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History of the Olympics
The Olympic Games (often referred to simply as The Olympics or The Games) is an international multi-sport event subdivided into summer and winter sporting events. The summer and winter games are each held every four years (an Olympiad). Until 1992, they were held in the same year. Since then, they have been celebrated two years apart.
The original Olympic Games (Greek: Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες; Olympiakoi Agones) began in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece, and was celebrated until AD 393.Interest in reviving the Olympic Games proper was first shown by the Greek poet and newspaper editor Panagiotis Soutsos in his poetry "Dialogue of the Dead" in 1833. Evangelos Zappas sponsored the first modern international Olympic Games in 1859. He paid for the refurbishment of the Panathinaiko Stadium for Games held there in 1870 and 1875. This was noted in newspapers and publications around the world including the London Review, which stated that "the Olympian Games, discontinued for centuries, have recently been revived! Here is strange news indeed ... the classical games of antiquity were revived near Athens".
The International Olympic Committee was founded with the initiative
of a French nobleman in 1894, Pierre Frédy, Baron de Coubertin. The first
of the IOC's Olympic Games were the 1896 Summer Olympics, held in Athens,
Greece. Participation in the Olympic Games has increased to include athletes
from nearly all nations worldwide. With the improvement of satellite communications
and global telecasts of the events, the Olympics are consistently gaining
supporters. The most recent Summer Olympics were the 2004 Games in Athens
and the most recent Winter Olympics were the 2006 Games in Turin. The upcoming
games in Beijing are planned to comprise 302 events in 28 sports. As of
2006, the Winter Olympics were competed in 84 events in 7 sports.
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Athletes trained in this Olympia facility in its ancient heyday.Main
article: Ancient Olympic Games
There are many myths and legends surrounding the origin of the ancient
Olympic Games. The most popular legend describes that Heracles was the
creator of the Olympic Games, and built the Olympic stadium and surrounding
buildings as an honor to his father Zeus, after completing his 12 labors.
According to that legend he walked in a straight line for 400 strides and
called this distance a "stadion" (Greek: "Στάδιον")- (Roman: "stadium")
(Modern English: "Stage") that later also became a distance calculation
unit. This is also why a modern stadium is 400 meters in circumference
length (1 stadium = 400 m). Another myth associates the first Games with
the ancient Greek concept of ἐκεχειρία (ekecheiria) or Olympic
Truce. The date of the Games' inception based on the count of years in
Olympiads is reconstructed as 776 BC, although scholars' opinions diverge
between dates as early as 884 BC and as late as 704 BC.
From then on, the Games quickly became much more important throughout ancient Greece, reaching their zenith in the sixth and fifth centuries BC. The Olympics were of fundamental religious importance, contests alternating with sacrifices and ceremonies honouring both Zeus (whose colossal statue stood at Olympia), and Pelops, divine hero and mythical king of Olympia famous for his legendary chariot race, in whose honour the games were held. The number of events increased to twenty, and the celebration was spread over several days. Winners of the events were greatly admired and were immortalised in poems and statues. The Games were held every four years, and the period between two celebrations became known as an 'Olympiad'. The Greeks used Olympiads as one of their methods to count years. The most famous Olympic athlete lived in these times: the sixth century BC wrestler Milo of Croton is the only athlete in history to win a victory in six Olympics.
The Games gradually declined in importance as the Romans gained power in Greece. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Olympic Games were seen as a pagan festival and in discord with Christian ethics, and in 393 AD the emperor Theodosius I outlawed the Olympics, ending a thousand-year tradition.
During the ancient times normally only young men could participate. Competitors were usually naked, not only as the weather was appropriate but also as the festival was meant to be, in part, a celebration of the achievements of the human body. Upon winning the games, the victor would have not only the prestige of being in first place but would also be presented with a crown of olive leaves. The olive branch is a sign of hope and peace.
Even though the bearing of a torch formed an integral aspect of Greek
ceremonies, the ancient Olympic Games did not include it, nor was there
a symbol formed by interconnecting rings. These Olympic symbols were introduced
as part of the modern Olympic Games.
Revival
In the early seventeenth century, an "Olympick Games" sports festival
was run for several years at Chipping Campden in the English Cotswolds,
and the present day local Cotswold Games trace their origin to this festival.
They were a local sports event with extraordinary sports, such as shin-kicking.
