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Olympic Games

The world's greatest international sports games are known as the Olympic Games. They are held once every in two years in one of the countries of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Olympic Games have a very long history. They began in 776 BC (before Christ) and took place every four years nearly 1.200 years at Olympia in Greece. At that time they were only for men. Slaves, foreigners and women were not allowed to take part in the Olympic Games, and even to watch them. That’s why later women organized their own Olympic Games. The rules of the Olympic Games were very strict, and those who didn’t obey them were punished.

The programme of the ancient Olympic Games included different kinds of sports: running, boxing, wrestling, discus throwing, pentathlon (5 different kinds of sports) and chariot racing. All the cities in Greece sent their best athletes to the city of Olympia to compete in the games. Thousands of people from all parts of Greece came to see the games. The prizes were wreaths made of branches of olive trees.

In 394 AD, the games were stopped by the Roman Emperor Theodosius and the temple at Olympia was destroyed.

Fifteen hundred years later, in 1894, a Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, managed to persuade people from fifteen countries to start the Olympic Games again. The International Olympic Committee was set up in 1894. It is the central policy-making body of the Olympic movement. All nations which take part in the Olympic games will take place. They ask a city (not a country) to be the host – one city for the Winter Olympics and one for the summer Olympic Games.

The first of modern series of the Games took place in Athens in 1896. There were competitions in many kinds of sports: running, jumping, boxing etc. From then the Olympic Games have been international and the number of events on the programme have increased.

In these games only amateurs, or non-professional athletes can take part.

Every Olympiad has its own emblem but the Olympic regular emblem is five interlinked rings, meaning the unity of five continents.

The motto of the Olympic Games is: “Citius! Altius! Fortius!” (Faster! Higher! Stronger!). Each country sends teams for as many different events as possible.

The Olympic Games give thousands of young people opportunity to meet, to make contacts and get better acquainted with each other.

The aims of the Olympic movement are to promote mutual understanding and trust among people, to show the will of the youth to act together for peace among nations.