The information, compiled over many years by a group of Olympic historians and statisticians called the OlyMADmen, has been transferred from its previous location at sports-reference.com/olympics, which shut permanently on May 14 this year.

Hilary Evans, one of the 14 OlyMADmen members, told insidethegames: "The IOC is working on getting Olympedia converted onto their servers and they agreed, now that SR/Olympics was down, that it would be appropriate to release Olympedia to the public."

Evans, who lives in Wales, stressed, however, that the database was not an official IOC product.

Bill Mallon, one of the founder members of the OlyMADMen, said in a blog earlier today:  "Olympedia has always been a product solely of the OlyMADMen and has been a private site that required a password that only we could grant.

"Olympedia has recently moved to another server, but during this time it has still required password access and did not have open access.

"We have recently received permission to open Olympedia to the public, and it will no longer require a password.

"We thank the International Olympic Committee for working with us on this project, and granting us this permission.

"We are excited and hope you will be, too.

"Olympedia contains all of the information that was previously on sports-reference/Olympics – and actually much more – it is far more detailed.

"Welcome to Olympedia, the most detailed internet reference source on the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement – www.olympedia.org