Ancient Greek Olympics
The first Olympic Games were held in Ancient Greece in early 700 B.C. These competitive games were also a religious ceremony in order to honor Zeus. The Ancient Greeks believed that it was more important to honor the gods than it was to support their own city-state. In addition, the Greeks preferred to honor the gods through athletics instead of sacrifices for various reasons. One, these games were used to get men into great shape and condition for the military. Also, as the city-states increased, each state wanted to have the absolute most power, so they sent representatives to be physically strong. Amazingly, all wars and fighting immediately stopped when it was time for the Olympics. There was two types of Olympic games - Isthmos and Pythian. The Isthmos games occurred every two years while the Pythian Games occurred every four years. The first games in the Olympics were boxing, discus, equestrian events, javelin events, jumping, pentathlon, running, and wrestling. The Ancient Greek Olympics then became model for our modern day Olympics.
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Modern Olympics
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Our modern day Olympics began in 1896 in Athens, Greece. However, in 1896 women were not allowed to participate in the games, but in 1900, women were allowed to compete only in tennis and golf. In 1912, women were finally allowed to compete in swimming and in 1928, women were able to participate in the athletics portion of the Olympic Games for the first time in history. In 2004, women were allowed to wrestle for the first time. Furthermore, in 1914, the Olympic committee accepted the Olympic Games Flag which is shown in the picture to the left; it was created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin. These rings represent all of the continents. (the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Oceania) Also, the ring's colors represent the flags of countries that participate in the great Olympic Games. These countries' flags consist of at least one of the colors shown on the rings. Hence, this flag is used to represent unity of the world.
