Olympics

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Olympics

The Olympics

The Olympics are a huge sporting event that contains many different sports and consists of many different countries from around the world.
Back in ancient Greece is where the ancient Olympics originated. It was primarily a part of a religious festival in honor of Zeus the father of Greek Gods and Goddesses. The Olympics where held at the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia, which is in Western Peloponnesos. From 776 BC, the games took place at Olympia every 4 years for almost 12 centuries. In 776 BC the only event was the Stadion Race that was a foot race 600 feet long, Koroibos, a cook from Elis, won it. Additional athletic events were gradually added until; by the 5th century BC it was a 5-day program that consisted of three foot races, the pentathlon, boxing, wrestling, pankration, and the hoplitodromos.
The Greeks that came to the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia shared the same religious beliefs and spoke the same language. There where no females in the Olympics at this time so all the athletes where males who came from every corner of the Greek world, as far as Iberia in the West and the Black Sea in the East.
Although the ancient games where staged in Olympia, from 776 BC through 393 AD, it took 1503 years for the Olympics to return. The first modern Olympic games took place in Athens Greece in 1896. The man responsible for the rebirth was a Frenchman named Baron Pierre De Coubertin, who presented the idea in 1894. His original idea was to present the modern games in 1900 in his hometown Paris. But others were so enthusiastic with the idea that they convinced him to move it to 1896 and have Athens host it.
There were many great athletes throughout the history of the Olympics, But where some of the athletes worthy of earning a prize worth a hefty amount of money. This question has came about a numerous amount of times. But the word Athlete is a Greek word that means "one who competes for a prize" and is also related to the Greek words athlos...
  • Submitted by: fgdapo142
  • Date Submitted: 06/25/2006 06:23 PM
  • Category: Miscellaneous
  • Words: 1832
  • Pages: 8
  • Views: 959
  • Rank: 123635

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