I'm sure most of you reading this have watched the Olympics at some point in your life, or at least heard of them. But where did they come from? Did an athlete just jump up one day and exclaim, "Everyone stop what you're doing. I've got a great idea!"? Not exactly.
The first written records of the Olympics date back to 776 BC, where there was one event; the sprint, which was a run of about 210 yards (192 meters). The first man to win this was Coroebus, making him the first ever Olympic champion in history.
The games continued on, occurring every four years, for around 1200 years. But in 393 AD the Roman emperor Theodosius banned the games for their Pagan influence. And it stayed that way, that is, until Pierre de Coubertin had something to say about it.
Coubertin, born on January 1, 1863, believed that sports played a huge part in creating a well rounded and vigorous person. He created the sports organization, Union des Societes Francaises de Sporst Athletiques, in 1890. Two years after he created the organization, Coubertin called a meeting and talked about bringing back the Olympics. But, the people didn't really care too much and his idea was quickly forgotten.
Coubertin didn't give up there. Two years after that, he called 79 delegates, representing nine different countries, together and spoke to them about bringing the games back. This time, they listened. All seventy-nine delegates voted to bring the games back and decided that Athens, Greece would be the first location. From that point on, there was no stopping it. The Olympics sky rocketed and caught the attention of billions of people world-wide.
Where the Olympics will be held is usually chosen seven years before the actual celebration. The summer games have been held in 29 different cities, and the winter games have been held in 21 different cities.
The Olympics have actually been canceled five times (three times for the summer games and twice for the winter games), because of World War I and World War II.
From thousands of years before our time to this very day, the Olympics have changed a huge amount. From only a few people with only one game to compete in, to thousands of athletes from across the globe competing in a large range of games.
I was never really into the Olympics, since I'm not a very athletic person, but as I began to learn about the athletes, and how they trained their entire lives for one moment, I got interested. And they can be very interesting and fun to watch.
What about you? Are you training for the Olympics? Or have you experienced them in person? Share it in the BBS!
Now I'm off to watch the Winter Olympics!
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Author's Note: Sources: http://history1900s.about.com/od/fadsfashion/a/olympicshistory.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Games
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/olympics/
http://kushkm.tripod.com/
http://www.harveyabramsbooks.com/hostcities.html
