• ACCORDING TO HISTORICAL RECORDS, THE FIRST ANCIENT OLYMPIC GAMES CAN BE TRACED
BACK TO 776 BC.
• THEY WERE DEDICATED TO THE OLYMPIAN GODS AND WERE STAGED ON THE ANCIENT PLAINS OF
OLYMPIA.
• THEY CONTINUED FOR NEARLY 12 CENTURIES, UNTIL EMPEROR THEODOSIUS DECREED IN 393
A.D. THAT ALL SUCH "PAGAN CULTS" BE BANNED.
• OLYMPIA, THE SITE OF THE ANCIENT OLYMPIC GAMES, IS IN THE WESTERN PART OF THE PELOPONNESE
• IMPOSING TEMPLES, VOTIVE BUILDINGS, ELABORATE SHRINES AND ANCIENT SPORTING FACILITIES
COMBINED IN A SITE OF UNIQUE NATURAL AND MYSTICAL BEAUTY.
• OLYMPIA A MEETING PLACE FOR WORSHIP AND OTHER RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL PRACTICES AS
EARLY AS THE 10TH CENTURY B.C.
• THE CENTRAL PART OF OLYMPIA WAS DOMINATED BY THE MAJESTIC TEMPLE OF ZEUS, WITH THE
TEMPLE OF HERA PARALLEL TO IT.
OLYMPIA
OLYMPIA
THE GAMES AND RELIGION
• THE OLYMPIC GAMES WERE CLOSELY LINKED TO THE RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS OF THE CULT
OF ZEUS, BUT WERE NOT AN INTEGRAL PART OF A RITE.
• INDEED, THEY HAD A SECULAR CHARACTER AND AIMED TO SHOW THE PHYSICAL QUALITIES
AND EVOLUTION OF THE PERFORMANCES ACCOMPLISHED BY YOUNG PEOPLE, AS WELL
AS ENCOURAGING GOOD RELATIONS BETWEEN THE CITIES OF GREECE.
• ACCORDING TO SPECIALISTS, THE OLYMPIC GAMES OWED THEIR PURITY AND IMPORTANCE
TO RELIGION.
VICTORY CEREMONIES
• THE OLYMPIC VICTOR RECEIVED HIS FIRST AWARDS IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE COMPETITION.
• FOLLOWING THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE WINNER'S NAME BY THE HERALD, A HELLANODIKIS (GREEK
JUDGE) WOULD PLACE A PALM BRANCH IN HIS HANDS, WHILE THE SPECTATORS CHEERED AND THREW
FLOWERS TO HIM.
• RED RIBBONS WERE TIED ON HIS HEAD AND HANDS AS A MARK OF VICTORY.
VICTORY CEREMONIES
• THE OFFICIAL AWARD CEREMONY WOULD TAKE PLACE ON THE LAST DAY OF THE GAMES, AT THE
ELEVATED VESTIBULE OF THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS.
• IN A LOUD VOICE, THE HERALD WOULD ANNOUNCE THE NAME OF THE OLYMPIC WINNER, HIS
FATHER'S NAME, AND HIS HOMELAND.
• THEN, THE HELLANODIKIS PLACED THE SACRED OLIVE TREE WREATH, OR KOTINOS, ON THE
WINNER'S HEAD.
MYTHOLOGY OF OLYMPIC GAMES
• THE OLDEST MYTH WHICH CONCERNS THE BEGINNING OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES IS THAT OF
IDAIOS DAKTYLOS HERAKLES.
• ACCORDING TO OTHER MYTHS, ZEUS, THE FATHER OF HUMANITY, FOUGHT AND DEFEATED
CRONUS IN A STRUGGLE FOR THE THRONE OF THE GODS.
• HE STAGED GAMES IN OLYMPIA IN HONOUR OF ZEUS, BECAUSE THE LATTER HAD HELPED HIM
CONQUER ELIS WHEN HE WENT TO WAR AGAINST AUGEAS.
• Zeus was considered the • Hera was the sister and wife of
most important of all the Zeus and was worshipped all
over Greece, but especially in
Olympic gods. the region of Argos.
ZEUS HERA
ATHENA APOLLO
• OF THE BEST ATHLETES WHO LEFT THEIR MARK ON THE SACRED VALLEY OF OLYMPIA,
SOME SURPASSED ALL LIMITS AND BECAME LEGENDS BY WINNING IN SUCCESSIVE OLYMPIC
GAMES AND REMAINING AT THE FOREFRONT OF THEIR SPORT FOR MORE THAN A DECADE.
