The Olympic Games (1134)

The first Olympic Games took place in 776 В. С. and consisted of one event, a great foot race of about 200 yards held on a plain, outside the little town of Olympia in Greece. It was from that date that the Greeks began to keep their calendar by "Olympiads", the four-year spans between the celebrations of the famous games. There was a religious as well as an athletic significance to the ancient games and the temples and sacred fires were the scenes of worship. The Olympic Games never lasted more than five days and were held only once every four years. The competition was entirely amateur and the only prizes were laurel wreaths. Only free Greek citizens were allowed to compete and they had to undergo a strict training course that lasted ten months. But civic rivalry led to trickery and professionalism and the games became degraded after some centuries.

The modern Olympic Games, which started in Athens in 1896, are the result of the devotion of a French educator, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, to the idea that education and athletics might well go hand-in-hand toward a better international understanding. He planned a revival of the ancient Olympic Games on a world-wide basis and persuaded nine nations to send athletes to the first of the modern games in 1896. Interrupted for the second time by war, the modern Olympic Games were resumed at London in 1948.