What are the olympic games

The Olympic Games

Contents

The Olympic Games, which originated in ancient Greece as many as 3,000 years ago, were revived in the late 19th century and have become the world’s preeminent sporting competition. From the 8th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D., the Games were held every four years in Olympia, located in the western Peloponnese peninsula, in honor of the god Zeus. The first modern Olympics took place in 1896 in Athens, and featured 280 participants from 12 nations, competing in 43 events. Since 1994, the Summer and Winter Olympic Games have been held separately and have alternated every two years. The 2022 Winter Olympics will be held from February 4 to February 20, 2022 in Beijing, China and feature figure skating, ice hockey, curling and more.

The Olympics Begin in Ancient Greece

The first written records of the ancient Olympic Games date to 776 B.C., when a cook named Coroebus won the only event—a 192-meter footrace called the stade (the origin of the modern “stadium”)—to become the first Olympic champion. However, it is generally believed that the Games had been going on for many years by that time. Legend has it that Heracles (the Roman Hercules), son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene, founded the Games, which by the end of the 6th century B.C had become the most famous of all Greek sporting festivals.

The ancient Olympics were held every four years between August 6 and September 19 during a religious festival honoring Zeus. The Games were named for their location at Olympia, a sacred site located near the western coast of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece. Their influence was so great that ancient historians began to measure time by the four-year increments in between Olympic Games, which were known as Olympiads.

Did you know? The 1896 Games featured the first Olympic marathon, which followed the 25-mile route run by the Greek soldier who brought news of a victory over the Persians from Marathon to Athens in 490 B.C. Fittingly, Greece’s Spyridon Louis won the first gold medal in the event. In 1924, the distance would be standardized to 26 miles and 385 yards.

After 13 Olympiads, two more races joined the stade as Olympic events: the diaulos (roughly equal to today’s 400-meter race), and the dolichos (a longer-distance race, possibly comparable to the 1,500-meter or 5,000-meter event). The pentathlon (consisting of five events: a foot race, a long jump, discus and javelin throws and a wrestling match) was introduced in 708 B.C., boxing in 688 B.C. and chariot racing in 680 B.C. In 648 B.C., pankration, a combination of boxing and wrestling with virtually no rules, debuted as an Olympic event. Participation in the ancient Olympic Games was initially limited to freeborn male citizens of Greece; there were no women’s events, and married women were prohibited from attending the competition.

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Decline and Revival of the Olympic Tradition

After the Roman Empire conquered Greece in the mid-2nd century B.C., the Games continued, but their standards and quality declined. In one notorious example from A.D. 67, the decadent Emperor Nero entered an Olympic chariot race, only to disgrace himself by declaring himself the winner even after he fell off his chariot during the event. In A.D. 393, Emperor Theodosius I, a Christian, called for a ban on all “pagan” festivals, ending the ancient Olympic tradition after nearly 12 centuries.

It would be another 1,500 years before the Games would rise again, largely thanks to the efforts of Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) of France. Dedicated to the promotion of physical education, the young baron became inspired by the idea of creating a modern Olympic Games after visiting the ancient Olympic site. In November 1892, at a meeting of the Union des Sports Athlétiques in Paris, Coubertin proposed the idea of reviving the Olympics as an international athletic competition held every four years. Two years later, he got the approval he needed to found the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which would become the governing body of the modern Olympic Games.

The Olympics Through the Years

The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. In the opening ceremony, King Georgios I and a crowd of 60,000 spectators welcomed 280 participants from 12 nations (all male), who would compete in 43 events, including track and field, gymnastics, swimming, wrestling, cycling, tennis, weightlifting, shooting and fencing. All subsequent Olympiads have been numbered even when no Games take place (as in 1916, during World War I, and in 1940 and 1944, during World War II). The official symbol of the modern Games is five interlocking colored rings, representing the continents of North and South America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia. The Olympic flag, featuring this symbol on a white background, flew for the first time at the Antwerp Games in 1920.

The Olympics truly took off as an international sporting event after 1924, when the VIII Games were held in Paris. Some 3,000 athletes (with more than 100 women among them) from 44 nations competed that year, and for the first time the Games featured a closing ceremony. The Winter Olympics debuted that year, including such events as figure skating, ice hockey, bobsledding and the biathlon. Eighty years later, when the 2004 Summer Olympics returned to Athens for the first time in more than a century, nearly 11,000 athletes from a record 201 countries competed. In a gesture that joined both ancient and modern Olympic traditions, the shotput competition that year was held at the site of the classical Games in Olympia.

Ancient Olympic Games

Definition

The ancient Olympic Games were a sporting event held every four years at the sacred site of Olympia, in the western Peloponnese, in honour of Zeus, the supreme god of the Greek religion. The games, held from 776 BCE to 393 CE, involved participants and spectators from all over Greece and even beyond.

The Olympic Games were the most important cultural event in ancient Greece and they ran for 293 consecutive Olympiads. So important were the Games in the ancient world that they were even used as a basis for the calendar.

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Origins of the Games

Sporting events were originally associated with funeral rituals, particularly those of heroes and the fallen in battle, for example, the games for Patroklos in Homer’s Iliad. At Olympia, in particular, some mythological accounts credit Zeus with beginning the Games to celebrate his victory over Kronos whilst other accounts state the hero Pelops began them in honour of Oinomaos. In any case, sport, a healthy body and the competitive spirit were a large part of Greek education and so it is hardly surprising that organised athletic competitions would at some point be created, as they had been in the earlier Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations.