ATHLETES & PARTICIPANTS
• ALL FREE MALE GREEK CITIZENS WERE ENTITLED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ANCIENT OLYMPIC
GAMES, REGARDLESS OF THEIR SOCIAL STATUS.
• MARRIED WOMEN WERE NOT ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN, OR TO WATCH, THE ANCIENT OLYMPIC
GAMES.
• HOWEVER, UNMARRIED WOMEN COULD ATTEND THE COMPETITION, AND THE PRIESTESS OF
DEMETER, GODDESS OF FERTILITY, WAS GIVEN A PRIVILEGED POSITION NEXT TO THE STADIUM
ALTAR.
ATHLETES & PARTICIPANTS
ASTYLOS OF CROTON
• ASTYLOS OF CROTON IN SOUTHERN ITALY WON A
TOTAL OF SIX VICTORY OLIVE WREATHS IN THREE
OLYMPIADS (488-480 B.C.) IN THE STADE AND THE
DIAULOS (TWICE THE STADE) EVENTS.
ATHLETES & PARTICIPANTS
MILON OF CROTON
• MILON, A PUPIL OF THE PHILOSOPHER
PYTHAGORAS, WAS ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS
ATHLETES IN ANTIQUITY
• HE WAS SIX TIMES OLYMPIC WRESTLING
CHAMPION.
ATHLETES & PARTICIPANTS
LEONIDAS OF RHODES
• LEONIDAS OF RHODES WAS ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS
RUNNERS IN ANTIQUITY.
• THE ANCIENT GAMES INCLUDED RUNNING, LONG JUMP, SHOT PUT, JAVELIN, BOXING, PANKRATION
AND EQUESTRIAN EVENTS.
• PENTATHLON THE PENTATHLON BECAME AN OLYMPIC SPORT WITH THE ADDITION OF WRESTLING
IN 708 B.C., AND INCLUDED THE FOLLOWING:
• RUNNING THE STADE RACE (200M FOOT RACE), THE DIAULOS (TWO STADES - 400M FOOT RACE),
DOLICHOS (RANGING BETWEEN 7 AND 24 STADES).
SPORTS EVENT
• JUMPING ATHLETES USED STONE OR LEAD WEIGHTS CALLED HALTERES TO INCREASE THE
DISTANCE OF A JUMP. THEY HELD ONTO THE WEIGHTS UNTIL THE END OF THEIR FLIGHT, AND THEN
JETTISONED THEM BACKWARDS.
• DISCUS THROW THE DISCUS WAS ORIGINALLY MADE OF STONE AND LATER OF IRON, LEAD OR
BRONZE. THE TECHNIQUE WAS VERY SIMILAR TO TODAY'S FREESTYLE DISCUS THROW.
• WRESTLING THIS WAS HIGHLY VALUED AS A FORM OF MILITARY EXERCISE WITHOUT WEAPONS. IT
ENDED ONLY WHEN ONE OF THE CONTESTANTS ADMITTED DEFEAT.
• BOXING BOXERS WRAPPED STRAPS (HIMANTES) AROUND THEIR HANDS TO STRENGTHEN THEIR
WRISTS AND STEADY THEIR FINGERS. INITIALLY, THESE STRAPS WERE SOFT BUT, AS TIME
PROGRESSED, BOXERS STARTED USING HARD LEATHER STRAPS, OFTEN CAUSING DISFIGUREMENT OF
THEIR OPPONENT'S FACE.
SPORTS EVENT
• PANKRATION THIS WAS A PRIMITIVE FORM OF MARTIAL ART COMBINING WRESTLING
AND BOXING, AND WAS CONSIDERED TO BE ONE OF THE TOUGHEST SPORTS. GREEKS
BELIEVED THAT IT WAS FOUNDED BY THESEUS WHEN HE DEFEATED THE FIERCE
MINOTAUR IN THE LABYRINTH.
• EQUESTRIAN EVENTS THESE INCLUDED HORSE RACES AND CHARIOT RACES AND
TOOK PLACE IN THE HIPPODROME, A WIDE, FLAT, OPEN SPACE.
PIERRE DE COURBERTIN
Father of the modern Olympics
BACKGROUND
• PIERRE DE FRÉDY, BARON DE COUBERTIN, WAS BORN IN PARIS ON
1ST JANUARY 1863.
• HOWEVER, WITH LITTLE ENTHUSIASM FOR A CAREER IN THIS FIELD, HE TURNED TO EDUCATION,
WHICH BECAME A VERITABLE PASSION.