In 1850, an "Olympian Class" was begun at Much Wenlock in Shropshire, England. This was renamed "Wenlock Olympian Games" in 1859 and continues to this day as the Wenlock Olympian Society Annual Games. A national Olympic Games was organised by their founder, Dr William Penny Brookes, at Crystal Palace in London, in 1866.
Meanwhile, a wealthy Greek philanthropist called Evangelos Zappas sponsored the revival of the first modern international Olympic Games.[4] The first was held in an Athens city square in 1859. Zappas paid for the refurbishment of the ancient Panathenian stadium that was first used for an Olympic Games in 1870 and then again in 1875. That same stadium was refurbished a second time and used for the Athens 1896 Games. The revival sponsored by Zappas was a dedicated athletics Olympic Games with athletes that participated from two countries: Greece and the Ottoman Empire.
The interest in reviving the Olympics as an international event grew further when the ruins of ancient Olympia were uncovered by German archaeologists in the mid-nineteenth century. At the same time, Pierre de Coubertin was searching for a reason for the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). He thought the reason was that the French had not received proper physical education, and sought to improve this. Coubertin also sought a way to bring nations closer together, to have the youth of the world compete in sports, rather than fight in war. In 1890 he attended a festival of the Wenlock Olympian Society, and decided that the recovery of the Olympic Games would achieve both of his goals.
Baron Pierre de Coubertin stood on the ideas of both Dr Brookes and the foundations of Evangelis Zappas to found the International Olympic Committee. In a congress at the Sorbonne University, in Paris, France, held from June 16 to June 23, 1894 he presented his ideas to an international audience. On the last day of the congress, it was decided that the first IOC Olympic Games would take place in 1896 in Athens, in the country of their birth. To organise the Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was established, with the Greek Demetrius Vikelas as its first president. The Panathenian stadium that was used for Olympic Games in 1870, and 1875 was refurbished and reused for the Olympic Games held in Athens in 1896.
The total number of athletes at the the first IOC Olympic Games, less
than 250, seems small by modern standards, but the games were the largest
international sports event ever held until that time. The Greek officials
and public were also very enthusiastic, and they even proposed to have
the monopoly of organizing the Olympics. The IOC decided differently, however,
and the second Olympic Games took place in Paris, France. Paris was also
the first Olympic Games where women were allowed to compete.
Modern Olympics
Main articles: Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games
After the initial success, the Olympics struggled. The celebrations
in Paris (1900) and St. Louis (1904) were overshadowed by the World's Fair
exhibitions in which they were included. The so-called Intercalated Games
(because of their off-year status, as 1906 is not divisible by four) were
held in 1906 in Athens, as the first of an alternating series of Athens-held
Olympics. Although originally the IOC recognised and supported these games,
they are currently not recognised by the IOC as Olympic Games, which has
given rise to the explanation that they were intended to mark the 10th
anniversary of the modern Olympics. The 1906 Games again attracted a broad
international field of participants—in 1904, 80% had been American—--and
great public interest, thereby marking the beginning of a rise in popularity
and size of the Games.
From the 241 participants from 14 nations in 1896, the Games grew to nearly 11,100 competitors from 202 countries at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The number of competitors at the Winter Olympics is much smaller than at the Summer Games; at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin Italy, 2,633 athletes from 80 countries competed in 84 events.
The Olympics are one of the largest media events. In Sydney in 2000 there were over 16,000 broadcasters and journalists, and an estimated 3.8 billion viewers watched the games on television. The growth of the Olympics is one of the largest problems the Olympics face today. Although allowing professional athletes and attracting sponsorships from major international companies solved financial problems in the 1980s, the large number of athletes, media and spectators makes it difficult and expensive for host cities to organize the Olympics.
203 countries currently participate in the Olympics. This is a noticeably higher number than the number of countries recognised by the United Nations, which is only 193. The International Olympic Committee allows nations to compete which do not meet the strict requirements for political sovereignty that many other international organizations demand. As a result, many colonies and dependencies are permitted to host their own Olympic teams and athletes even if such competitors hold the same citizenship as another member nation. Examples of this include territories such as Puerto Rico, Bermuda, and Hong Kong, all of which compete as separate nations despite being legally a part of another country. Also, since 1980, Taiwan has competed under the name "Chinese Taipei", and under a flag specially prepared by the IOC. Prior to that year the People's Republic of China refused to participate in the Games because Taiwan had been competing under the name "Republic of China". The Republic of the Marshall Islands was recognised as a nation by the IOC on February 9, 2006, and should compete in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.[13]
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