advanced reading about The Olympic Games

The first Olympic Games took place over 3,000 years ago in Greece. The Greeks believed that they honored the gods by using and displaying their athletic abilities. Every four years a month-long festival was held in a large city.

The festival that our modern Olympic Games are patterned after was held at the foot of Mount Olympus, the peak that was believed to be the home of the gods. This festival was one of the largest and most important to the Greeks because of its location and religious purpose.

During the early Games, the events included only a few foot races. This growth continued in events as well as participants. At first, only male Greek citizens could compete. Later it was opened to women and foreigners as well. Pageants, parades, feasts, and religious rituals were added to the Games.

As a result, there was an Olympic decline for several years. The festival lost its religious significance as money became the center of the Games. In 393 A.D. the Roman emperor declared an end to the Olympics because of its contradiction with Christianity. In 1889 the idea of the Olympic Games returned. A French educator named Baron Pierre de Coubertin felt that by encouraging athletics for the youth, people of the world would come to have a better understanding of one another. In June of 1894 a group of representatives from 12 countries met and formed the International Olympic Committee (the IOC).

The IOC decided to organize an international sports competition, much like those Games of ancient Greece. It would take place every four years in different cities around the world. The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. Two hundred eighty-five people from thirteen countries participated.

Winter sports were not included until 1908 when ice skating was a first time event. Both ice skating and hockey were part of the 1920 Games. People enjoyed these winter events so much that it was deemed worthy to organize a separate Olympics for winter sports. In 1924 the first Winter Games were held in France where three hundred athletes were represented from sixteen nations.

The modern Olympics represent an international sporting friendship. The colors used on the flag are found at least once in all nations’ flags. The heart of the Olympic Games is the uniting of countries in friendship to celebrate and honor the finest Olympians from each country.