The first Olympic Games took place in 776 BC in Olympia , Greece . At the beginning it was essentially a local event and only an ancient running race was held. Later other sports were added and the Games came to include running, boxing, wrestling and pentathlon. From that point on, the Games slowly became more and more important throughout ancient Greece, reaching a peak in the 6th century BC and the 5th century BC The Olympics also had religious importance, as they were held in honor of Zeus., a statue of which was in Olympia. The number of competitions grew to twenty, and the celebrations spanned several days. The winners of the races were admired and immortalized. The Games were held every four years and the celebration period became known as the Olympiad. For the duration of the games (five days) wars were suspended throughout Greece: this was called the Olympic truce . The Greeks also used the Olympics as a method of counting the years. Even today they take place every 4 years.
Participation was reserved for free Greeks who could boast Greek ancestors. The need to devote a lot of time to training meant that only members of the wealthiest classes could consider participating. Slaves, barbarians, murderers, sacrileges and women were excluded from participation.
The Games gradually lost importance as Roman power increased in Greece. Problems related to corruption within sports competitions arose, as well as problems related to the safety of demonstrations.
The advent of Christianity had a decisive influence on the decline of the Games and their extinction. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, Christian bishops and writers revealed their aversion to pagan celebrations and rites and their repulsion towards competition. [2] The Fathers of the Church in numerous writings exhort Christians to resist the infatuation of agonal games: St. Augustine harshly deprecated athletic spectacles. [2] It was thus that in 393 AD, in the wake of the massacre of Thessalonica (which occurred three years earlier), under the influence of the bishop of Milan Ambrose , the emperor Theodosiusbanned them, ending a history that lasted more than 1000 years.
The Olympic Games did not die: as early as the 17th century, a sports festival was held in England that took its name from the Olympics. In the following centuries similar events were organized in France and Greece, but these were small-scale and certainly not international events. This was the case at the time of the French Revolution when the Republic Olympics were held in 1796, 1797 and 1798. Interest in the revival of the Olympic Games grew when the ruins of ancient Olympia were discovered by German archaeologists in the mid- 19th century
At the same time a French baron, Pierre de Coubertin , was looking for an explanation for the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1871). He came to the conclusion that the French had not received adequate physical education, and set out to improve it. De Coubertin also wanted to find a way to bring nations closer together, to allow the young people of the world to compete in a sporting competition rather than in war. The revival of the Olympic Games would have made it possible to achieve both goals.
It was supposed to be a fun sport competition between races, today it's a EU circus. The same ruin also affects football and other sports and obviously all aspects of society and life.
