History of the Ancients Olympic Games dates back to the 9th century BC. In those days, there were endless ruinous wars between the ancient states. One day, King Iphit of Elis went to Delphi to the oracle and asked him what could be done to help his people avoid robberies and wars. The Delphic oracle was famous for its accuracy and absolute true advice and predictions. He advised to establish Ifita on the territory of his country pleasing to the gods sport games.

Iphit immediately went to the king of neighboring Sparta, the powerful Lycurgus, and agreed with him to establish Elis as a neutral state. According to the agreement, athletic Games were to be held in Olympia every 4 years. This treaty was established in 884 BC. e.

The first Olympic Games in Ancient Greece

The first Olympic Games in human history took place in 776 BC. e. Only two Elis cities took part in them at that time - Pisa and Elisa. The names of the winners of the Olympiads were carved by the Greeks on marble columns that were installed on the banks of the Alpheus River. Thereby modern world The names of the Olympians are known, including the very first of them: it was a cook from Elis named Coreba.

When the Olympic Games were approaching, Elis messengers traveled to all cities, reporting on the upcoming holiday and announcing a “sacred truce.” The messengers were greeted with joy not only by the Greeks themselves, but also by the Greeks living in other cities.

The establishment of a unified calendar took place somewhat later. According to him, the games were to be organized once every 4 years during the harvest and grape harvest. The festival of athletes included numerous religious ceremonies and sports competitions, the duration of which at first was one day, after some time - five days, and then as much as thirty days. Slaves, barbarians (that is, those who were not citizens of the Greek state), criminals, and blasphemers had no right to participate in competitions.

Video about the history of the ancient Olympic Games

The procedure for introducing various competitions into the Olympic Games

1. The first thirteen games took place only in competitions in the stadium - athletes competed in distance running.
2. But from 724 BC the history of the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece changed somewhat: athletes began to compete in double running over a distance of about 385 meters.
3. Even later, in 720 BC. e., another competition was added - the pentathlon.
4. In 688 BC. e., after seven more Olympics, fist fights were added to the program.
5. After another 12 years - chariot competitions.
6. In 648 BC. e., at the 33rd Olympiad, pankration was added to the program list. It was the hardest and cruel look games, which consisted of a fist fight, which participants carried out in bronze caps placed on their heads. Leather belts with metal spikes were wrapped around their fists. The fight did not end until one of the fighters decided to admit defeat.
7. After some time, the race of heralds and trumpeters, the race of armed warriors, competitions in chariots drawn by mules, as well as some types of children's competitions were added to the list of competitions.

After each Olympics, marble statues of the winners were erected between the Alpheus River and the stadium, which were made at the expense of the cities in which the Olympians lived. Some of the statues were made using funds collected from fines who violated established rules Olympic Games. The ancient Greeks left quite a lot of monuments, statues, and various records, thanks to which modern people The history of the Olympic Games is known.

Modern Summer Olympics

The history of the Summer Olympics is quite complex. For a long time, the Olympics were banned, but Great Britain, France, and Greece still held sports competitions, which were secretly called “Olympic.” In 1859, the Olympic Games resumed in Greece under the name Olympia. Such competitions have been held for 30 years.

When German archaeologists discovered the remains of sports facilities in Greece in 1875, Europe began to talk more and more often about the revival of the Olympics.

The history of the development of the Summer Olympic Games began thanks to the French baron Pierre de Coubertin, who believed that their revival would contribute to:

• Improving the level of physical fitness of soldiers.
• The cessation of national egoism, which was inherent in the Olympic idea.
• Replacement sports competitions military actions.

Thus, thanks to Coubertin's initiative, the Olympic Games were officially revived from 1896. The Olympic Charter, adopted in 1894, established the rules and principles by which events should be held. summer games. Each Olympics is assigned its own serial number, and its location is determined by the International Olympic Committee.

Winter Olympic Games of our time

The history of the Winter Olympic Games begins with the French city of Chamonix, which hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924. sport's event- Olympics. About 300 athletes from 16 countries took part in it. It was from 1924 that the chronology of the Olympics began to include both winter and summer games. In 1994, the summer and winter games began to be held 2 years apart.

Ideological inspirer and organizer winter games- Pierre de Coubertin. To implement his idea, he had to show great perseverance and all his diplomatic abilities. First, he created a commission to organize the Winter Olympics. Then Coubertin managed to organize a Week in the French Chamonix, after which the following Olympiads began to be held:

• 1928 - Swiss St. Moritz.
• 1932 - Lake Placid (America).
• 1936 - German Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It was during this Olympics that the tradition of lighting the Olympic flame was revived.

This is the history of the Winter Olympic Games. The further geography of the Winter Olympics included many European countries, the American continent and eastern countries. In 2014, the next Winter Olympics was held in Russia resort town Sochi, and the next Olympic flame will be lit in South Korea in 2018.

