The Origin and History of Olympic Games

The Olympics was originally a religious festival that was important to Ancient Greek history. Many sports in Greece are important because they are played today. Popular Ancient Athletes are important for role models today. The Ancient Olympic Games was a series of athletic competitions for representatives from city-states that started in 776 B.C. The Olympics were also hosted as part of a religious festival. At the first Olympics, the contest only lasted for one day.

The first event they hosted was a sprint where contestants would run from top to bottom of the stadium. Over time, they added more events to make the Olympics last longer. They hosted sports like wrestling, boxing, long jump, throwing the Javelin, discus, and chariot racing. If you won any of the events, you would get a wreath of leaves and a lot of respect. The Olympics only allowed men, boys, and young girls to compete at the Ancient Olympic Games. If married women were caught sneaking in they would be punished.

However, they would have the privilege of owning horses in the chariot race. If you were an unmarried woman had their own festival every four years which was held in honor of Hera Zeus’s wife. If you won any of the events, they would earn a crown of olive branches. The city-states in Greece were always fighting at a war. This caused travel between the Greek city-states a danger zone. So, messengers sent out from Elis announced a sacred truce (peace) lasting one month before the Games began. This meant people could travel to Olympia without having to worry to get injured from war bullets, or really anything.

The Olympic Games were much more important than all the wars that the Greek city-states. had because they were religious festivals. They hosted the event every four years for their mighty Zeus, and other gods. They Held the games in the city-state of Olympia. The Statue of Zeus in Olympia is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. This is one of the seven wonders because of how intricate and big it is.

In 1911, the IOC wanted a chance for the possibility of a different winter competition for the 1912 Stockholm Games, but Sweden, wanting to keep the popularity of the Nordic Games, Did not want to compete in a Winter Olympics. Germany planned a Winter Olympics to happen and the 1916 Berlin Summer Games, but World War I happened to cancel both events.

At the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, ice hockey and figure skating were submitted into the Olympics as an event, and Canada took most of the many hockey gold medals. Later, an agreement was reached with Scandinavians to host the International Winter Sports Week. It was so popular for the 16 participating nations that, in 1925, the IOC decided to create. the Winter Olympics, because of climate the making of Chamonix was the first.

The winter games. The Prizes for any event in the Winter Olympic games is a gold medal for first, a silver medal for a second, and a bronze medal for third. The Pentathlon is a 5 event combination of discus, javelin, jumping, running, and wrestling. To start off, The Ancient Greeks considered the rhythm and precision of an athlete throwing the discus as important as his strength. The Greeks used the javelin to measure the contestants precision with gravity. The Javelin was a long piece of wood about 6ft tall, has a sharpened wooden point or, an attached metal point. There was a grip for the contestants’ fingers to stable the javelin, which increased the precision for the javelin’s flight.

A good athlete that is known for the pentathlon is Symon. He was at his skill level because of training when he was a young boy. The Greek Olympics Are very important to Greece because of the history and competition. Sports in greek were important for enjoyment and history. Finally, Greek are great role models for other people.

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