A HISTORY OF THE OLYMPICS

Every four years, thousands of people crammed into the ancient site of Olympia in Greece. These visitors jostled about in the noisy crowds and melted in the summer heat. The waiting, the discomfort, the scorching summer sun was a small price to pay for the enjoyment they were about to receive, for they knew that the ancient Olympic Games were about to begin.

discus throwing, long jump, javelin throwing, chariot racing, sprinting, boxing, wrestling, and pankration. This last sport was a combination of wrestling and boxing. The only rules were that you couldn’t bite your opponent, or stab them in the eyes or nose. Other than that, anything went! You also might be surprised to learn that the athletes didn’t wear any clothes when they competed, unlike the fully clothed Olympians you see today. There was one event, however, that required the men to cover up a bit more: during a foot race, participants had to wear their battle armor, which included a helmet and a heavy shield. This event required strong legs and a lot of stamina.

The Games in Olympia quickly became a special tradition. In fact, they were so important to the ancient Greeks that they began to measure time by the interval between each Olympic Games. An “Olympiad” was a measure of 4 years. At first, these ancient Games took place all in one day, but soon they spread the events over four days. On the last day, there was a special banquet for the winners to celebrate their victories.

Women were not allowed to join the Olympic competitions. One traveler claimed that women who ventured to Olympia during the Games would do so at their own peril and would be put to death. Historians are still not sure if this was true and, thankfully, such a law was never enforced. Although women were not allowed to participate, there was a separate event for women held at a different time of year where women could demonstrate their strength and athleticism. Young women competed in a race held every four years at Olympia as part of a festival to honor Hera, the wife of the Greek god, Zeus.

In 146 BC, an epic battle took place and Greece eventually fell under Roman rule. As part of the Roman Empire, the Greeks were afraid their Olympic Games would stop, but, thankfully, many Roman emperors allowed the competitions to continue. In fact, the Roman emperor, Nero, was so enthusiastic about the Games that he decided to enter the chariot race as a competitor! Being an emperor and competing in the events definitely had its perks. During the race, Nero fell off his chariot, putting him in last place. He eventually finished the race and used his power as emperor to declare himself the winner anyways.

The Olympics continued for several more centuries, but soon the Games began to lose much of their luster. During the fourth century, Christianity became the official religion throughout the Roman Empire and by the end of the century, the Christian emperor, Theodosius I, banned all pagan festivals. After that, a combination of invasions, earthquakes, and floods took a toll on the landscape. Historians still don’t know exactly when the last ancient Olympic Games occurred, but by 620 AD, Olympia was abandoned and the Olympics became a distant and forgotten memory.

It was not until the nineteenth century (more than 1,200 years later) that the Olympic Games saw the light of day again. A Greek poet, Panagiotis Soutsos, had the idea to revive the ancient Games to celebrate the new Greek nation. For years, Greece had been under foreign rule, and in the 1830s Greece finally gained independence. Soutsos wrote to their new leader, King Otto I of Hellenes. Otto agreed to the idea of a national festival, but sadly the idea went nowhere. No matter how much Soutsos pleaded, the public did not seem interested in reigniting the Olympic spirit. It wasn’t until 1856 that someone finally took Soutsos’ dream and made it a reality. A wealthy ex-soldier by the name of Evangelis Zappas wrote to the Greek government asking to revive the Olympics in Athens. He even offered to pay for it all himself. Finding the offer hard to refuse, the government allowed Zappas to organize a national Olympics in Athens. An announcement was made in 1858—the Athens Olympics would take place the following year.

The first modern Olympics took place in 1896 in Athens. There were 14 countries and 241 athletes who competed in 43 events. Men challenged each other in wrestling, weightlifting, fencing, cycling, athletics, swimming, and tennis. The stands were overflowing with eager spectators who watched in awe and clapped in excitement of the competitions.

In the years following, the Olympics would slowly adopt many of the traditions we know today. By the second Olympic Games, women were allowed to participate. In 1908, athletes of each nation paraded around the stadium for the first time at the Games’ opening. In 1924, the first Winter Olympics began and, in 1928, the first Olympic flame was lit in Amsterdam.

Although it took hundreds of years, the Olympic Games were finally rescued from the ruins of Olympia and brought back to life so that we can all enjoy them today.