HISTORY OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES
• The Olympics games is the biggest international sports event in which participate a lot of athletes around the world. They involve more than two hundred nations. There are two types: the Summer Olympics games and the Winter Olympics games. • The Olympics were born in Olympia with a sacred character; it was dedicated to Zeus. These festivals joined religion with sports events, music and literary events to honor the gods of antiquity.
THE FIRST OLYMPIC GAMES • The first Olympic Games were in 776 BC and then they were happening every four years until 393 d. C., the date on which the Roman Emperor Theodosius decided to suppress because of its pagan character. • The Participants were only free men who hadn´t committed any crime. Women could not participate as athletes and even married women as spectators because athletes competed naked. • During 11 centuries, Olympia became the axis of world sport and landmark for postery games.
RESTORATION OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES •
• • •
After many centuries forgotten, the Olympics are revive in the modern era with the boost of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who decided to restore the spirit of the ancient Games, giving them international character. Current Games represent an important event in sports, politics, economics and cultural. Finally, the first Games of the modern era were celebrated in Athens in 1896. From that year the Olympic Games were celebrated every 4 years. Only editions of 1916, 1940 and 1944 were suspended because of the World Wars. In 1924 were created The Winter Olympic games , also celebrated every four years; initially coincided in the same year, but since 1994 are celebrated two years after the summer Olympic games with the same frequency.
WHY IS SO SIGNIFICANT THE OLYMPIC FLAME? • Prior to the Olympic Games, as in ancient times a sacred torch was lit to symbolize purity, justice and peace between nations. It is a symbol of the Olympic Games, and evokes the legend of Prometheus, who had stolen fire from Zeus to give it to mortals. During the celebration of the ancient Olympics in Olympia, the flame was maintained while the competitions, this tradition being reintroduced in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. During the 1936 Berlin Olympics, was first conducted a march athletes to carry a torch with the flame from the ruins of the Temple of Hera in Olympia, to the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. • As is known, the tradition of keeping a fire during the Olympics cames from ancient times, when sacrifices were made to Zeus. In these ceremonies, the priests lit a torch and the athlete who win a race, have the privilege of carrying the torch to light the sacrificial altar. The fire was then kept during the Games in honor of Zeus.
THE PUNTUATION • The Olympic GAMES are a competition of individual athletes, not countries, and the ANOC (Association of National Olympic Committees) doesn´t give the results by nation. • The media of all nations report the results obtained by their representatives by one or two scoring systems. In the system of points, ten points are awarded for every gold medal, five for silver medal, four for bronze medal, three points for fourth position, two for fifth and one for sixth. The other scoring system produces a list (medal table) with the number of medals won by each nation.