The first Olympics were held from 776 BCE at the first full moon after the summer solstice (around the middle of July) in honour of Zeus. The winner of the first and only event, the stadion foot-race was Koroibos of Elis and from then on every victor was recorded and each Olympiad named after them, thus giving us the first accurate chronology of the ancient Greek world. An Olympiad was not only the name of the event itself but also of the period between games. During a three-month pan-Hellenic truce, athletes and as many as 40,000 spectators came from all over Greece to participate in the Games at Olympia. Later, other games would be organised at other sacred sites such as Delphi, Isthmia and Nemea but the Olympian Games would remain the most prestigious.

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The Games started with a procession which went from the host town of Elis to Olympia, led by the Hellanodikai (judges) and on arrival at Olympia all athletes and officials swore an oath to follow the established rules of the competitions and to compete with honour and respect. The most important religious ceremony of the event was the sacrifice of 100 oxen, known as the hecatomb, at the altar of Zeus, carried out when the sporting events were over.

The Spectators

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The site of Olympia must have been positively buzzing during a Games with mass crowds of excited spectators staying in make-shift camp sites (only later was accommodation provided for the visitors) and admiring the masses of fine statues and buildings at the site. Food vendors, craftsmen, musicians, poets and philosophers took full advantage of the crowds to publicise their wares or ideas. Just how many spectators attended each Games is unknown but we do know that around 45,000 spectators consisting of men, slaves and foreigners sat and watched from the embankments of the stadium which hosted the main events. Spectators actively participated in the events through their boisterous support of the athletes and after each event they showered flowers and laurel leaves on the victors.

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The Athletes

Athletes trained under the watchful eye of a professional trainer (gymnastes) or physical trainer (paidotribes) who knew how to best develop particular muscles, the best diet and the correct amount of exercises to be done. Trainers were often thanked by their more successful athletes by the dedication of a statue of them at the site. Athletes also had an aleiptes who rubbed them down with oil and massaged them both before exercising and after.

The athletes competed naked, probably for complete freedom of movement. Events were open to all free Greek males and the list of victors illustrates just how pan-Hellenic the Games were with athletes coming from all parts of Greece and in Roman times the no-foreigner rule for athletes was relaxed. Victors were those who beat all other competitors. There are practically no records of times and distances achieved by victorious athletes as these were simply not considered important, the idea was to be first amongst the best, not to beat records.

The Stadion Footrace

For the first 12 Olympics the stadion foot-race was the only event and it remained the most prestigious event throughout the history of the Games. The race was ran over one length (a stadion) of the stadium track, 600 ancient feet or 192 m and preliminary heats were held with heat winners going into the final. Athletes were grouped by lot and in the interest of fairness this was also the way pairings were matched in the other events. The eventual winner of the stadion would even give his name to that particular Games and so be remembered for all time.

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Other Sporting Events

Over time other events were added to the Games to bring the total programme to 18 events spread over five days:

Competition Rules & Judges

Athletes had to arrive at Olympia one month before the Games for training and, further, they had to declare that they had been in training for at least ten months. Non-Greeks, slaves, murderers, those convicted of defiling temples and all those who had not respected the truce were excluded from participating. Indeed, cities could be included in the latter category, for example, Sparta in 420 BCE.

The events were supervised by trained judges from Elis, the Hellanodikai (or agonothetai) who also had various assistants such as the alytai (police officers). For the first 49 Olympics there was only one judge but he was joined by others to reach a peak of twelve, distributed amongst the various events. Originally, the office was hereditary and for life but later judges were selected from Elis by lot. The Hellanodikai had the power to disqualify and fine athletes for any infringement of the rules and, wearing their purple cloaks, they were given special seats of honour in the stadium. The decisions of the Hellanodikai could never be revoked but the judges were themselves subject to judgment from a council of elders and should an athlete successfully appeal, the judge concerned could be fined.

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Rules were very rarely broken and when they were penalties were imposed ranging from exclusion and fines to flogging. Fines were paid both to the sanctuary and the wronged athlete. If an offender did not pay the fine then the city he represented had to or else be excluded from the next Games. Revenue from fines was in part used to erect statues of Zeus known as zanes and a number of the bases of these statues can still be seen at the site today.

Olympic Prizes

The Hellanodikai also gave out the victory crown (kotinos) of wild olive leaves and an olive branch cut from the sacred tree (Kallistephanos) to each event winner. The olive was significant because the trees of Olympia were believed to have been originally planted by Hercules. Another prize could be a red woollen ribbon which was worn on the upper arm or around the head, especially for chariot racers as it was the horse owner who actually received the olive crown.

Victors were welcomed back to their hometowns as heroes after the Games. Typically entering the city in a procession where they rode a four-horse chariot, the victors had huge banquets held in their honour and they could receive additional benefits such as exemption from tax and invitations to join the political elite. Cities also received prestige from victories at the Games and for this reason they sometimes offered financial incentives for athletes such as Solon’s 500 drachmas prize (a substantial sum considering one sheep cost one drachma at the time).

However, the real prize for athletes was glory, fame and, in a very real sense, historical immortality. This was achieved through renown whilst still alive but was perpetuated after death via victor’s lists, personal statues and victory odes written in the victor’s honour.

Famous Olympians

The Games and their prestige also attracted famous competitors from outside the sporting world. The great Athenian general and statesman Alcibiades won three chariot races in 416 BCE. Philip II of Macedon won the horse race in 356 BCE and repeated his winning streak in the chariot races of the 352 and 348 BCE Games. Also, Roman emperor Nero famously won every event he entered in 65 CE. These powerful political leaders even sought to milk the prestige of their successes at Olympia by minting coins to commemorate their victories.

The first woman to win the crown of victory was Kyniska in 392 BCE. Although women were not permitted to compete, they could own horses and it was the owner who won the olive crown prize. Many other women went on to emulate Kyniska and Spartan women, in particular, enjoyed a high reputation in the equestrian events at Olympia.

End of the Games

The Games continued through the Hellenistic period with more buildings added to the site, greater comforts offered for the spectators and an increase in the professionalism and event specialisation of the athletes. In Roman times, although there were some changes to tradition such as Sulla’s moving of the 80 BCE Games to Rome, the Games continued to be popular and their prestige increased under hellenophile emperors such as Hadrian. However, it was Emperor Theodosios who finally decreed that all cult practices, including Games, be stopped and the final Olympics was held in 393 CE after a run of 293 Olympics over more than a millennium.

Olympic Games History

Olympic Flag. Image credit: Ververidis Vasilis/Shutterstock

The Olympic Games took their name from the Ancient Greek city of Olympia. Though there were important athletic competitions held in other Greek cities in ancient times, the Olympic Games were regarded as the most prestigious. The games were held every four years during August and September and the term «Olympiad,» which referred to the four-year interval between competitions, was commonly used as a measurement of time.

The Ancient Olympics

Illustration depicting the ancient Olympic Games.

The first documented Olympic champion was named Coroebus, a cook from Elis who won the sprint race in 776 BCE. It is possible that these were not the first Olympic Games to take place, but only the first recorded one. The Olympic Games originally featured only one event: a race called the «stade,» equal to a distance of about 210 yards. By 728 BCE, two additional races had been added, comparable to the 400 m and 1,500 m races of the modern games.

The Olympics came to include wrestling, boxing and the pentathlon, as well as specialized events for soldiers and heralds. It was only in 472 BCE that the events were spread out over a period of four to five days. Previously, they had all taken place on a single day. Participation in the Olympic Games was originally limited to free-born Greeks, but as Greek civilization was spread by the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Games drew entrants from as far away as Antioch, Sidon and Alexandria. While the only official prize was a wreath or garland, successful athletes were supported by the governments of their cities and devoted much time to training. Most of the competitors were, in fact, professionals.

After the Roman conquest of Greece in the second century BCE, the Olympic Games suffered a decline in popularity and importance, but the Games persisted until AD 393, when the Roman emperor Theodosius I ordered their abolition. A converted Christian, Theodosius made all pagan festivals illegal across the empire, which included the Olympics.

The Revival Of The Olympics

At the Olympic flame handover ceremony in March 2020 in Athens, Greece.

The idea of reviving the Olympic Games originated in Greece with their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but it was Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a 29-year-old French aristocrat who first publicly raised the issue in 1892. At a conference on international sport held in Paris in 1894, Coubertin managed to convince delegates from 49 organizations representing nine countries to vote in favor of an Olympic revival. His chief allies in this effort were Dimitrios Vikelas of Greece and Professor William M. Sloane of the United States.

The organizers had planned the first modern Olympics for 1900 in Paris, but later decided to move the date forward to 1896 and to change the venue to Athens, though the local government of the Greek capital was initially hostile to the idea. Coubertin and his colleagues of the newly formed International Olympic Committee (IOC) eventually prevailed, and the first Olympic Games of the modern era were inaugurated by the King of Greece in the first week of April 1896.

The games of 1896, 1900 and 1904 were loosely organized and did not feature national teams produced by rigorous selection. The 1908 Olympic Games, held in London in a newly built 68,000-seat stadium, were the first where the events were organized by the relevant authorities in each athletic discipline. More than 2,000 athletes from 22 nations competed in 100 events. The 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm drew more than 2,500 competitors from 28 countries and featured the first women’s swimming events. No games were held in 1916 due to World War I, but the games enjoyed strong growth after the war, with 44 nations participating in the 1924 Olympics in Paris.

At the 1928 games in Amsterdam, there were more than 290 women among the 3,000 athletes, which was more than double the number who took part in 1924. The Olympic Games were suspended again for 12 years because of World War II, resuming in 1948 in London. The post-war era saw steady growth in the number of countries and athletes competing as well as a dramatic increase in women’s events.

Politics began to intrude on the games in a serious way at the 1972 Olympics in Munich when Palestinian terrorists attacked Israeli athletes in the Olympic Village. Sixty nations boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, while the Soviets and some of their allies retaliated by declining to take part in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. The end of the Cold War has eliminated the largest source of political conflict, and most Olympic controversies in recent years have centered on accusations of cheating.

Olympic Games Location (modern-day)

The IOC, headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, sets and enforces Olympic policy. The site of the games is chosen, usually at least six years in advance.

The Olympic Symbol

The Olympic symbol in Sochi, Russia in 2014.

The flag depicting five colored interlocking rings on a white background was conceived by Pierre de Coubertin. Almost a century after the flag’s creation, the six colors of the flag (blue, yellow, black, green, red, and white) still maintain their symbolism today.

The symbol of five interlocking rings represents the union of the five continents and the meeting of the athletes of the world at the Olympic Games.

Sites of the Summer Olympic Games

*Games not recognized by the International Olympic Committee.

Olympic Games

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The five Olympic rings were designed in 1913, adopted in 1914 and debuted at the Games at Antwerp, 1920.

The Olympic Games (often referred to simply as The Olympics or The Games [1] ) is an international multi-sport event subdivided into summer and winter sporting events. The summer and winter games are each held every four years (an Olympiad [2] ). Until 1992, they were both held in the same year. Since then, they have been separated two years apart.

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Ancient Olympics

Athletes trained in this Olympia facility in its ancient heyday.

