Olympic Games History

Olympic Games, athletic festival that originated in ancient Greece and was revived in late 19th century. Before the 1970s the Games were officially limited to competitors with amateur status, but in the 1980s many events were opened to professional athletes. Currently, the Games are open to all, even the top professional athletes in basketball and football. The ancient Olympic Games included several of the sports that are npw part of the Summer games program, which at times has included events in as many 32 different sports. In 1924 the Winter Games were sanctioned for winter sports. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition. Just how far back in history organized athletic contests were held remains a matter of debate, but it is reasonably certain that they occurred in Greece almost 3,000 years ago. However ancient in origin, by the end of the 6th century BCE at least four Greek sporting festivals, sometimes called “classical games,” had achieved major importance: the Olympic Games, held at Olympia; the Pythian games at Delphi; the Nemean Games at Nemea; and the isthmian Games, held near Corinth. Later, Similar festivals were held in nearly 150 cities as far afield as Rome, Naples, Odysseus, Antioch, and Alexandria. Of all the game held throughout Greece, the Olympic Games were the most famous. Held every four years between August 6 and September 19, they occupied such an important place in Greek history that in late antiquity historians measured time by the interval between them-an Olympiad. The Olympic Games, like almost all Greek games, were an intrinsic part of religious festivals. They were held in honor of Zeus at Olympia by the city-state of Elis in the northwestern Peloponnese. The first Olympic champion listed in the records was Coroebus of Elis, a cook, who won the sprint race in 776 BCE. Notions that the Olympics began much earlier than 776 BCE are founded on myth, not historical evidence. According to one legend, for example, the Games were founded by Hercules, son of Zeus and Alcmene. At the meeting in 776 BCE there was apparently only one event, a footrace that covered one length of the track at Olympia, but other events were added over the ensuing decades. The race, known as the stade, was about 192 meters long. The word stade also came to refer to the track on which the race was held and is the origin of the modern English word stadium. In 724 BCE a two-length race, the diaulos, roughly similar to the 400-meter, was included, and four years later the dolichos, a long-distance race possibly comparable to the modern 1,500 or 5,000-meter-events, was added. Wrestling and the pentathlon were introduced in 708 BCE. The latter was an all-around competition consisting of five events-the long jump, the javelin throw, the discus throw, a footrace, and wrestling. Boxing was introduced in 688 BCE and chariot racing eight years later. In 648 BCE the pancratium, a kind of no-holds-barred combat, was included. This brutal contest combined wrestling, boxing, and street fighting. Kicking and hitting a downed opponent were allowed; only biting and gouging were forbidden. The ideas and work of several people led to the creation of the modern Olympics. The best known architect of the modern Games was Pierre, baron de Coubertin, born in Paris on New Year’s Day, 1863. Family tradition pointed to an army career or possibly politics, but at age 24 Coubertin decided that his future lay in education, especially physical education. In 1890 he traveled to England to meet Dr. William Penny Brookes, who had written some articles on education that attracted the Franchmas attention. Brookes also had tried for decades to revive the ancient olympic games, getting the idea from a series of modern Greek Olympiads held in Athens starting in 1859. The Greek Olympics were founded by Evangelis Zappas, who, in turn, got the idea from Panagiotis Soutsos, a Greek poet who was the first to call for a modern revival and began to promote the idea in 1833. Brookes first British olympiad, held in london in 1866, was successful, with many spectators and good athletes in attendance. But his subsequent attempts met with less success and were beset by public apathy and opposition from rival sporting groups. Rather than give up, in the 1880s Brooks began to argue for the founding of international olympics in Athens. 1984 Los Angeles, United States List of the last 10 olympic games 1988 Seoul, South Korea 1992 Barcelona, Spain 1996 Atlanta, United States 2000 Sydney, Australia 2004 Athens, Greece 2008 Beijing, China 2012 London, England 2016 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2020 Tokyo, Japan (postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic)