SPORT EVENT
AUGUST 1, 2021
the modern olympic games : a brief history
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics are prime international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions.
The Olympic Games are normally held every four years, alternating between the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years in the four-year period.
This international sport event was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD.
It began in the year 776 BC, when Koroibos, a cook from the nearby city of Elis, won the stadion race, a foot race 600 feet long. According to some literary traditions, this was the only athletic event of the games for the first 13 Olympic festivals or until 724 BC.
From 776 BC, the Games were held in Olympia every four years for almost 12 centuries. Additional athletic events were gradually added until, by the 5th century BC, the religious festival consisted of a five-day program.
The ancient Olympic Games were primarily a part of a religious festival in honor of Zeus, the father of the Greek gods and goddesses. The festival and the games were held in Olympia, a rural sanctuary site in the western Peloponnesos.
The sanctuary was named in antiquity after Mount Olympos or Olympus, the highest mountain in mainland Greece. In Greek mythology, Mount Olympos was the home of the greatest of the Greek gods and goddesses.
Although the ancient Games were staged in Olympia, Greece, from 776 BC through 393 AD, it took 1503 years for the Olympics to return to modern era. The modern Olympic Games are considered the world’s foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating.
There are a number of opinions as to how the Olympics were revived. The most well-known occurred in 1892 when Baron Pierre de Coubertin met with the Union des Sports Athlétiques in Paris in order to propose a revival of the famed Olympic games.
Coubertin believed that a rebirth of the classic athletic competition would add both health and beauty to the world. Although he was scorned for being too sentimental and nostalgic, two years later he had gained enough traction to found the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
To this day the IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement and continues to oversee the Olympic Games. The Olympic Charter defining its structure and authority.
After Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, the governing body started to prepare for the first Games in Athens in 1896. Initially intended to take place in Paris to coincide with the 1900 World Fair, that six-year gap was considered to be too long to maintain the momentum.
Instead, a decision was made to hold the event within two years, and that Athens was the obvious and symbolic location from where to launch the updated version.
The first modern Olympic Games held under the IOC authority was hosted in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, Greece in 1896. The Games opened on the 75th anniversary of Greek independence.
The Games brought together 14 nations and 241 athletes who competed in 43 events competed across nine sports – athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, swimming, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.
The idea of the Olympic torch or Olympic Flame was first inaugurated in the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. There was no torch relay in the ancient Olympic Games. There were known torch relays in other ancient Greek athletic festivals including those held at Athens before. The modern Olympic torch relay was first instituted at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
In 1920, the Olympic Oath was introduced. In 1900 Paris Olympic, there was one highly significant legacy : women were allowed to take part, competing in croquet, equestrian, golf, tennis and sailing.
The first Winter Olympic games were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. There was no winter Olympic festival in ancient times. Separate Winter Games were first authorized in 1911 to be held in 1916, but due to World War I they didn’t occur until 1924, in Chamonix.
In 1908, the Modern Olympic flag of five linked rings, each with a primary color used in the flags of the nations competing in the event was introduced. However, there is no ancient basis for this modern symbol.
By 2032, the Olympic Games will have been hosted by 47 cities in 23 countries. The United States hosted four Summer Games, more than any other nation. The British capital London holds the distinction of hosting three summer Olympic Games, more than any other city.
Paris, previously hosted in 1900 and 1924, is due to host the Summer Games for a third time in 2024 and Los Angeles, which previously hosted in 1932 and 1984, is due to host the Summer Games for a third time in 2028.
The other nations hosting the Summer Games at least twice are Germany, France, Australia and Greece. The other cities hosting the Summer Games at least twice are Los Angeles, Paris and Athens. The 2020 Summer Olympics is due to be held in Tokyo, which will be the first Asian city to host the Olympics for the second time after Beijing.
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