BACKGROUND
• IN 1883, INFLUENCED BY THE WORK OF FRENCH PHILOSOPHER AND HISTORIAN HIPPOLYTE TAINE,
AND THAT OF THE ENGLISHMAN THOMAS ARNOLD (THE HEAD OF RUGBY SCHOOL), HE WENT TO
ENGLAND TO COMPARE THE BRITISH AND FRENCH EDUCATION SYSTEMS.
• AFTER THIS TRIP, HE BEGAN HIS LIFE’S WORK, NAMELY REFORMING THE EDUCATION SYSTEM
THROUGH SPORT.
BACKGROUND
• PIERRE DE COUBERTIN DIED ON 2 SEPTEMBER 1937, FELLED BY A HEART ATTACK IN THE LA
GRANGE PARK IN GENEVA.
• HE LEFT BEHIND HIS WIFE, MARIE ROTHAN (1861-1963), WHOM HE MARRIED ON 12 MARCH
1895, AND HIS TWO CHILDREN, JACQUES (1896-1952) AND RENÉE (1901-1968).
• IN ACCORDANCE WITH HIS FINAL WISHES, HIS BODY WAS BURIED AT THE BOIS DE VAUX
CEMETERY IN LAUSANNE, AND HIS HEART WAS PLACED IN A MARBLE STELE
COMMEMORATING THE REVIVAL OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES IN OLYMPIA (GREECE).
BACKGROUND
OLYMPIC GAMES
• COUBERTIN REALIZED THAT TO CAPTURE THE ATTENTION OF DISINTERESTED PERSONS HE
WOULD HAVE TO ORIGINATE SOMETHING SPECTACULAR.
• HE FOUND HIS ANSWER WHEN HE VISITED THE MUCH WENLOCK "OLYMPIC GAMES" IN
SHROPSHIRE, ENGLAND AT THE AGE OF 27.
• HERE WAS AN INSTITUTION—THE ANCIENT OLYMPIC GAMES—THAT EMBODIED ALL THE IDEALS
HE WAS WORKING SO HARD TO PROMOTE THE REPORTS FROM THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA
FIRED HIS IMAGINATION EVEN MORE.
• THE FOUNDER OF THE MUCH WENLOCK GAMES, A DR. WILLIAM PENNY BROOKES, WAS AN
ENORMOUS HELP AND ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE YOUNG FRENCHMAN. COUBERTIN BEGAN TO
DREAM OF A REVIVAL OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES.
• TWO YEARS LATER AT A MEETING OF THE UNION DES SPORTS ATHLETIQUES IN PARIS (THE
ORGANIZATION HE HAD FOUNDED FIVE YEARS EARLIER), COUBERTIN PROPOSED THE IDEA
OF REVIVING THE OLYMPIC GAMES FOR THE FIRST TIME.
• ALTHOUGH THE IDEA WAS MET WITH APATHY AND DERISION, COUBERTIN WAS NOT
DETERRED. HE DECIDED THAT MORE DRAMA WAS NEEDED NEXT TIME TO AUGMENT HIS
POWERS OF PERSUASION.
• BY THE END OF THE PARIS CONGRESS, COUBERTIN HAD FORMED THE INTERNATIONAL
OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (IOC) AND PLANS WERE IN PLACE TO STAGE THE FIRST MODERN
OLYMPIC GAMES IN ATHENS, GREECE IN 1896.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MODERN GAMES
• THE REVIVAL OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES BEGAN WITH BARON PIERRE DE COUBERTIN (1863–
1937) OF FRANCE.
• COUBERTIN WAS GREATLY INTERESTED IN EDUCATION, AND HE FIRMLY BELIEVED THAT THE
BEST WAY TO DEVELOP THE MINDS OF YOUNG PEOPLE WAS TO DEVELOP THEIR BODIES AS
WELL; LEARNING AND ATHLETICS SHOULD GO TOGETHER.
• IN ADDITION, HE HOPED THE GAMES WOULD TURN THE TIDE HE SAW WORLDWIDE OF THE
GROWING COMMERCIALISM OF SPORTS.
• IN 1892, COUBERTIN FIRST INTRODUCED THE IDEA OF STARTING THE OLYMPIC GAMES AGAIN.
• FEW PEOPLE WERE READY TO ACCEPT HIS IDEA. BUT IN 1894 COUBERTIN FOUNDED THE
INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (IOC) AND BEGAN PLANNING THE FIRST MODERN
OLYMPIAD.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MODERN GAMES
• THE FIRST MODERN OLYMPIC GAMES WERE HELD IN 1896 IN ATHENS, GREECE — A
FITTING PLACE TO REKINDLE THE SPIRIT OF THE EARLY GREEK GAMES.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MODERN GAMES
• COUBERTIN REMAINED PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE
UNTIL 1925.
