In ancient Greece, strangers were not allowed to participate in the Games. In 146 B.C. Greece was subjugated to Rome, and the Greeks, contrary to sacred tradition, had to allow the winners to compete. The Romans had introduced circus performances into the Olympics: gladiators fought to the death against each other and against bulls, tigers and lions. But this was no longer a sport, but a commercial spectacle that brought in large profits.

At the end of the 4th century A.D. Christianity triumphed in Rome: Emperor Theodosius I proclaimed it an official religion. The bishop of Milan, Ambroise, who was called the “Christian conscience” of Theodosius, succeeded in convincing him that the Olympic Games (because of the legends associated with them) were the main source of paganism and must be destroyed. In 394 Theodosius I. declared the Games to be impious and, in order to establish the Christian faith and his system of government, forbade the festivities.

The Olympic facilities survived the Games for only a year. In 395 the Byzantine and Visigoth armies fought a bloody battle on the banks of the Alphaeus. Ancient Olympia was destroyed. Thirty-one years later, in the year 426, Theodosius II ordered the remains of the pagan sanctuaries to be burned and razed to the ground. This is how the majestic temple of Zeus perished, while his 12-meter gold and ivory statue, a creation of the immortal Fidias, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was taken to Constantinople.
After 100 years the defeat of Olympia was completed by two major earthquakes. And then, suddenly, the rivers overflowed. They overflowed their banks, washed away all the barriers, and Olympia disappeared from the face of the earth under the sand and mud.

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The Olympic Games were revived in the 19th century by French social activist Pierre de Coubertin. The main idea of the revival of the games was the idea of a general truce for the duration of the competition. That is why the motto of the “new” Olympic Games was: “The youth of the world were to measure their strength in sports competitions, not on the battlefields”.

The I Summer Olympic Games were held in Greece on April 6, 1896. The first modern games were attended by 331 athletes from 11 countries, all men. Our compatriots, unfortunately, did not participate in those games.

Athletes competed in only nine sports. It is interesting that at the beginning of the XX century Olympians competed in tug-of-war. The hero of the first Olympics was the winner of the marathon, the Greek letter carrier Spyros Louis. Long-distance running was literally his specialty.

Twenty-eight years later, the I Winter Olympics were held. They were held in the town of Chamonix, a famous French ski resort. You may ask: Before that did not hold major competitions in winter sports? Since 1901, the Scandinavian countries held their own Nordic Games. Therefore, the idea of holding the Winter Olympics did not come true for a long time. The Nordic countries were against it because they had their own winter games, and the southern countries were against it because they had no conditions for winter sports.

Still, in 1924, 293 athletes came to Chamonix, including 13 women. The program included five winter sports: skiing, speed skating, figure skating, bobsledding, and hockey. Interestingly, the opening ceremony was attended not only by athletes, but also by local residents.

Twelve-year-old Sonja Henie performed at the games in Chamonix. However, the figure skater from Norway won the last place at that time. During her career Sonja Henie would become a three-time Olympic champion and one of the most famous figure skaters. She also starred in movies. One of the most famous films with her participation is “Sun Valley Serenade”.

Olympic traditions
The first Olympic Games of the modern era established the tradition of these competitions. Thus, at the I Olympics in 1896, King George I of Greece announced the opening of the games. This ceremony established two Olympic traditions: the opening of the games by the head of state, where the competitions are held, and the performance of the Olympic anthem.
Citius. Altius. Fortius. Faster. Taller. Stronger. That’s the motto of the Olympic Movement. It also has its own emblem and flag. The flag is a white cloth with Olympic rings. The Olympic rings are the emblem of the Olympic Games. The rings symbolize the five continents: Europe, Africa, America, Asia and Australia.

The Olympic mascot is also part of the symbolism of the games. The first mascot appeared in 1968 at the Olympics in Grenoble, France. It is usually depicted in the form of an animal associated with the organizing country.

