The Olympic ideal
The Olympics as most people know began in Greece. Roughly by 500 BCE, festivals were being held all over Greece. The most famous of these was of course the Olympics. The Olympic Games were held every four years at Olympia, in honor of Zeus. Events in these early games included distance races, pentathlon, boxing and wrestling. Most of these events required athletes who were male and they had to complete in the nude.
The Olympics have of course evolved over the years. For starters, the competitors wear clothes now. The trend began to change in the 2nd century BC when Rome conquered Greece and eventually abolished the Olympic Games. But in 1892, a French man by the name of Pierre de Coubertin started a campaign to resurrect the event. He went and spoke to the Union des Sports Athletiques in Paris and spoke about the potential of the Olympics and it being a platform upon which the nations of the world could unite for a common cause. He continued his championing of the Olympic at the Congress of Paris which was a conference on international sports. The eventual result was an emphatic vote which was in favor of the revival of the sporting event.
The organization of the event was placed in the hands of the International Olympic Committee under the presidency of the Greek Demetrius Vikelas who was one of de Coubertin’s most vocal supporters. The first Olympiad was held in Athens from the 6th to the 15th of April 1896. It was initially intended that the games be staged in Paris in 1900, in association with the world fair. However it was decided that the first Olympics should be an event in its own right.
The revival of the ancient games attracted athletes from 14 nations including Greece, Germany, France, and Great Britain. About 241 athletes competed in 9 different sports and 43 various events. It was a very successful event with American James Connolly winning the triple jump thrice and becoming the first Olympic champion in more than 1500 years. The German athlete Carl Schumann had already gained three gymnastic titles but gained a fourth by taking the wresting championship title. There was no event that the Greek hosts wanted to win more than the marathon race, because of its historical significance, and they got their wish. Spyrion Louis won the race by more than seven minutes.
The second Olympics were held from the 15 of May to 28th October 1900 in Paris. The event was held as a part of the ‘World’s Fair’. The organizers of this event spread it over the span of five months and de emphasized the Olympic status. Women took part in the games for the first time although only in a limited number of events, including golf and tennis. In 1904 the Olympics were held in St Louis in which again the mistakes of the 1900 Olympics were repeated. Then in 1908 the games were held in London at the very well equipped white castle stadium.
In 1912 the event was held at Stockholm and then at Antwerp, but it wasn’t until 1924 that the first winter Olympics were held. In 1922 a meeting of the French Olympic committee decided to organize an international winter sports week, in Chamonix in 1923. Sadly the well organized event was beset by poor weather. But it was from here onwards that the event became a regular event just like the Olympics.
Tags: