Ancient Olympic Games

The Olympic games originated in Athens in 776 B.C. The more popular modern day Olympic games began nearly 2300 years later in 1896. The games no longer represented a religious festival, but a sports competition instead. The games can be studied via multiple aspects such as political, social, and economic, but this paper will concentrate on the economic aspect of the games and more specifically, the macroeconomic impacts the games possess.

The Olympics have shown over the decades that they can be affected by political conflict. However, it seems that this is the point of the Olympics, to illustrate national pride, by competition. Bloodshed should not be the way for pride of one’s country to be shown, but it should be shown through competition, in the words of the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de

The opening ceremony started off with the athletes filing into the temple where they had to give their oath before a giant statue of Zeus that they will obey the rules of the game and use no unfair means to win. Similar to today's Olympics but without the religious part because of the diversity and secularism it has. Judges back then were concerned with performance enhancing potions and cursing other opponents in order for them to have a better advantage. Nudity was common during the Olympics but nobody is certain of how it occurred but there are two stories relating to the topic " One, that a winner lost his clothes in a race […] and the second one that it was the Spartans who introduced it in the 8th century" (Penn Museum, "The Games"). The Olympics had strict rules at first but later started becoming more corrupt, especially when the Romans were taking over." One instance was when Emperor Nero enters and wins the

There are quite a few factors that shaped the modern-day Olympics from 1892 to 2002. Pierre de Coubertin states that he wanted to create the Olympics to spread world peace. He does this by substituting war for friendly sports competitions (doc 1). Of course, there were some bumps in the road while trying to achieve this utopia. Some factors that have changed the Olympics are the allowing of women being able to compete in the Olympics, women’s suffrage, nationalism, wars, and economic conditions (doc 2-7).

The olympics were shaped due to social reasons. Document 1’s author, Pierre de Coubertin, who is the founder of the modern Olympics, is a reliable asset to pursuing ideal peace with many other countries. The reason why he wants peace is because he wants to have the “disappearance of war” to be “utopians” which shows that he believes that the olympics one of the best answers to his goal. Similarly, in document 6, the Soviet Union’s Olympic organizing Committee also want to take part with “peace, democracy, and social progress.” This shows how more and more countries, even those with bad ties with others,

Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, believed that the Olympics were the true free trade of the future (Doc 1).” In 1892, at a time when Europe was showing rising political tensions, he may have thought this would be a good idea to help calm these tensions (Doc 1). Countries chosen to host the event benefit from the exposure. Japan, for example, greatly appreciated their being chosen for the Olympics. They felt it helped them recover after their defeat in the World War. This sense of appreciation for being chosen shows that the Olympic intentions were definitely good willed and did not just expose nations political tensions (Doc 5).

he first women’s Olympic Games was held is Paris France in 1922 where eighteen athletes broke records in front of 20,000 spectators. Now seven years later, Canada has organized their first brand new Olympic team to compete in next year’s 1930 Olympic Games in Prague. Initially the sports the women would be competing in were tennis, golf, archery, gymnastics, skating and swimming however additional sports were added to the program.

Although the original ancient Olympic Games can be traced back to 776 B.C, Homer’s Iliad indicates they may have existed as early as the twelfth century BC. The Games were then continued for twelve centuries and were devoted to Olympian deities. Olympia turned into the site of these memorable ancient Olympic games that scattered the seeds for the largest global sporting events of current times, the Modern Olympics. The location of the Ancient Olympics is situated in the western part of Peloponnese. The Ancient Olympic Games continued until 393 A.D when Emperor Theodosius I of Rome discontinued them. There were not any more Olympic games for fifteen hundred years before they were resurrected in 1896 in the city of Athens. The man in charge of the recreation of the Olympic games was a Frenchman named Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who introduced the thought in 1894. He proposed to stage the games in Paris in 1900 but representatives, from thirty-four nations were so captivated with the idea that they persuaded him to move the Games up to 1896 and have Athens serve as the host.

"The Olympics are a wonderful metaphor for world cooperation, the kind of international competition that's wholesome and healthy, an interplay between countries that represents the best in all of us,” said John Williams, the composer for theme music for the Olympics (8). The Olympic Games are international sports festivals that began in ancient Greece. The first ancient Olympics can be traced back to 776 BC when people held this religious festival to honour Zeus, the father of all the Greek gods and goddesses. The participants were male citizens from Greece, and these athletes participated in only one event — foot race. Unfortunately, this ancient Olympics did not last forever. The first olympic in 776 BC in Olympia was an significant event

While there are clear contrasts between the ancient and the modern Olympics there is still the respect for the athlete striving to perform at the highest level. Today, the Olympic Games are the world's largest carnival of athletic skill and competitive spirit. They are displays of nationalism, commerce, and politics. These important elements of the Olympics are not a modern invention, as the first Olympics was in 776 BC in Ancient Greece. After 1503 years, in 1896 the Olympic Games were recreated as what we know today. The Ancient Games were once dedicated to the Olympian God, Zeus Olympios and were staged on the ancient plains of Olympia, which is also how the word ‘Olympics’ originated from. The modern Olympics is the largest international sporting event, which feature both summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of respectable athletes from over 200 different nations compete against one another. There are clear contrast between the modern and ancient forms of the Olympic Games regarding uniforms, participants, religion, events, politics and the concept of amateurism. However both the Ancient Greeks and the people in the modern world still respect and admire the athletics achievements of the participants making the Olympics the most highly regarded contest in sport.

The Olympic Games originated in Olympia, one of the great religious centers of Greece (Fiero 37), and their purpose was to honor the Greek gods. In Greece the games were held every four years in midsummer; in today’s time the games occur every four years as well

The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. These games had the first weird Olympic sports, one-handed weightlifting and rope climbing. The athletes who competed in one-handed weightlifting had to raise a weight with only one hand. Rope climbing was a part of the gymnastics competition.

Lets begin with “How did they start?” The Olympic games began in 776 BC. A cook from a nearby city won a 600-foot long stadium race thus some how started the Ancient Olympics. Many historians believe that this was the only event at the time. The Olympics took place in a city known as Olympia, which was an ancient Greek city.

The Greek Olympics were an ancient tradition that originated in the year 776 BCE. The sporting events occurred every four years in the great city of Olympia. The purpose of the Olympics was to entertain and to impress the gods with their physical ability and prowess. For five days, citizens throughout the empire would coalesce in Olympia to witness the multitude of athletic contests. Entire stadiums and colossal temples were constructed for specific events. Wars and conflicts were postponed so that nothing could interfere with the religious event. At first, the Olympic games consisted only of simple sprinting events. Over time, more complex events like wrestling, chariot racing, long jump and the pentathlon were added to the games. The

First of all, the first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. The man responsible for its rebirth was a Frenchman named Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Today, the Olympic Games are the world's largest pageant of athletic skill and competitive spirit.