• IN THIS OFFICE HE DIRECTED THE COURSE THE GAMES WERE TO TAKE. HE WROTE
THE OLYMPIC CHARTER, PROTOCOL, AND ATHLETES' OATH, AND HE ALSO PLANNED
THE CEREMONIES.
1896 Athens hosts the first modern Olympics, with 14 countries participating. James Brendan Connolly, a triple jumper
from Boston, becomes the first Olympic champion in more than 1,500 years.
1900 Women make their first appearance in Olympic competition, when a handful of female athletes compete in lawn
tennis and golf at the Paris Games.
1904 The gold medal is introduced. Previous top winners in the modern Games took home a silver medal and an olive
wreath, because Greece’s Crown Prince Constantine didn’t want it to seem as if the athletes were being paid.
1908 The Games are moved from Rome to London after the 1906 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. The London Olympics are
credited with restoring much-needed credibility to the Games.
1911 The Winter Games are established, but because of World War I they do not take place until 1924, in Chamonix,
France.
1913 American Jim Thorpe, who dominated the 1912 games and took the gold in decathlon and
pentathlon, is stripped of his medals when officials learn he had played professional baseball, going
against the IOC rules that athletes should not be paid. His medals are restored posthumously in
1982.
1916 The Summer Games in Berlin are cancelled due to World War I.
1928 The Olympic flame returns at the Amsterdam Summer Games. The flame was lit during ancient
Games to represent the story of when Prometheus stole Zeus’ fire.
1936 In a blow to Adolf Hitler’s plan to have the Berlin Olympics prove Aryan superiority, black U.S. track
and field star Jesse Owens becomes the first Olympian to win four gold medals.
1940 Summer and Winter Games scheduled to take place in Japan are switched to Germany and Finland
after Japan invades China, then cancelled altogether due to the start of World War II.
1944 Summer Games in England and Winter Games in Italy are cancelled due to World War II.
1948 The IOC bans both Germany and Japan from competing as punishment for their actions during the
war. They return to the Games in 1952.
1964 South Africa is banned from the Olympics because of apartheid, and is not welcomed back until the
segregationist system is abolished in 1992. Similarly, Rhodesia was banned due to its racist practices
in 1972; it returns in 1980 as the new nation of Zimbabwe.
1968 Drug testing and gender verification testing make their debut at the Mexico City Olympics. A Swedish
pentathelete is disqualified for having consumed too much alcohol.
1972 Palestinian terrorists attack Israelis at the Munich Games. Following a 21-hour standoff, 11 Israel
athletes and coaches, five terrorists and one police officer are dead. Meanwhile, U.S. swimmer Mark
Spitz wins a record seven gold medals. Spitz, a Jew, leaves before the closing ceremony.
1976 Nadia Comaneci, a 14-year-old Romanian, scores the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics, at the
Games in Montreal. She receives the top score seven times, earning three gold medals.
Year Description
1980 The United States boycotts the Moscow Olympics, in protest of the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan. Several other nations join in. It’s the second major boycott of the Olympics;
in 1976, 22 African nations stayed home because New Zealand’s national rugby team had
competed in South Africa.
1984 The Soviet Union boycotts the Los Angeles Olympics in retaliation for America’s 1980
boycott.
1992 In the first year professionals are allowed to compete in men’s basketball, the U.S. “Dream
Team,” including Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird, wins the gold in
Barcelona.
1996 A bomb left in a backpack at Centennial Olympic Park explodes during the Atlanta Games,
killing one woman and injuring 111 people. Accused serial bomber Eric Rudolph, who is
also a suspect in bombings at abortion clinics and a gay nightclub, is charged in the case.
2004 The Games return to their birthplace, Athens, after 108 years. The Panathenian stadium is
reused for events including archery and the finish of the Marathon. The Zappeion, the first
indoor Olympic arena, was utilized as the Olympic Press Centre. Participation records
were broken, with 201 nations and 10,625 athletes taking part in 301 different events. The
U.S., Russia and China lead the medal count.
EVOLUTION OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES
Culture
• The ancient Greeks furthered culture by giving honors for cultural
achievements at the Olympic Games.
• The modern Olympics hold an arts festival, where the culture of the
host country is showcased in various art forms.
Longer Games
• In ancient times, the Games were held first on one day, and
finally over five days.
• Today the official duration is no more than 16 days.
Winter Games
• In 1924, the Winter Games became a new feature of the modern
Olympics.
• Until 1992, the Winter Games were held in the same year as the
Summer Games. Beginning in 1994, the Winter and Summer Games
were held two years apart, on separate four-year cycles.