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First Games

It is a little secret that the first Olympic Games were held in Greece back in 776 BC. The small village of Olympia was chosen as the location for the competition. At that time, competitions were held in only one discipline, which was running over a distance of 189 meters. Interesting feature, which distinguished the first Olympic Games in Greece, was that only men could take part in them. At the same time, they competed without shoes or any clothing on themselves. Among other things, only one woman, whose name was Demeter, received the right to observe the competition.

History of the Olympics

The first Olympic Games were a great success, so the tradition of holding them continued for another 1168 years. Already at that time it was decided to hold such competitions every four years. Confirmation of their great authority is the fact that during the competition between states that were at war, a temporary peace treaty was always concluded. Each new Olympics has received many changes compared to what the first Olympic Games were. First of all, we are talking about adding disciplines. At first it was running over other distances, and then long jumping, fist running, pentathlon, discus throwing, javelin throwing, dart throwing and many others were added to it. The winners were so highly respected that monuments were even erected to them in Greece. There were also difficulties. The most serious of them was the ban on the Games by Emperor Theodosius the First in 394 AD. The fact is that he considered this kind of competition to be pagan entertainment. And 128 years later, a very strong earthquake occurred in Greece, due to which the Games were for a long time forgot.

Renaissance

In the mid-eighteenth century, the first attempts to revive the Olympics began. They began to become a reality about a hundred years later thanks to the French scientist Pierre de Coubertin. With the help of his compatriot, archaeologist Ernst Curtius, he, in fact, wrote new rules for conducting such competitions. The first Olympic Games of modern times began on April 6, 1896 in the Greek capital. Representatives of 13 countries from all over the planet took part in them. Russia, in connection with financial problems, did not direct its athletes. The competitions took place in nine disciplines, including the following: gymnastics, shooting, track and field and weightlifting, wrestling, fencing, tennis, swimming and bicycle racing. Public interest in the Games was enormous, a clear confirmation of which is the presence at them, according to official data, of more than 90 thousand spectators. In 1924, it was decided to divide the Olympics into winter and summer.

Failed competitions

It happened that competitions were not held, despite the fact that they were planned. We are talking about the Berlin Games of 1916, the Helsinki Olympics of 1940, as well as the London competitions of 1944. The reason for this is one and the same - world wars. Now all Russians are looking forward to the first Olympic Games, which will be held on Russian territory. This will happen in Sochi in 2014.

The first Olympic Games took place in Olympia in 776 BC. This date has survived to this day thanks to the ancient Greek custom of engraving names Olympic champions(they were then called Olympians) on marble columns that were installed on the banks of the Alpheus River. The marble preserved not only the date, but also the name of the first winner. He was Korab, a cook from Elis. The first 13 games involved only one type of competition - running one stage. According to Greek myth, this distance was measured by Hercules himself, and it was equal to 192.27 m. This is where the well-known word “stadium” comes from. Initially, athletes from two cities took part in the games - Elisa and Pisa. But they soon gained enormous popularity, spreading to all Greek states. At the same time, another wonderful tradition arose: throughout the Olympic Games, the duration of which was constantly increasing, there was a “sacred truce” for all the fighting armies.

Not every athlete could become a participant in the games. The law prohibited slaves and barbarians from performing at the Olympics, i.e. to foreigners. Athletes from among free-born Greeks had to register with the judges a year before the opening of the competition. Immediately before the opening of the Olympic Games, they had to provide evidence that they had been preparing for the competition for at least ten months, keeping in shape with daily exercise. Only exceptions were made for the winners of previous Olympic Games. The announcement of the upcoming Olympic Games caused extraordinary excitement among the male population throughout Greece. People were heading to Olympia in droves. True, women were prohibited from attending the games under penalty of death.

Program of the ancient Olympics

Gradually, more and more new sports were added to the games program. In 724 BC. Diaul was added to the race of one stage (stadiodrome) - a race over a distance of 384.54 m, in 720 BC. – dolichodrome or 24-stage run. In 708 BC. The program of the Olympic Games included the pentathlon, consisting of running, long jump, wrestling, discus and javelin throwing. At the same time, the first wrestling competitions took place. In 688 BC. Fist fighting was included in the program of the Olympics, after two more Olympics - a chariot competition, and in 648 BC. – the most brutal type of competition is pankration, which combines wrestling and fist fighting techniques.

The winners of the Olympic Games were revered as demigods. Throughout their lives, they were given all kinds of honors, and after their death, the Olympian was ranked among the host of “small gods.”

After the adoption of Christianity, the Olympic Games began to be perceived as one of the manifestations of paganism, and in 394 BC. Emperor Theodosius I banned them.

The Olympic movement was revived only at the end of the 19th century, thanks to the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin. And, of course, the first revived Olympic Games took place on Greek soil - in Athens, in 1896.

