The modern Olympic Games were inaugurated on April 6 , 1896 in the games’ ancient birthplace – Greece. The ancient Olympics had been held every four years for twelve centuries.
The first Olympic games took place in 776 BC in the shadow of Mount Olympus, home of the Greek gods. The games were part of a religious festival that honored Zeus and originally consisted of only one event -a footrace that covered one length of the track at Olympia. Subsequent Olympic convocations expanded the agenda to include wrestling and the pentathlon which incorporated the footrace, long jump, javelin throw, discus throw and wrestling. Chariot racing was added eight years later.
Ancient Olympic athletes weren’t worried about fashion conventions or corporate sponsorships because they competed naked. The word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek “gymnos” meaning nude – the literal translation of gymnasium is “school for naked exercise.” The athletes paid tribute to the gods by oiling themselves and looking masculine. I expect this will make for lively conversation at my rugby team’s reunion tomorrow.
The games were banned in 383 AD by Roman Emperor Theodosius II on the grounds that they were a pagan celebration and an afront to Christianity.
1896
Pierre de Coubertin, a French baron, who was the driving force behind the revived games insisted that the events take place in Greece. Athletes from 14 countries participated in 43 events including track, cycling, swimming, gymnastics, weightlifting, wrestling, fencing and tennis. Most of the foreign athletes were wealthy college students or members of athletic clubs. Hungary was the only country to send a national team.
On the event’s first day, American James Connolly won the triple jump to become the first Olympic champion in more than 1,500 years. Some of the competitors in the 1896 games were vacationers who chanced upon the event and decided to compete. John Pius Boland, a vacationing Irishman agreed to participate after a friend registered him for the tennis event. Boland ended up winning both the singles and doubles events despite using a borrowed racquet and wearing leather-soled shoes. Why do I have a vision of John Candy stumbling out of his summer rental cottage to miraculously win gold?
The 1896 games featured four nautical events staged in the Bay of Zea. Competitors were ferried out to a wooden raft, and from there they raced toward shore. Competitors fought twelve-foot seas and 55-degree water temperatures. Hungarian champion Alfréd Hajós slathered his body with grease to stave off the cold during the 1,500 meters. “My will to live completely overcame my desire to win,” he later said of the hypothermic ordeal. Many of the numbed competitors simply gave up and luckily were rescued from the frigid waters.
The revamped games featured the first marathon. The race, conceived by Frenchman Michel Breal followed the `route of Pheidippides who in 490 BC was sent from the plain of Marathon to Athens to announce the defeat of the invading Persian army. Half the marathoners quit from exhaustion, and another was disqualified after being seen riding in a carriage for part of the race. Spiridon Louis, an obscure Greek villager won the race despite his decision to stop halfway for a snack of eggs and wine.
Members of the U.S. delegation were so inspired by the games that they issued a statement that the Olympics “should never be removed” from Greece. Baron Coubertin vehemently disagreed, insisting that the event take place in a different country every four years. He doubted that the cash-strapped Greek government could be depended on to host the games and he wanted the Olympics to gain worldwide acclaim.
Coubertin was also adamant on the subject of women participants. Women were excluded in 1896 as the Baron proclaimed that the games should be “the solemn and periodic exaltation of male athleticism …… and female applause as reward.”
Despite Coubertin’s opposition, women made their debut in the golf and tennis events at the 1900 Paris Games.
It would not be until the 2012 London Games that all participating countries sent female athletes.
Progress is great but, man, those ancient games must have been an interesting spectacle.