Main article: Ancient Olympic Games

There are many myths surrounding the origin of the ancient Olympic Games. The most popular legend describes that Heracles was the creator of the Olympic Games, and built the Olympic stadium and surrounding buildings as an honor to his father Zeus, after completing his 12 labours. According to that legend he walked in a straight line for 400 strides and called this distance a «stadion» (Greek: «Στάδιον»)- (Roman: «stadium») (Modern English: «Stage») that later also became a distance calculation unit. This is also why a modern stadium is 400 meters in circumference length (1 stadium = 400 m). Another myth associates the first Games with the ancient Greek concept of ἐκεχειρία (ekecheiria) or Olympic Truce. The date of the Games’ inception based on the count of years in Olympiads is reconstructed as 776 BC, although scholars’ opinions diverge between dates as early as 884 BC and as late as 704 BC.

From then on, the Games quickly became much more important throughout ancient Greece, reaching their zenith in the sixth and fifth centuries BC. The Olympics were of fundamental religious importance, contests alternating with sacrifices and ceremonies honouring both Zeus (whose colossal statue stood at Olympia), and Pelops, divine hero and mythical king of Olympia famous for his legendary chariot race, in whose honour the games were held. The number of events increased to twenty, and the celebration was spread over several days. Winners of the events were greatly admired and were immortalised in poems and statues. [9] The Games were held every four years, and the period between two celebrations became known as an ‘Olympiad’. The Greeks used Olympiads as one of their methods to count years. The most famous Olympic athlete lived in these times: the sixth century BC wrestler Milo of Croton is the only athlete in history to win a victory in six Olympics. [10]

The Games gradually declined in importance as the Romans gained power in Greece. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Olympic Games were seen as a pagan festival and in discord with Christian ethics, and in 393 AD the emperor Theodosius I outlawed the Olympics, ending a thousand-year tradition. [11]

During the ancient times normally only young men could participate. [10] Competitors were usually naked, not only as the weather was appropriate but also as the festival was meant to be, in part, a celebration of the achievements of the human body. Upon winning the games, the victor would have not only the prestige of being in first place but would also be presented with a crown of olive leaves. The olive branch is a sign of hope and peace. [12]

Even though the bearing of a torch formed an integral aspect of Greek ceremonies, the ancient Olympic Games did not include it, nor was there a symbol formed by interconnecting rings. These Olympic symbols were introduced as part of the modern Olympic Games.

Revival

In the early seventeenth century, an «Olympick Games» sports festival was run for several years at Chipping Campden in the English Cotswolds, and the present day local Cotswold Games trace their origin to this festival. They were a local sports event with extraordinary sports, such as shin-kicking.

In 1850, an «Olympian Class» was begun at Much Wenlock in Shropshire, England. This was renamed «Wenlock Olympian Games» in 1859 and continues to this day as the Wenlock Olympian Society Annual Games. A national Olympic Games was organised by their founder, Dr William Penny Brookes, at Crystal Palace in London, in 1866.

Meanwhile, a wealthy Greek philanthropist called Evangelos Zappas sponsored the revival of the first modern international Olympic Games. [4]

Modern Olympics

Main articles: Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games [13]

Olympic problems

Boycotts

The 1956 Melbourne Olympics were boycotted by the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland, because of the repression of the Hungarian Uprising by the Soviet Union; additionally, Cambodia, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon, boycotted the games due to the Suez Crisis. [14]

In 1972 and 1976, a large number of African countries threatened the IOC with a boycott, to force them to ban South Africa, Rhodesia, and New Zealand. The IOC conceded in the first 2 cases, but refused in 1976 because the boycott was prompted by a New Zealand rugby union tour to South Africa, and rugby was not an Olympic sport. The countries withdrew their teams after the games had started; some African athletes had already competed. A lot of sympathy was felt for the athletes forced by their governments to leave the Olympic Village; there was little sympathy outside Africa for the governments’ attitude. [citation needed] Twenty-two countries (Guyana was the only non-African nation) boycotted the Montreal Olympics because New Zealand was not banned. [15]

Also in 1976, due to pressure from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Canada told the team from the Republic of China (Taiwan) that it could not compete at the Montreal Summer Olympics under the name «Republic of China» despite a compromise that would have allowed Taiwan to use the ROC flag and anthem. The Republic of China refused and as a result did not participate again until 1984, when it returned under the name «Chinese Taipei» and used a special flag. [16]

Countries that boycotted the 1976 (yellow), 1980 (blue) and 1984 (red) games

In 1980 and 1984, the Cold War opponents boycotted each other’s games. The United States and 64 other nations refused to compete at the Moscow Olympics in 1980 because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but 16 nations from Western Europe did compete at the Moscow Olympics. The boycott reduced the number of nations participating to only 81, the lowest number of nations to compete since 1956. The Soviet Union and 14 of its Eastern Bloc partners (except Romania) countered by skipping the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, arguing the safety of their athletes could not be guaranteed there and «chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria are being whipped up in the United States». [17]

The 1984 boycotters staged their own Friendship Games in July-August. [18] [19]

Doping

One of the main problems facing the Olympics (and international sports in general) is doping, or performance enhancing drugs. In the early 20th century, many Olympic athletes began using drugs to enhance their performance. For example, the winner of the marathon at the 1904 Games, Thomas J. Hicks, was given strychnine and brandy by his coach, even during the race. As these methods became more extreme, gradually the awareness grew that this was no longer a matter of health through sports. In the mid-1960s, sports federations put a ban on doping, and the IOC followed suit in 1967.

The first and so far only Olympic death caused by doping occurred in 1960. At the cycling road race in Rome the Danish Knud Enemark Jensen fell from his bicycle and later died. A coroner’s inquiry found that he was under the influence of amphetamines.

