Olympic Games

Ancient Olympic Games

The Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions among
representatives of city-states of Ancient Greece.

• The Greeks gave them a

mythological origin and held
them in honor of Zeus.

• The ancient Olympics had

fewer events than the modern
games, and only freeborn Greek
men were allowed to participate.

• The Olympics also featured

religious celebrations and artistic
competitions.

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 The events of the Ancient Olympics
At first, the Olympic Games lasted only one day and originally contained one event:

180 - 240 m

• The stadion (or "stade") race is a short sprint measuring between 180 and 240
metres (590 and 790 ft), or the length of the stadium.
 The events of the Ancient Olympics
Eventually, the Olympic games grew to five days, and new events were introduced:

• The diaulos, or two-stade race, was Picture by Marie-Lan Nguyen

introduced in 724 BC, during the 14th
Olympic games. The race was a single
lap of the stadium, approximately 400
metres (1,300 ft).

• A third foot race, the dolichos, was

introduced in 720 BC. The length of the
race was 18–24 laps, or about three
miles (5 km).

• The last running event added to the

Olympic program was the
hoplitodromos, or "Hoplite race",
introduced in 520 BC and was
traditionally ran as the last race of the Hoplitodromos from an Attic black-figure Panathenaic amphora, 323–322 BC

Olympic Games.
The Olympic flame
The Olympic flame is the symbol of the Olympic games.
Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god
Zeus by Prometheus, its origins lie in ancient Greece,
where a fire was kept burning throughout the
celebration of the ancient Olympics.

The fire was reintroduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics

in Amsterdam, and it has been part of the modern
Olympic Games ever since.
 Modern Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games are the leading international sporting event featuring
summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes participate in
a variety of competitions.

• The Olympic Games are held every

four years, with the Summer and
Winter Games alternating, meaning,
each they each occur every four
years but are two years apart
respectively.

• The first modern Games were

hosted in the Panathenaic stadium
in Athens in 1896. The Games
brought together 14 nations and 241
athletes who competed in 43 events.