The 2008 Summer Olympics were held in Beijing, People's Republic of China, from 8 August to 24 August 2008.^{[Note 1]} A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOC) participated. Overall, 302 events in 28 sports were held; 165 events were opened to men, 127 were opened to women and 10 were mixed events.^[1] In total there was one more event than in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.^[2]

Nine new events were held, including two from the new cycling discipline of BMX. Women competed in the 3000 metre steeplechase for the first time. Marathon open water swimming events for men and women, over the distance of 10 kilometres, were added to the swimming discipline. Team events (men and women) in table tennis replaced the doubles events.^[3] In fencing, women's team foil and women's team sabre replaced men's team foil and women's team épée.^{[Note 2]} Two sports were open only to men, baseball and boxing, while one sport and one discipline were open only to women, softball and synchronized swimming. Equestrian is the only sport in which men and women compete together in the same events.^[4][5] Baseball and softball may have made their last appearances in Olympics history during these Games, as the International Olympic Committee voted to remove them from the programme of the 2012 Olympics.^[6] A total of 958 medals for events (302 gold, 303 silver and 353 bronze) were awarded. In boxing, judo, taekwondo and wrestling, two bronze medals are awarded in each weight class.^[7] Therefore, the total number of bronze medals is greater than the total number of gold or silver medals. Additionally there were ties for a silver medal and two bronze medals.^[8][9]

A total of 1,881 individual athletes won medals. Chinese athletes won the most gold medals with 48 (100 total), and the United States won the most total medals with 112 (including 36 gold).^[10] Athletes from 87 countries won medals, while 55 nations won at least one gold medal, both setting new records for Olympic Games.^[11] Athletes from Afghanistan (Rohullah Nikpai – Taekwondo, men's 58 kg),^[12] Mauritius (Bruno Julie – boxing, bantamweight),^[13] Sudan (Ismail Ahmed Ismail – athletics, men's 800 m),^[14] Tajikistan (Rasul Boqiev – judo, men's 73 kg),^[15] and Togo (Benjamin Boukpeti – canoeing, men's K-1 slalom)^[16] won their NOCs' first Olympic medal. Athletes from Mongolia (Naidangiin Tüvshinbayar – judo, men's 100 kg),^[17] and Panama (Irving Saladino – athletics, men's long jump)^[18] won their nations' first gold medal.

American swimmer Michael Phelps was the most successful athlete, winning eight gold medals and setting a new record for most golds won in a single edition of the Olympics (the previous record, seven, had been set in 1972 by Mark Spitz).^[19] Phelps also set a new record for most career gold medals (14), and his 16 total medals were ranked second all-time behind Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina (18) at the time. In 2012 Phelps set a record for most total medals.^[20] Several records for career medals in a sport were tied or surpassed, including cycling (Bradley Wiggins of the United Kingdom won two gold, tied for record with six career medals); judo (Ryoko Tani of Japan won a bronze, five career medals); softball (Laura Berg of the United States won a gold and Natalie Ward, Melanie Roche and Tanya Harding of Australia won a bronze; all have four career medals); swimming (Michael Phelps, 16 career medals); taekwondo (Steven López of the United States won a bronze and Hadi Saei of Iran won a gold, both three career medals); and table tennis (Wang Nan of China won a gold and silver medal, five career medals).^[20]

2008 Olympics has the most medals stripped for doping violations (50). The leading country is Russia with 14 medals stripped.