The ancient games are documented as far back as BCE. Coubertin envisioned that the host city would rotate every four years in order to internationalize the games further. After the first modern Olympics in , the games returned to Athens only on their th anniversary in Symbols and ceremony Throughout his life, Coubertin devoted himself to laying the foundations of the modern games.
His vision is evident in nearly every aspect of the modern Olympiad: from the formalities of the opening and closing ceremonies, to the rules and regulations of competition, to the design of the Olympic symbol and medals. The inauguration of the first international games took place in the Panathenaic Stadium in the heart of Athens on April 5, King George I of Greece presided over the opening and closing ceremonies before 80, spectators.
He also awarded the winner of the game's final event - the Marathon. In a poignant twist of fate for the host nation, the victor of this ancient foot race was a Greek man named Spiridon "Spyros" Louis. But he left a national hero and historic figure! Athens closing ceremonies. Winner Spyridon "Spiros" Louis after receiving his olive branch, medal and diploma for winning the Marathon. The first medalist of the modern games was the American athlete James Connolly, who won the triple jump on the first day of the Games, reaching He led the U.
Greece won the most medals overall Yet, gymnastics was almost completely dominated by the Germans who took home 8 of 11 medals. Weingartner competing in the gymnastics bar event, Athens, He took first place in the event. In the and games, only first-place and second-place winners were awarded medals. The first-place winner received a silver medal, an olive branch, and a diploma from King George of Greece.
There was no winter Olympic festival in ancient times. Separate Winter Games were first authorized in to be held in , but due to World War I they didn't occur until , in Chamonix. Starting with Lillehammer in , it was decided that every other year will be an Olympic year with Summer and Winter Games alternating , rather than holding Summer and Winter Games every 4th year. This was done to accommodate TV networks and audiences. The Modern Olympic flag of five linked rings, each with a primary color used in the flags of the nations competing in the games, was introduced in There is no ancient basis for this modern symbol.
Detail from an Attic Red Figure Kylix, ca. Above them hang a discus in its bag and a pair of jumping weights called 'halteres. The celebrations extended beyond the stadium into the surrounding hills.
As Waldstein noted, the occasion reached back into Ancient Greek history. The man whose vision, energy and powers of persuasion had brought about the return of the Olympics — the diminutive FrenchmanBaron Pierre de Coubertin — was caught up in the excitement too.
And, as unlikely as it might sound, a major inspiration for such a display of global athleticism could be found in the lush countryside of Shropshire. The Wenlock Olympian Games, held in the market town of Much Wenlock, had been established in by a local doctor named William Penny Brookes, who was attempting to promote moral, physical and intellectual well-being among the community. The events at those first Games included athletics, football, cricket and quoits.
Initially intended to take place in Paris to coincide with the World Fair, that six-year gap was considered to be too distant a date to maintain the momentum that the Olympic movement was gathering. Instead, a decision was made to hold the event within two years, and that Athens was the obvious and symbolic location from where to launch the updated version. Greece, far from the most economically stable of European countries, received assistance from the legacies of a pair of philanthropists — Evangelis and Konstantinos Zappas.
The cousins had been involved in multi-sport events in their own country earlier in the 19th century and their respective estates helped finance major projects, such as the restoration of the Panathenaic Stadium.
In the two years between the announcementand the start of the Games, Athens worked its collective socks off to get itself ready for thespectacle, to honour the weight of expectation on its shoulders. The building programme was both swift in its execution and impressive in its results. The pavilions and boathouses for the rowing competition were particularly praised, even if the poor weather of early April meant the cancellation of both the rowing and sailing events.
The Games opened on the 75th anniversary of Greek independence. Two hundred and forty-one athletes, from 14 nations, competed across nine sports — athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, swimming, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.
What is known these days as athletics — running, jumping, throwing — formed the foundation of the modern Olympics, with certain disciplines, such as the marathon and the discus, a fixture of the Games from both antiquity and the 21st century.
The Germans built a powerful team through nationalized training and scientific advances and dominated the Games in terms of medals won. The political overtones of the Olympics did not lessen with the fall of Nazi Germany. In the Munich Olympics in , 11 Israeli athletes were massacred by Palestinian terrorists.
And in in Montreal, 33 African nations, to be represented by about athletes, boycotted the Games to protest South Africa's apartheid policies. The most serious disruptions to the modern Olympics, however, occurred in and In , under strong pressure from the Carter administration, the U.
About 40 nations followed suit, including West Germany, China, and Japan, depriving the Soviets of their chief athletic competition and raising doubts about the future of the Olympic movement. Fear of an openly hostile environment in Los Angeles was cited by the Soviet Olympic Committee as the reason for nonparticipation, but most commentators believed the reasons to be political: the poor state of recent U.
The popularity and financial success of the Los Angeles Games were, however, greater than anticipated. The Summer Games, in Atlanta, Ga. The and Winter Games transpired without incident. The Summer Games were held in Sydney, Australia, to great acclaim.
In Sydney, politics took a back seat to the competition, although North and South Korea were temporarily reunited as their athletes marched as one country in the opening ceremonies. Athens, Greece — site of the first modern Olympics — was the site of the Summer Games in Though it has potential for political controversies due to its rapid modernization and its communist state-Beijing, China was selected for the Summer Games.
The biggest influence on the modern Olympic Games is money. Commercialism exists side by side with the outstanding athleticism and the spirit of friendship imbuing competitors from around the world. Since the Games in Los Angeles, it has become clear that a city hosting the Games can anticipate a financial windfall, as spectators and sponsors converge for the event. Because of the tremendous potential for profit, the process of selecting host cities has become politicized, and there is a large potential for corruption.
In fact, a scandal erupted in late , when it was found that promoters involved with Salt Lake City's winning bid for the Winter Games had bribed IOC members, who were forced to resign; the Nagano and Sydney bids were also under suspicion of bribery. Athletes, too, especially in the "glamour sports" such as gymnastics, ice skating, or track and field, can reap tremendous financial gains for winning performances, through product endorsements and personal appearances.
Originally, Olympic athletes were expected to remain strictly amateurs and not earn money even for endorsing products. However, by the last decades of the 20th century, professionalism among competitors received official acceptance, as the IOC finally recognized that many world-class athletes were already functioning as professionals.
At the elite level of competition in many Olympic sports, the athlete must devote him- or herself entirely to the sport, all but precluding the holding of a full-time job. The end of amateurism began in s in the Communist countries, where top athletes were supported by the state, but were officially considered amateurs. To counter this, in the s and s athletes in non-Communist countries sought out corporate sponsors, in effect becoming "employees" of the sponsor.
By the late s, restrictions were eased on athletes earning prize money at their sports, and professional athletes were permitted to represent their countries at the Olympics. This now includes the star athletes who play in the American professional leagues, such as the U.
In addition, with IOC rules concerning amateurism vacated, many medal-winning contestants have cashed in on their Olympic fame with product endorsements or performance tours.
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