History: Ancient Olympic Games

In the beginning
The ancient Greeks developed the Olympic Games from a festival for the ancient Greek god, Zeus. They held the first games at Olympia in 776 BC. Every four years, top athletes from around the ancient Greek world competed in the games. Thousands of people watched them. At first, there was only one running race and the games took place on one day. In 632 BC, the ancient Greeks extended the games to five days.

The events
There were lots of exciting events, like horse and chariot races. In the pentathlon, athletes competed in five sports: a race, the javelin, the discus, the long jump and wrestling. This all happened in one day! The pankration was one of the hardest events. It was like a mix of boxing and wrestling and it had very few rules. The winning athletes in the events won olive wreaths.

The truce
Athletes competed for their city state. States like Athens and Sparta were not only rivals at the games; they also fought each other in wars. However, during the games, the city states called a truce. This meant that the wars stopped when the games were on.

No women
Only men, boys and girls were allowed to watch the ancient Olympics. Married women were not allowed to watch and were not allowed to compete. It’s hard to believe that if men found women at the games, they threw the women off a cliff!

The end
When ancient Greece became part of the Roman Empire, the Romans took over the games. In 393 AD, Emperor Theodosius ended them. The games started again in 1896. Greeks held the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896.