomly select from the list you give them.

While the guests are filling out their Bingo card, take an extra copy of the event sheet and cut the out the events so you have one event listed per piece of paper, fold in half and then place in a bowl.

Once everyone has filled out the sheets, hand out bingo markers that will be used to cover called Olympic events. Now you are ready to play.

The Game Host randomly pulls a slip of paper from the bowl and reads the Olympic event out loud. Players check their bingo cards to see if they have that event on their card and if they do, they cover it with a bingo mark. The Game Host sets the slip of paper to the side, creating a called event pile, and selects another event slip.

This process continues until a player has a Bingo and yells BINGO. That is 5 in a row straight across, down or diagonal. Once a player calls Bingo play stops, the Bingo is reviewed. If the Bingo is confirmed the game is over the winner gets a prize and if the bingo is not confirmed play continues until someone wins at Bingo.

Once the game is over, the pulled events are folded up again, tossed in the bowl and mixed up. Players clear their bingo cards and play starts again.


Olympic Trivia Game
Supplies: Research, printer, paper, pen

If you have the time you can create your own Olympic Trivia game for your group.

Trivia Ideas:
– Match the Year of the Olympics with the City. Do you know when the Olympics were in Montreal, Los Angeles, Mexico City?
– Do sport trivia on a single sport like Gymnastics, Swimming, Basketball, Boxing, etc… based on your groups interests. Who won team gold and individual gold medals? What year did they win them? By focusing on just one sport you can often dig up some great details that everyone will enjoy knowing after the game is over plus it’s a great way to socialize too.
– Go for the Gold – Research interesting facts on Oldest & Youngest Gold Medal Winner, who has one the most medals at consecutive Olympics, the most overall, the most in different sports etc…
– If you create an Olympic trivia game about random facts, consider including questions concerning discontinued Olympic sports like Baseball that was in the 2008 Olympics but not part of 2012. Use Wikipedia for former and discontinued Olympic events.

These ideas should help you get started on your own Olympic trivia games and if we find any we will post them here for you.



Olympic Word Scramble
Supplies: Time, printer, pen and paper

Get a list of Olympic events and then create a document where you scramble the letters of the word like Curling becomes Lrinucg. Now go down the page and number, add the scrambled word and place a fill in the blank line. (1. lrinucg ______)

Once you have 12 – 15 terms. Print out your game sheets and be sure to have an answer sheet. For game play, hand out a word scramble game sheet and pens then when you say go have guests race to unscramble all the words. You can play first person to finish with all the correct answers wins or play to a set time limit (3 – 5 minutes) and then score the answers, most correct wins.


Gymnastic Activity Challenge
Supplies: Open space, parent supervision and various supplies

For little girls watching the Women’s Gymnastics team compete is one of the most amazing Olympic events and gymnastic camps around the country see a surge in aspiring gymnasts after the Olympics end.

So for a special birthday event, create your own Gymnastics Camp. Kids can have fun learning gymnastics and you can even record the finals and save and play them during your party. You can show the kids how to do cartwheels, somersaults and creative dancing. Then ask them to put together a 40 second floor routine where they can dance around and perform some of the gymnast moves you showed them. Remember to keep this simple and safe so avoid flips and any dangerous moves.

Another activity could be the balance beam walk, for that place a long 4 inch wide board on the ground and have the kids practice balancing and staying on the board. Make a game of it and have them catch a ball while staying on the board. Get ribbons and do ribbon dancing, just watch the Olympic games and get creative ideas.

We see this is more of a fun activity and would avoid judging and scores these activities.


Swim Challenge
Supplies: Large pool and participants who can swim

Create your own series of swim / pool related Olympic Challenges for a kids pool party or birthday party with a competitive theme. Consider 3 to 5 activities / challenges, which you can score on a game by game item or total to have an overall winner. In many cases, the pool provides limitations so we often do each challenge as it’s own event.

Individual Swimming Challenge Ideas:
– Swim Race: Choose a specific stroke like Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke or even Doggy Paddle or let each person choose their own. Have kids race from one end of the pool and back and the person who finishes first wins. If you have lots of kids do several heats and the win of each race makes the final race to decide the winner.

– Water Polo Target Practice: If you have a goal / net (or inner-tube you can through through) for your pool place it at one end and one by one have each player swim to a spot at the deep end where they will be given 5 attempts to throw a ball at the goal. (They should not be able to touch the bottom, so they need to be able to tread water.) Score how many goals they make and score, the player with the most goals wins. If there is a tie, do a playoff round and increase the distance or shoot until someone makes it or misses a shot (sudden death style). What year did they win them? By focusing on just one sport you can often dig up some great details that everyone will enjoy knowing after the game is over plus it’s a great way to socialize too.

– Go for the Gold: Toss a specific amount of Gold coins (Pennies work just fine) in the pool. The coins can be place in a specific place each tie or randomly tossed in the pool. Then you can play two ways: 1. Each child is told to collect all coins (locations know) and return to the start line as fast as possible and fastest time wins. 2. Each child is given 30 seconds or a minutes to find as many coins as possible and at the the end of time a whistle is blown and the coins are counted. Most coins wins.

– Hold Your Breathe Challenge: Kids get in the pool at the shallow end and on a count of three drop under the water to see who can hold their breath the longest. Last person up wins.

– Tread Water Challenge: Kids go to the deep end where they cannot touch the bottom of the pool and see who can tread water the longest. Last person treading water wins. Down side of this game is challenge is that is this game could last 5, 10 or even 20 minutes.

– Water Basketball Shooting Challenge: Like the Water Polo throw challenge, players are placed at a specific spot and challenged to make as many baskets with 5 attempts. If there is a tie, increase the distance of the shot and compete again. Repeat until you have a winner.

While many of these challenges are not in the Summer Olympic Games they should provide fun at your pool or birthday party. Plus you can add you own pool games as well.


The Olympics are a special sporting event and we have always enjoyed them. We hope these Olympic inspired party games help you celebrate or inspire you to create others games.