The first Olympic athlete to test positive for doping use was Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, a Swedish pentathlete at the 1968 Summer Olympics, who lost his bronze medal for alcohol use. Seventy-three athletes followed him over the next 38 years, several medal winners among them. The most publicised doping-related disqualification was that of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who won the 100m at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but tested positive for stanozolol.

Despite the testing, many athletes continued to use doping without getting caught. In 1990, documents were revealed that showed many East German female athletes had been unknowingly administered anabolic steroids and other drugs by their coaches and trainers as a government policy.

In the late 1990s, the IOC took initiative in a more organised battle against doping, leading to the formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 1999. The recent 2000 Summer Olympics and 2002 Winter Olympics have shown that this battle is not nearly over, as several medalists in weightlifting and cross-country skiing were disqualified due to doping offences. One innocent victim of the anti-doping movement at the Olympics was the Romanian gymnast Andreea Răducan who was stripped of her gold medal-winning performance in the All-Around Competition of the Sydney 2000 games. Test results indicated the presence of the banned-stimulant pseudophedrine which had been prescribed to her by an Olympic doctor. Raducan had been unaware of the presence of the illegal substance in the medicine that had been prescribed to her for a cold she had during the games.

During the 2006 Winter Olympics, only one athlete failed a drug test and had a medal revoked. The only other case involved 12 members with high levels of haemoglobin and their punishment was a five day suspension for health reasons.

In October 2007, American sprinter Marion Jones admitted to having taken steroids before the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics. As a result of these admissions, Jones accepted a two-year suspension and forfeiture of all medals, results, points and prizes earned after September 1, 2000.

The International Olympic Committee introduced blood testing for the first time during these games.

Politics

Main article: Politics in the Olympics

Politics interfered with the Olympics on several occasions, the most well-known of which was the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, where the games were used as propaganda by the German Nazis. At this Olympics, a true Olympic spirit was shown by Luz Long, who helped Jesse Owens (a black athlete) to win the long jump, at the expense of his own silver medal. [20] The Soviet Union did not participate in the Olympic Games until the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. Instead, the Soviets organized an international sports event called Spartakiads, from 1928 onward. Many athletes from Communist organizations or close to them chose not to participate or were even barred from participating in Olympic Games, and instead participated in Spartakiads. [21]

A political incident on a smaller scale occurred at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Two American track-and-field athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, performed the Black Power salute on the victory stand of the 200-meter track and field race. In response, the IOC’s autocratic president Avery Brundage told the USOC to either send the two athletes home, or withdraw the complete track and field team. The USOC opted for the former. [22]

In a political policy move that flouts the spirit of the Olympic movement, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran specifically orders its athletes not to compete in any olympic heat, semi-final, or finals that includes athletes from Israel. At the 2004 Olympics, an Iranian judoka refused to compete in a heat against an Israeli judoka, but did so surreptitiously to avoid the possibility of Iran being removed from the games for political intrigue (the athlete deliberately didn’t make weight.) The Iranian returned home to a hero’s welcome. [23]

Violence

Despite what Coubertin had hoped for, the Olympics did not bring total peace to the world. In fact, three Olympiads had to pass without Olympics because of war: due to World War I the 1916 Games were canceled, and the summer and winter games of 1940 and 1944 were canceled because of World War II.

Terrorism has also become a recent threat to the Olympic Games. In 1972, when the Summer Games were held in Munich, West Germany, eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorist group Black September in what is known as the Munich massacre. A bungled liberation attempt led to the deaths of the nine abducted athletes who had not been killed prior to the rescue as well as that of a policeman, with five of the terrorists also being killed. [24]

During the Summer Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta, a bombing at the Centennial Olympic Park killed two and injured 111 others. The bomb was set by Eric Robert Rudolph, an American domestic terrorist, who is currently serving a life sentence at Supermax in Florence, Colorado. [25]

The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City were the first Olympic Games since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Olympic Games since then have required an extremely high degree of security due to the fear of possible terrorist activities. [26]

Olympic Movement

A number of organizations are involved in organizing the Olympic Games. Together they form the Olympic Movement. The rules and guidelines by which these organizations operate are outlined in the Olympic Charter.

At the heart of the Olympic Movement is the International Olympic Committee (IOC), currently headed by Jacques Rogge. It can be seen as the government of the Olympics, as it takes care of the daily problems and makes all important decisions, such as choosing the host city of the Games, and the programme of the Olympics.

Three groups of organisations operate on a more specialised level:

At present, 202 NOCs and 35 IFs are part of the Olympic Movement. OCOGs are dissolved after the celebration of each Games, once all subsequent paperwork has been completed.

More broadly speaking, the term Olympic Movement is sometimes also meant to include everybody and everything involved in the Olympics, such as national sport governing bodies, athletes, media, and sponsors of the Olympic Games.

Criticism

Most Olympic Games have been held in European and North American cities; only a few games have been held in other places, and all bids by countries in South America and Africa have failed. Many non-westerners believe the games should expand to include locations in poorer regions. Economists point out that the massive infrastructure investments could springboard cities into earning higher GDP after the games. [citation needed] However, many host cities regret the high costs associated with hosting the games as a poor investment [citation needed] Panorama: «Buying the Games»Legend of the Five Rings. It was accused of homophobia in 1982 when it successfully sued the Gay Olympics, an event now known as the Gay Games, to ban it from using the term «olympics» in its name. [27]

Olympic symbols

Main article: Olympic symbols

The Olympic movement uses many symbols, most of them representing Coubertin’s ideas and ideals. The best known symbol is probably that of the Olympic Rings. These five intertwined rings represent the unity of five inhabited continents (with America regarded as one single continent). They appear in five colors on a white field on the Olympic Flag. These colors, white (for the field), red, blue, green, yellow, and black were chosen such that each nation had at least one of these colors in its national flag. The flag was adopted in 1914, but the first Games at which it was flown were Antwerp, 1920. It is hoisted at each celebration of the Games.

