This summer’s Olympics will take place in London from July 27 through August 12, and some 10,500 athletes from an estimated 204 nations will compete in 302 events over 26 different sports.

Officially known as the Games of the XXX Olympiad, the thirtieth edition of the modern games, this year’s event is being branded by many as the first social games. And when you consider the growth of Twitter and Facebook since the last summer Olympics in 2008, it’s easy to see why.

Coverage of the Olympics began with print media during the first games that was held in 1896. This expanded to radio in the 1930s, television in the 1960s and the internet in the mid-1990s. Now, social media, and its billions of active users – Facebook has expanded its audience eight-fold since the last games, and Twitter has seen its userbase grow by more than 2,000 percent – is tipped to play a significant role in the coverage of this year’s event, with athletes and organisers expected to actively participate with fans and the media.

This official infographic from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) takes a closer look at the evolution of Olympic coverage.

(Source: Olympic.org. Sports image via Shutterstock.)