The Ancient Olympics
The ancient Olympics grew out of religious festivals that many Greek
cities held to honor their gods. Athletic contests, like foot racing and
wrestling, were part of these festivals. As Greece became a bigger and more
important country, the cities started holding a large festival as a sign of
unity. They eventually chose a place called Olympia to hold the festival,
partly because of its many religious temples. Every four years, all wars
were stopped as the country came together to honor the god Zeus.
These early Olympics each lasted between one and three days, but from
around 400 BC on, the festival was a full five days as more and more events
were added. Many of these events are still held today, like running races,
javelin and discus throws, wrestling and boxing. Some other events included
chariot racing and contests for boys. Even though Olympics had been held for
hundreds of years, the first time anyone kept track of the winners was in
776BC. A cook named Coroebus is the first champion listed, winning the
stadion, a race of about 210 yards.
During the 1000 years after those first "official" Games in
776BC, Greece came under Roman rule. After the 293rd Olympics in
393 AD, the Roman emperor Theodosius II declared that the Games would no
longer be held, and the Olympic movement ended.
Although the ancient games were staged in Olympia, Greece, from 776 BC
through 393 AD, it took 1,503 years for the Olympics to return. A Frenchman
by the name of Baron Pierre de Coubertin had an idea to bring the games
back. He felt international competition between amateur athletes would help
create friendly relationships between people from other countries.
Coubertin presented his idea in 1894, and at first many had no interest
in the revival of the games, but later it was voted unanimously to bring the
games back. Coubertin went on to form the International Olympic Committee in
1896 to insure there wouldn’t be another downfall like the ancient Olympic
Games had. This Committee would have the responsibility of keeping the
amateur spirit of the games alive, and ensuring there were no outside
influences involved in the decisions of it’s members.
It was first agreed the games were to be held in Paris in 1900, but
delegates were so excited they couldn’t wait that long, and they decided
to change the venue to Athens, the capital of Greece, and the date to 1896.
The Olympics returned to the land of it’s birth and was a great success.