The official Olympic Motto is «Citius, Altius, Fortius», a Latin phrase meaning «Swifter, Higher, Stronger». Coubertin’s ideals are probably best illustrated by the Olympic Creed:

«The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.»

The Olympic Flame is lit in Olympia and brought to the host city by runners carrying the torch in relay. There it plays an important role in the opening ceremonies. Though the torch fire has been around since 1928, the relay was introduced in 1936.

The Olympic mascot, an animal or human figure representing the cultural heritage of the host country, was introduced in 1968. It has played an important part of the games since 1980 with the debut of misha, a Russian bear.

French and English are the two official languages of the Olympic movement.

Olympic ceremonies

Opening

Opening ceremonies climax with the lighting of the Olympic Flame. For lighting the torch, modern games feature elaborate mechanisms such as this cauldron-spiral-cauldron arrangement lit by the 1980 U.S. Olympic ice hockey team at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Apart from the traditional elements, the host nation ordinarily presents artistic displays of dance and theatre representative of that country. [28]

Various traditional elements frame the opening ceremonies of a celebration of the Olympic Games. The ceremonies typically start with the hoisting of the host country’s flag and the performing of its national anthem. [citation needed] The traditional part of the ceremonies starts with a «parade of nations» (or of athletes), during which most participating athletes march into the stadium, country by country. One honoured athlete, typically a top competitor, from each country carries the flag of his or her nation, leading the entourage of other athletes from that country. [citation needed]

Traditionally (starting at the 1928 Summer Olympics) Greece marches first, because of its historical status as the origin of the Olympics, while the host nation marches last. (Exceptionally, in 2004, when the Games were held in Athens, Greece marched last as host nation rather than first, although the flag of Greece was carried in first.) Between these two nations, all other participating nations march in alphabetical order of the dominant language of the host country, [29] [citation needed]

[30] (There is a similar recital for the Winter Games.)

[30] Finally, the Torch is brought into the stadium, passed from athlete to athlete, until it reaches the last carrier of the Torch, often a well-known athlete from the host nation, who lights the fire in the stadium’s cauldron. [30] The Olympic Flame has been lit since the 1928 Summer Olympics, but the torch relay did not start until the 1936 Summer Olympics. Beginning at the post-World War I 1920 Summer Olympics, the lighting of the Olympic Flame was for 68 years followed by the release of doves, symbolizing peace. [30] This gesture was discontinued after several doves were burned alive in the Olympic Flame during the opening ceremony of the 1988 Summer Olympics. [31] However, some Opening Ceremonies have continued to include doves in other forms; for example, the 2002 Winter Olympics featured skaters holding kite-like cloth dove puppets.

Opening ceremonies have been held outdoors, usually on the main athletics stadium, but those for the 2010 Winter Olympics will be the first to be held indoors, at the BC Place Stadium. [32]

Closing

Three national flags are each hoisted onto flagpoles one at a time while their respective national anthems are played: The flag of Greece on the righthand pole (again honoring the birthplace of the Olympic Games), the flag of the host country on the middle pole, and finally the flag of the host country of the next Summer or Winter Olympic Games, on the lefthand pole. [34] (Exceptionally, in 2004, when the Games were held in Athens, only one flag of Greece was raised.)

In what is known as the «Antwerp Ceremony» (because the tradition started during the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp), the mayor of the city that organized the Games transfers a special Olympic Flag to the president of the IOC, who then passes it on to the mayor of the next city to host the Olympic Games. [34] The receiving mayor then waves the flag eight times. There are three such flags, differing from all other copies in that they have a six-coloured fringe around the flag, and are tied with six coloured ribbons to a flagstaff:

A problem was posed by this tradition at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy. The flag was passed from Setgio Chiamparino, the mayor of Turin, to Sam Sullivan, the mayor of Vancouver. Unfortunately, Sullivan is a paraplegic so he waved the flag by holding it in one hand and turning his wheelchair back and forth eight times.

After these traditional elements, the next host nation introduces itself with artistic displays of dance and theatre representative of that country. This tradition began with the 1976 Games.

The president of the host country’s Olympic Organising Committee makes a speech, followed by the IOC president, who at the end of his speech formally closes the Olympics, by saying:

The Olympic Flame is extinguished, and while the Olympic anthem is being played, the Olympic Flag that was hoisted during the opening ceremonies is lowered from the flagpole and horizontally carried out of the stadium. [34] [citation needed]

Medal Presentation

After medals are awarded and presented for a particular event, the flags of the nations of the three medalists would be raised. The flag of the gold medalist’s country would be in the center and always raised the highest while the flag of the silver medalist’s country would be on the left to the observer and the flag of the bronze medalist’s country would be on the right, both at lower elevations to the gold medalist’s country’s flag. The flags would be raised to the national anthem of the gold medalist’s country.

This format of medal presentation is also seen in other multi-sporting events such as the Southeast Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games.

Olympic sports

Main article: Olympic sports

Currently, the Olympic program consists of 35 different sports, 53 disciplines and more than 400 events. The Summer Olympics includes 28 sports with 38 disciplines and the Winter Olympics includes 7 sports with 15 disciplines. [35] Nine sports were on the original Olympic programme in 1896: athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, weightlifting, shooting, swimming, tennis, and wrestling. If the 1896 rowing events had not been cancelled due to bad weather, they would have been included in this list as well. [36]

At the most recent Winter Olympics, seven sports were conducted, or 15 if each sport such as skiing and skating is counted. Of these, cross country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and speed skating have been featured on the programme at all Winter Olympics. In addition, figure skating and ice hockey also have been contested as part of the Summer Games before the introduction of separate Winter Olympics.

