The Olympic Games

About 2,800 years ago in Olympia, Ancient Greece, there was a race in a field near the river Alpheus. The athletes ran about 200 metres, and a man called Coroebus, from the Greek city of Elis, won. A crowd of 40,000 people shouted his name and gave him flowers. Coroebus was one of the first Olympic champions. (p.3)

 

 

There are many stories about how the Olympic Games started, and we do not know which ones are true. In or before 776 BCE, the Olympic Games began at Olympia, and happened every four years after that. The athletes came from many cities in modern Greek, Italy, Turkey, and Africa, and later from cities in Armenia, Egypt, and Spain. At that time, there were many wars in Greece, but because of athletes needed to travel to Olympia for the Games, everyone stopped fighting for a month before they started. From this episode, we can see how important event Olympics were at that time. 

  

     The earliest Olympic Games were only one day long, and were built around ceremonies for Zeus – the most important Greek got. There was only one sports event – a race of about 200 metres called the stade. Later, the Olympic Games were three, and then five, days long. There were new races as well. There was even a shouting event – the winner was the person with the loudest voice. I thought if this event was still held, it would be interesting and I wondered how to decide the winner of this event. I guess it is difficult to decide the winner.

 

      At these early Olympics, winning athletes were given olive branches, and champions wore these on their heads at the winners’ ceremony. Ancient Olympic champions did not win medals, like today’s winners, but they became famous in their cities, and people game presents like money or houses. The Olympics today is pretty different from the first modern Games in Athens. Women could not compete before in Olympics, but today there are women athletes in most events and teams. There is also called Paralympic Games, for people with disabilities.

 

     There are places, where flourished with the Olympics, such as, Stratford, east London. It was not a very interesting place, and had lots of dirty old factories and buildings. The British decided to change Stratford into an amazing new center of the Games. An Olympic village was built, too, with 16,000 beds for athletes and trainers. It had cinemas, gyms, a swimming pool, and places to meet friends and eat. Considering these things, being host of the Olympics has huge effects on the country.

The Olympic Games
Alex Raynham
Oxford University Press, 2016