History Of The Olympics-00-4767

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Every four years, sports competitions were organised in Olympia, from which the name Olympics was derived. These competitions evolved into the Panhellenic Games, an umbrella term for the Olympic Games, the Pythian Games, the Isthmian Games and the Nemean Games. The idea of unity was present even at this early stage in the Olympics' history, as Greece was not then a single country but several individual city states. Any free male of Greek origin was permitted to compete in the games and competitors travelled both from within Greece and from Greek colonies in Italy, North Africa and Asia. A sacred truce was called during this time, calling for a suspension of all hostilities so that athletes might travel unhindered and unharmed to and from Olympia.

The prizes given to the victors of the Olympic Games were fairly simple. Winners of the games held at Olympia were presented with a crown made of olive leaves and a red woollen ribbon, called a Taenia. On returning to his home town, the athlete would be honoured; statues of him would be built, poems would be written but the olive leaf crown remained the symbol that would command ...
... the most respect, remaining true to the idea that it was not for material reward that the athlete competed, but for the honour of being the best.

The games were abolished in 393 A.D by the Christian Emperor Theodosius I and Olympia itself was abandoned in the 7th Century A.D. Olympia fell into ruin and obscurity, finally vanishing beneath layers of the Earth. The site was discovered by English traveller Richard Chandler in 1776 and excavated in 1852 by German archaeologist Ernst Curtius.

Modern Olympic Games

The Olympic Games in their current form came to life as the result of nobleman and historian Baron Pierre de Coubertin. He founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, in the interest of reintroducing the Olympic Games as a worldwide event.

In honour of their roots, the first Olympic Games of the modern era took place in Athens, Greece. Becoming more and more popular, the Olympic Games expanded into the largest single sporting event in the world, seeking to encourage friendship and peace through sport. The Olympic flame and the Olympic flag both reflect this intention. The flag was designed by de Coubertin in 1914 and was first used during the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp. The five rings symbolise the five continents in unification and the colours were so chosen because at least one of the colours appeared in the flag of participating countries.

The lighting of the flame is a tradition taken directly from the ancient Olympic Games. Fire was considered a divine element by the Greeks, as they believed it to have been stolen from the Gods by Prometheus. Today, the Olympic flame is lit by the light of the sun, at the site of the original Olympic Games a few months before the opening ceremony. The torch relay was also a feature of the original Olympic Games and was reintroduced during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Like anything else, the Olympic Games have had to move with the times but the principles held dear by the ancient Greeks who competed in the original Olympic Games are still at the core of Olympism. Every four years, athletes from all over the world will travel to compete under the motto citius, altius, fortius, meaning faster, higher, stronger and during the closing ceremony, they will enter in no particular order and stand together, not separated into nationalities. If they could see them now, perhaps the ancient Greeks would not consider the Olympic Games to be so changed from what they once were.

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