In recent years, the IOC has added several new sports to the programme to attract attention from young spectators. Examples of such sports include snowboarding and beach volleyball. The growth of the Olympics also means that some less popular (modern pentathlon) or expensive (white water canoeing) sports may lose their place on the Olympic programme. The IOC decided to discontinue baseball and softball beginning in 2012.

Rule 48.1 of the Olympic Charter requires that there be a minimum of 15 Olympic sports at each Summer Games. Following its 114th Session (Mexico 2002), the IOC also decided to limit the programme of the Summer Games to a maximum of 28 sports, 301 events, and 10,500 athletes. The Olympic sports are defined as those governed by the International Federations listed in Rule 46 of the Olympic Charter. A two-thirds vote of the IOC is required to amend the Charter to promote a Recognised Federation to Olympic status and therefore make the sports it governs eligible for inclusion on the Olympic programme. Rule 47 of the Charter requires that only Olympic sports may be included in the programme.

The IOC reviews the Olympic programme at the first Session following each Olympiad. A simple majority is required for an Olympic sport to be included in the Olympic programme. Under the current rules, an Olympic sport not selected for inclusion in a particular Games remains an Olympic sport and may be included again later with a simple majority. At the 117th IOC Session, 26 sports were included in the programme for London 2012.

Until 1992, the Olympics also often featured demonstration sports. The objective was for these sports to reach a larger audience; the winners of these events are not official Olympic champions. These sports were sometimes sports popular only in the host nation, but internationally known sports have also been demonstrated. Some demonstration sports eventually were included as full-medal events.

Amateurism and professionalism

Further information: Amateurism

The English public schools of the second half of the 19th century had a major influence on many sports. The schools contributed to the rules and influenced the governing bodies of those sports out of all proportion to their size. They subscribed to the Ancient Greek and Roman belief that sport formed an important part of education, an attitude summed up in the saying: mens sana in corpore sanoRobert Laffan, the headmaster of Cheltenham College, as their representative to the IOC meetings. He was made a member of the IOC in 1897 and, following the first visit of the IOC to London in 1904, he was central to the founding of the British Olympic Association a year later. [37] [38] [39]

In Coubertin’s vision, athletes should be gentlemen. Initially, only amateurs were considered such; professional athletes were not allowed to compete in the Olympic Games. A short-lived exception was made for professional fencing instructors. [40] This exclusion of professionals has caused several controversies throughout the history of the modern Olympics.

1912 Olympic pentathlon and decathlon champion, Jim Thorpe, was disqualified when it was discovered that he played semi-professional baseball prior to winning his medals. He was restored as champion on compassionate grounds by the IOC in 1983. Swiss and Austrian skiers boycotted the 1936 Winter Olympics in support of their skiing teachers, who were not allowed to compete because they earned money with their sport and were considered professionals.

It gradually became clear to many that the amateurism rules had become outdated, not least because the self-financed amateurs of Western countries often were no match for the state-sponsored «full-time amateurs» of Eastern bloc countries. Nevertheless, the IOC held to the traditional rules regarding amateurism. In the 1970s, amateurism requirements were dropped from the Olympic Charter, leaving decisions on professional participation to the international federation for each sport. This switch was perhaps best exemplified by the American Dream Team, composed of well-paid NBA stars, which won the Olympic gold medal in basketball in 1992. As of 2004, the only sport in which no professionals compete is boxing (though even this requires a loose definition of amateurism, as some boxers receive cash prizes from their NOCs); in men’s football (soccer), the number of players over 23 years of age is limited to three per team.

Advertisement regulations are still very strict, at least on the actual playing field, although «Official Olympic Sponsors» are common. Athletes are only allowed to have the names of clothing and equipment manufacturers on their outfits. The sizes of these markings are limited.

Olympic champions and medalists

Ray Ewry is the only competitor with ten modern Olympic titles, but two of them are from the 1906 Intercalated Games, which are presently not included in the official records, where he is surpassed by a number of people, including four with nine gold medals each.

Main article: Lists of Olympic medalists

The History of the Olympic Games

An important tradition linking sport and culture, the history of the Olympic Games dates back to over one thousand years. Although that history may be disjointed in places, the Games have well and truly made a comeback. Even the early festivals organised by the Ancient Greeks demonstrated the values that still form the core of the Olympic Spirit today. Moreover, in Antiquity, warring states observed a truce throughout the sporting competitions – a tradition that continues today, with the United Nations General Assembly adopting the Olympic Truce ahead of each edition of the Games. The history of the Games is incredibly rich and spans millennia.

The first written evidence of the official Games dates from 776 BC, when the Greeks began measuring time in Olympiads, or the duration between each edition of the Olympic Games. The first Olympic Games were held every four years in honour of the god Zeus. From then on, a number of artistic activities such as music, singing, poetry and theatre were organised at the Pythian or Delphic Games (a separate event to the Games held in Olympia), linking culture and sport right from the beginning of the Games.

In 393 AD, the Roman Emperor Theodosius I banned the Olympic Games for religious reasons, claiming that they encouraged paganism. They were not revived until the modern era

A revival in Paris

A number of initiatives to re-establish an international sporting event were attempted at the end of the 19 th century, but failed due to the lack of coordination among the worldwide sporting movement – until one man decided to bring the main stakeholders together in Paris. The Olympic Games were therefore revived at the first Olympic Congress, organised by Baron Pierre de Coubertin and held at the Grand Amphitheatre at the Sorbonne University from 16 to 23 June 1894. Two thousand people attended, including 58 French delegates representing 24 sports organisations and clubs, and 20 delegates from Belgium, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the United States representing 13 foreign sports federations.

