Brief history of Olympics:

The ancient history of Olympics Games dates back to 3000 years in Greece, which was later revived in the 19^th Century, since then it has gained immense popularity and led to build a great sportsman spirit amongst the participants from different countries and in different games to prove their might.

Olympic Games were held every four years from 8th Century BC to the 4th Century AD in Olympia located in Peloponnese peninsula, in the honor of the Greek God Zeus.

The first modern Olympics was held in 1896 in Athens-the capital city of Greece and some of its details are as below:

• No. of nations participated- 13
• No. of participants- 280
• No. of Events- 43

It was since only after 1994, the Olympic Games were split into summer and winter games that are held separately and alternatively after every 2 years.

Ancient Greek Olympic Games

As per the ancient found written record of the ancient Olympic Games that dates to 776 B.C., the first Olympic champion was Coroebus who was a cook, he won a 192-meter footrace called the stade.  However, it is believed that these games were being held from past many years i.e. even before 776 B.C.

After the period 13 Olympiads was over (a period of four years between the Olympic games) two more races events were introduced in Olympics known as the diaulos (roughly equal around 400-meter race), and the Dolichos (a longer race around 1,500-meter or 5,000-meter race).

History of some Games Introduced

The participation in the ancient Olympic Games was initially allowed to the freeborn male citizens of Greece, no women’s events were held, and married women were not allowed from attending the competition.

Fall and Revival of the Olympic Tradition

So, since we have already discussed The ancient history of Olympics Games, now let us see the reasons for why Olympics was discontinued in past and how it revived.

The Olympic games continued to exist even after the roman’s conquered the Greece in mid 2^nd Century. But it is believed the standard of the games fell during that time.

For example in A.D. 67, the Emperor Nero participated in an Olympic chariot race, and declared himself the winner even after he fell off his chariot during the event.

In A.D. 393,a Christian Emperor Theodosius I, declared a ban on all “pagan” festivals( the festivals that belonged to the other religion), that ended the ancient Olympic tradition after 12 centuries.

It was only after a long period and due to the dedicated efforts of Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France who was passionate for promoting the physical education became inspired by the idea of creating a modern Olympic Games after his visit to the ancient Olympic site.

He proposed this idea in November’1892, at a meeting of the Union des Sports Athlétiques in Paris and due to his continuous efforts two years later, he got the approval to form an International Olympic Committee (IOC), that became the governing body this modern Olympic Games.

Short note on modern Olympic Games

As mentioned earlier as well the first modern Olympics was held in Panathenaic Stadium in the heart of city Athens of Greece, in the year 1896.

The Olympics was inaugurated by King George I (1863-1913) of Greece, the statidum witnessed the crowd of 80000 spectators.

There were 280 participants from 13 nations that participated in 43 events such as track events, field, gymnastics, swimming, wrestling, cycling, tennis, weightlifting, shooting and fencing.

All the subsequent Olympiads were numbered even if the event did not take place for example in 1916, during World War I, and in 1940 and 1944, during World War II.

The latest example could be presented of Olympics 2020, the name of the year remains the same this year because the same could not take place last year due to heavy restrictions imposed on movement owing to the Covid-19 pandemic breakout across all the nations.

An international multi sport event where athletes from the commonwealth nations participate

Olympics gained mass popularity and became an international multi sporting event in 1924, when the Games of VIII Olympiad were held in Paris.

Around 3,000 athletes including women (100 women) from 44 nations participated that year, and it was the first time when the closing ceremony was also featured.

The Winter Olympics also debuted in the same year that introduced events as skating, ice hockey, bobsledding and the biathlon.

After Eight decades in 2004 the Summer Olympics returned to Athens for the first time after more than a century, in which around 11,000 athletes from 201 countries participated. As a gesture both ancient & modern Olympic traditions were joined, and the shotput competition that year was held at the historical site in Olympia.

The Symbol: Olympic circle colors meaning

The Symbol of the modern Games includes five interlocking colored rings that represent the continents of North and South America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia. It was in 1920 when for the first time The Olympic flag, featuring this symbol on a white background was hoisted at the Antwerp Games in1920.

The blue ring represents the European continent, the yellow ring represents Asia, the black, green and red represents Africa, Australia and America respectively

Chronological list of Olympic host cities

Now when we are discussing about The ancient history of Olympics Games it is also important to note the details of the places where Olympic games took place in the past.

Summer Olympic Games

• 1896  Athens, Greece
• 1900  Paris, France
• 1904  St. Louis, United States
• 1908  London, England
• 1912  Stockholm, Sweden
• 1916  Cancelled (WWI – Berlin had been awarded)
• 1920  Antwerp, Belgium
• 1924  Paris, France
• 1928  Amsterdam, Netherlands
• 1932  Los Angeles, United States
• 1936  Berlin, Germany
• 1940 Cancelled (WWII – Tokyo had been awarded)
• 1944 Cancelled (WWII – London had been awarded)
• 1948  London, England
• 1952  Helsinki, Finland
• 1956  Melbourne, Australia
• 1960  Rome, Italy
• 1964  Tokyo, Japan
• 1968  Mexico City, Mexico
• 1972  Munich, West Germany
• 1976  Montreal, Canada
• 1980  Moscow, Soviet Union
• 1984  Los Angeles, United States
• 1988  Seoul, South Korea
• 1992  Barcelona, Spain
• 1996  Atlanta, United States
• 2000  Sydney, Australia
• 2004  Athens, Greece
• 2008  Beijing, China
• 2012  London, England
• 2016  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• 2020  Tokyo, Japan (postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic)
• 2024  Paris, France
• 2028  Los Angeles, United States

Winter Olympic Games

• 1924  Chamonix, France
• 1928  St. Moritz, Switzerland
• 1932  Lake Placid, United States
• 1936  Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
• 1940  Cancelled (WWII – Sapporo had been awarded)
• 1944  Cancelled (WWII – Cortina d’Ampezzo had been awarded)
• 1948  St. Moritz, Switzerland
• 1952  Oslo, Norway
• 1956  Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy
• 1960  Squaw Valley, United States
• 1964  Innsbruck, Austria
• 1968  Grenoble, France
• 1972  Sapporo, Japan
• 1976  Innsbruck, Austria
• 1980  Lake Placid, United States
• 1984  Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
• 1988  Calgary, Canada
• 1992  Albertville, France
• 1994  Lillehammer, Norway
• 1998  Nagano, Japan
• 2002  Salt Lake City, United States
• 2006  Turin, Italy
• 2010  Vancouver, Canada
• 2014  Sochi, Russia
• 2018  Pyeongchang, South Korea
• 2022  Beijing, China
• 2026  Milan – Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy

Countries with most Olympic medals

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Sources of information: How to invest in Bitcoins?

Google.com, Wikipedia, architectureofthegames.net , Thehistory.com, worldpopulationreview.com

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