The origin of the Olympic Games
From ancient Olympia (776 BC) to the modern Games of 1896: the story of the world's biggest sporting event, truce included.
Every four years, the world stops to watch the best athletes compete under five interlocking rings. But that tradition was not born in the 20th century: it has its roots in ancient Greece, almost 2,800 years ago, and it nearly disappeared forever.
They were born in Olympia, in honor of Zeus
The first Olympic Games were held in the year 776 BC in the city of Olympia, in the Greek Peloponnese. As National Geographic and other historical sources note, they were not just a sporting event: they were a religious celebration in honor of Zeus, the supreme god. They were held every four years, a period the Greeks called an “olympiad” and even used to measure time.
Their origin blends with legend. According to the geographer Pausanias, cited by Wikipedia, it was Heracles Idaeus who proposed to his brothers a race whose winner would be crowned with an olive branch, and who set that it be repeated every four years.
The Olympic truce: when wars were paused
One of the most admirable features of those games was the Olympic truce. During the competition, conflicts between the Greek city-states were suspended so athletes and spectators could travel and compete in peace. Sport achieved, if only temporarily, what diplomacy did not always manage: to stop hostilities.
Disciplines and prizes
The events grew over the centuries. Among the oldest and most popular were:
- Foot races in the stadium (the most prestigious).
- Wrestling and boxing.
- Discus and javelin throwing.
- Chariot races pulled by horses.
The prize was not money or medals, but a crown of wild olive and, above all, glory and honor for the athlete and their home city.
The end… and the rebirth
The ancient Games lasted almost twelve centuries, but in the year 393 AD the Roman emperor Theodosius I banned them for being a pagan rite, incompatible with Christianity. And so, for more than fifteen hundred years, there were no Olympics.
The rebirth came from a Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who in 1894, at the Sorbonne University in Paris, drove the creation of the International Olympic Committee under the motto citius, altius, fortius (“faster, higher, stronger”), as Señal Colombia recounts. Two years later, in 1896, Athens hosted the first Olympic Games of the modern era.
Almost three millennia of a single idea
From the olive crowns of Olympia to today’s gold medals, the Olympic Games have changed in form but not in essence: bringing the world together around sport, self-improvement and —at least in theory— peace. That a tradition born in 776 BC is still alive and thrilling billions of people says a great deal about the strength of that idea.