History Of The Olympics
The Olympics have started this year, and how wonderful they are to watch. Have you found yourself wondering what the history behind the Olympics is? Even Diego Ruiz Duran finds the history of the Olympics fascinating. Let’s talk about the history behind it.
The Olympics started back in ancient Greece about 3,000 years ago really, but was brought back in the late 19th century. The first recorded Olympics game happened in 776 B.C., and yes, that’s correct. The ancient Olympics were held every 4 years during a festival honoring Zeus. The games got their name from their place of location, which is of course, Olympia. Back in the ancient games there were no women sports, or competitions allowed, unfortunately. That’s just how things were in those days.
When Greece was conquered by the Roman Empire, they still held the Olympic games, however, they were not as great. Their standards started to fall, and their quality decreased. It wasn’t that great anymore. Emperor Theodosius I banned all pagan festivals, and games, back in 393 A.D. Emperor Theodosius I was a Christian, and didn’t believe in celebrating this anymore. This ended the Olympic tradition after it had been going on for almost 12 centuries. That’s a long time tradition to just be shut down, and cancelled.
Over the 12 centuries they had added in several games, but still didn’t allow women to compete in any of them.
When they resurrected the Olympics back in 1892, they also decided to do it every 4 years like they did back in ancient Greece. They held the first modern day Olympics in Athens, Greece in 1896. They still didn’t allow females to compete. There were 280 competitors from all 12 nations. The first Olympic flag flew in 1920 at the Antwerp Olympic games.
The Olympics really took off as an international sport back in 1924, when it was held in Paris. About 3,000 competitors there, 100 of them being women, from 44 nations. This was also the year that the Winter Olympics became a thing as well. It was a great year for the Olympics all around, and started to become such a big thing, like it truly is. It brings us all together.
This is the history of the Olympics, and how it came to be. It’s so amazing to think of how long the Olympic games have been around. They started so long ago, and even though there was a period where it was cancelled, it was resurrected, and is such an amazing thing for the world to have these days. The Olympics today now have women’s sports, and it just honestly keeps getting better with each game. It’s come such a long way since it was created in ancient Greece back in the B.C. days. This is such an interesting topic to learn about, even Diego Ruiz Duran finds the history of the Olympic games to be a fascinating topic. It’s great to see the growth that has happened to the games over the years.