As the congress came to an end on 23 June, the Olympic Games were reborn and the International Olympic Committee created. The principles that guided Baron Pierre de Coubertin in this endeavour and inspired Olympism and the Olympic movement include :

Women finally allowed to take part

The first Olympic Games of the modern era took place in Athens, in the country where the original Games took place in Antiquity, in April 1896. Paris hosted the second Games in 1900.

The Paris 1900 Olympic Games saw women compete for the first time. The first female Olympic champion was Charlotte Cooper, a British tennis player who won Wimbledon five times. Out of a total of 997 athletes, 22 were women, competing in just five sports: tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrian events and golf. Of these disciplines, only golf and tennis included women‑only events. According to the Olympic Charter, the IOC’s role is “to encourage and support the promotion of women in sport at all levels and in all structures, with a view to implementing the principle of equality of men and women”. Female participation in the Olympic Games has increased dramatically since; 48.9% of the athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Games are expected to be women, as opposed to 23% at the 1984 Los Angeles Games and just 13% at the 1964 Tokyo Games. The IOC has been working with international federations as well as the Olympic Games Organising Committees to increase the number of women’s events at the Games for over 20 years. By adding a women’s boxing event, the Games in London in 2012 were the first where women competed in all sports of the Olympic programme. At the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016, 45% (5,059 women out of a total of 11,238) of the athletes were women. The Games of Tokyo in 2021 were the most equal yet, with 48.9% women athletes.

The development of the Games over the centuries

The 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis (Missouri) were the first to distribute gold, silver and bronze medals, and also included the first known disabled athlete to compete in the Olympic Games, George Eyser. He won six medals in gymnastics, three of which were gold.

The Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912 were the first to include competitors from all five continents represented by the Olympic rings. It was also the year that women made their debut in the swimming events.

From 1912 to 1948, artistic competitions were part of the modern Olympic Games, on the initiative of Pierre de Coubertin. Medals were awarded for sport‑related artwork falling in five categories: architecture, literature, music, painting and sculpture. In 1920, the Games continued after having been cancelled in 1916 due to World War I. The Olympic flag and the Olympic Oath, written by Pierre de Coubertin, were revealed at the Games in Antwerp.

“We swear that we will take part in the Olympic Games in a spirit of chivalry, for the honour of our country and for the glory of sport.”

The Olympic Games were held for the second and third times in France – in Chamonix from January to February for the first ever Winter Olympic Games, then in Paris again in the summer. The Olympic motto of “citius, altius, fortius” (faster, higher, stronger), used by Pierre de Coubertin since 1896 and taken from the priest Henri Didon, was also highlighted that year.

The Paris Olympic Games of 1924 were the first to build an Olympic Village, which has become customary at every Games since.

The Colombes olympic Village, and services available for the athletes (official report of the VIIIth Olympiad).

During the Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York, a woman acted as the flag‑bearer for an Olympic delegation for the first time; that woman was Mollie Phillips, a figure skater for Great Britain.

The Winter and Summer Olympic Games took place in Germany, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Berlin respectively. For the first time, the spectacle of the opening ceremony was broadcast live — an incredible development. Between big screens set up in Germany and the few households owning television sets, around 150,000 viewers tuned in. However, the Games served as a propaganda tool for Nazi Germany; the epitome of this was Leni Riefenstahl’s documentary film of the Games in Berlin, Olympia, which served as a monument to Nazism.

It was also at the Berlin Games in 1936 that the Olympic flame was introduced for the first time.

1940-1944

the Olympic Games of the XII and XIII Olympiads were cancelled due to the ongoing World War II.

The Winter Olympic Games held at St Moritz in 1948 were therefore named “The Games of Renewal”.

The Winter Olympic Games in Oslo were declared open by a woman for the first time – Princess Ragnhild of Norway.

The ninth Stoke Mandeville Games were held in the same city as the Olympic Games, Rome, one week later. This event is considered to be the first ever Paralympic Games.

The Grenoble Olympic Games were broadcasted live and in colour on television for the first time.

General view of the Olympic Flame during the Opening Ceremony of the 1968 Winter Olympics

Since the Games in Séoul, the Olympic and Paralympic Games have always taken place in the same city, separated by just a few weeks.

For the first time in Olympic history, all 197 of the National Olympic Committees (NOC) were represented at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Of those NOCs, 79 won medals, with 53 taking gold.

That same year, Italian archer Paola Fantato became the first athlete to compete in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the same year.

At the Olympic Games in Sydney, North and South Korea marched together under the same flag at the opening ceremony. This was an unprecedented symbol of peace since diplomatic relations between the two states had ended after the Korean War of 1950 to 1953.

The legacy concept was added to the document that sets out the rules for governing the Olympic movement, the Olympic Charter. This addition came about after a period of reflection in the 1990s, with the Games in Barcelona in 1992 serving as an example. The Olympic Games needed to be seen as more than just a periodic sport event, but also a way to bring about urban development and have a positive impact on the society where they take place. From now on, to be selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), applicant cities must have a long‑term plan.

The Iraqi football team stunned at the Games in Athens. Despite the war ravaging their country, the team reached the semi‑finals of the tournament, offering a brief distraction for Iraqis and the entire world from their country’s dramatic situation. That same year was the first time that the Olympic torch relay, after leaving Olympia, crossed every habitable continent before returning to Greece.

The first summer version of the Youth Olympic Games took place in 2010, with the first winter version taking place in 2012 — proof of the Olympic movement’s strong commitment to youth and education.

Opening ceremony of the 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck (Photo credit : IOC media).