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The history of the ancient Olympic games is extraordinarily rich. The Olympic Games appeared in the ninth century B.C. At that time, the Greek states were ravaging each other in endless wars. Iphitheus, king of Aelis, came to Delphi to learn from the Oracle how he, the ruler of a small country, could protect his people from wars and plunder. The Oracle of Delphi, whose predictions and advice were considered absolutely correct, answered Iphitus:

It is necessary that you found the Games that please the gods!
Iphitheus set out without delay to meet the king of neighboring Sparta, the mighty Lycurgus. Apparently, Iphitheus was a good diplomat, because Lycurgus decided (and all the other rulers agreed with him) that Aelis was from now on a neutral state. Immediately, to prove his peaceful intentions and to thank the gods, Iphitheus instituted the Athletic Games, which were to be held at Olympia every four years. Hence their name – the Olympic Games.

At first the games were attended by athletes from the two cities of Elis – Elis and Pisa. The year 776 BC, the year of the first all-Greek Games, was first recorded in the annals of the Games. Only thanks to the ancient Greek tradition of carving the names of the Olympians on marble columns set up along the banks of the River Althea, the name of the first winner, Koreb, a cook from Elis, came down to us.

With the approach of the Olympic Games messengers (pheors) were dispatched from Elyda in all directions to announce the day of the feast and the “sacred truce”. They were greeted with triumph not only in Hellas itself, but also everywhere the Greeks settled. The warriors put aside their weapons and set out for Olympia. When the envoys of all the Greek states gathered together, they surely felt their national unity.

Then a unified calendar was established for the Olympic Games, which they decided to hold regularly every four years “between the harvest and the grape harvest. The feast of athletes, consisting of numerous religious ceremonies and athletic competitions, lasted first one day, then five days, and later an entire month. In order to take part in the games, one had to be “neither a slave nor a barbarian, not to commit a crime, not to commit blasphemy or sacrilege. (Barbarians were considered those who were not citizens of the Greek states.)

History of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece – the emergence of new spectacular events
At the first 13 Games the only competition was the stadiodromos – the one-stadium race. In 724 BC the dioulos (a distance of 384.54 m) was added as a double race. Then, in 720 BC, at the 15th Olympiad, the pentathlon, or as the Greeks called it, pentathlon, consisting of simple running, long jump, throwing discus and javelin, wrestling, appeared. Seven more Olympiads later, in 688 BC, the program was enriched by fist fights, 12 years later by chariot fights and finally, at the 33rd Olympiad, in 648 BC, by pankration, the most difficult and cruel kind of competition.

The contestants wore a special bronze cap on their heads and wrapped leather straps with metal cones around their fists when they entered the fistfight. The fighter, preparing to strike, took precautions: protected his head with his hand; tried to stand so that the opponent was blinded by the sun, and then with all his might struck his ribs, face and torso with his fist, virtually shackled in iron. The fight continued until one of the two men declared himself defeated. Usually the athletes left the battlefield disfigured, maimed, and bleeding. Often they were carried out of the stadium half-dead.

Pankration combined wrestling and fist fighting. It was forbidden to use teeth and to twist or break fingers of the opponent, to put metal armbands on hands. But any blows, grapples, kicks, painful holds were allowed; you could tip your opponent on the ground and squeeze his throat.
Later the program of the Games included a run with weapons, a race of trumpeters and heralds, a competition in a chariot pulled by mules, a competition for children in wrestling, horse racing, pentathlon), and in 200 BC, at the 145th Olympiad, there was even a children’s pankration.
On the eve of the opening of the Olympics the spectators admired the marble statues of the winners of the previous Games, which were located between the stadium and the River Althea. The statues were erected at the expense of the towns from which the new “demigods” came: the first Olympian Co-Reb of Aelida, “the strongest of the strong” Milon of Croton, Polytes of Corina, the fastest athlete of the 212th Olympiad, Lasphenes of Te-bei, who ran 156 stadia in a race against a horse, Nicola of Akria, who had won five races at the two Olympics and many other great athletes.

The young men were also shown the statues of Zeus, which rose near the hill of Crone. Each of these statues was ordered and placed on the fines imposed on those competitors in the Games who cheated, tried to bribe their opponent or maimed them during the competition.

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