Greek Olympics
The ancient Greek Olympics were started a long time ago around 776 B. C., in Olympia, Greece. The games were played up until 393 A. D..There are several stories as to how the Olympic games got started and one of them is that the games were started by Hercules. It is also written that he was the one who built the Olympic stadium in honor of his father, Zeus. Zeus was the Greek god of thunder, and the ruler of all of the gods and goddesses and also of all living animals and humans. It is said that he walked 400 steps and said this would be the distance of the stadium. That is the reason the modern stadiums are 400 meters in circumference. The Olympic games became very important and popular in Greece in early ages and the Olympics are very important today too but they are not held in the same place today. They are located in different countries and are held every 2 years. There are winter and summer Olympic events today. The Winter events are held every 4 years and the summer events every four years but on different years so it makes an Olympic season every two years.
Some of the Olympic games that were played in the first games in 776 B.C. were chariot races, horse races. Running, wrestling, boxing, javelin, jumping, and discus. The games were divided between the mens class and the boys class. There was a 2 horse chariot race and a 4 horse chariot race. The races were also separated between the foals racing and the grown horses racing class. There was also races by carts drawn by 2 mules.
The chariots races consisted of 12 laps around the stadium track which was a 9 mile race. The riding of horses was a race of 6 laps around the stadium which was a 4.5 mile race. Only the rich could afford to pay for the jockey, horse, feed for both, and equipment for these races so the owner of the horse received the wreath made of laurel, which was the prize each winner received.
There was a five event combination of the discus, javelin, jumping, running, and wrestling. The wrestling matches consisted of each opponent beating each other’s brains out until one was down. There were no rounds and boxing was allowed in the wrestling events. The only rules were no biting or gouging of the opponent’s eyes, nose of mouth with the fingernails. Kicking and other things that are not allowed today, were allowed back then.
In the earlier Olympic games there were only about 250 or less athletes who took part in the games. The first modern day Olympics took place in Athens, Greece, and the second set of events took place in Paris, France. The second Olympics was the first one that allowed women to participate.
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