In the 18th century, during archaeological excavations in Olympia, scientists discovered ancient athletic facilities. But archaeologists soon stopped studying them. And only 100 years later the Germans joined the study of the discovered objects. At the same time, for the first time they started talking about the possibility of reviving the Olympic movement.

The main inspirer of the revival of the Olympic movement was the French baron Pierre de Coubertin, who helped German researchers study the discovered monuments. He also had his own interest in the development of this project, since he believed that it was the weak physical training French soldiers became the reason for their defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. In addition, the baron wanted to create a movement that would unite young people and help establish friendly relations between different countries. In 1894 he voiced his proposals for international congress, where the decision was made to hold the first Olympic Games in their homeland - in Athens.

The first Games became a real discovery for the whole world and were a huge success. In total, 241 athletes from 14 countries took part in them. Success of this event inspired the Greeks so much that they proposed making Athens the venue for the Olympics on a permanent basis. However, the first International Olympic Committee, which was founded two years before the start of the first Games, rejected this idea and decided that it was necessary to establish rotation between states for the right to host the Olympics every four years.

The First International Olympic Games took place from April 6 to April 15, 1896. Only men took part in the competition. 10 sports were taken as a basis. These are classical wrestling, cycling, gymnastics, swimming, shooting, tennis, weightlifting, fencing. In all these disciplines, 43 sets of medals were competed. The Greek Olympians took the lead, the Americans came in second, and the Germans took bronze.

The organizers of the first Games wanted to make them a competition among amateurs, in which professionals could not take part. After all, according to members of the IOC committee, those athletes who have a financial interest initially have an advantage over amateurs. And this is not fair.

Related article

The next Olympic Games will be held in late summer 2012. The previous competition took place two years ago - it was the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Despite the fact that these were already the 21st Winter Olympic Games, several “premieres” took place at them.

The emblem of the games was a hero named Ilanaak - “friend”, made up of five stones of Olympic colors. Two of the games' mottos were borrowed from the Canadian anthem: the French phrase "Most Brilliant Deeds" and the English phrase "With Burning Hearts."

Amendments were made to the original scenario for the opening of the Olympics. A few hours before the ceremony, news of a tragedy became known - a luge athlete from Georgia crashed during training. The ceremony included a minute of silence, and the Georgian national team came out wearing mourning bands.

During the lighting of the Olympic flame, a small incident occurred. For the first time, four athletes took part in the procedure. But due to a technical failure, only three “grooves” appeared leading to the main torch. However, during the closing ceremony this situation was played out ironically. The same guilty “electrician” appeared on the stage, he apologized and removed the missing fourth element in the design of the Olympic flame.

The main stadium for the games was BC-Place in downtown Vancouver, designed for 55 thousand spectators. In addition, some competitions took place in Whistler, Richmond and West Vancouver.

From February 12 to 28, 82 teams competed for prizes in 15 disciplines. Compared to the previous Olympic Games, the list of disciplines has been expanded: ski cross competitions have been added, separately for men and women.

The medals at the Vancouver Winter Olympics were unique, stylized in the traditions of indigenous art in Canada. For the first time in the history of the Olympics, the awards were not flat, but with a wavy surface.

The Russians remember these games as one of the most unsuccessful for the national team. The Winter Olympics became a record failure - the Russians showed the worst results in terms of the number of gold medals and place in the team event. In the medal standings, the team was only 11th in the table. The hosts of the XXI Winter Olympic Games took first place in terms of the number of gold medals, Germany took second place, and the US team took third place.

From February 12 to February 28, 2010, the XXI Olympic Winter Games were held in the Canadian city of Vancouver. These two weeks have been filled with many sporting events. Participants and spectators became heroes and witnesses of victories and defeats, doping scandals, the fight for Olympic medals and, unfortunately, even tragic events. This Olympics for the Russian team became the most unsuccessful in the entire history of the Games.

From the very beginning, the Olympic Games in Vancouver were marked by an absurd tragedy: even before the opening of the Games, several athletes were injured on the luge and bobsleigh track, and a young promising athlete from the Georgian team, Nodar Kumaritashvili, died when he crashed into metal support. Therefore, the opening ceremony of the Olympics began with a minute of silence.

But then events developed according to plan, despite too warm weather and problems with demonstrators and strikers protesting against globalization. The very next day, the usual Olympic routine began, the first official competition took place - K-90 ski jumping, in the final of which the Swiss Simon Ammann won, who opened the scoring for Vancouver's medals.

Russian skiers did not start their performances very well, and as a result they only got fourth places, which the coaches attributed to a poor selection of ski wax. The first Olympic medal for the Russian team was won by speed skater Ivan Skobrev, who took third place in the 5 km distance.

The Russian team continued to be plagued by failures: biathlete Niyaz Nabeev, on whom great hopes were pinned, was removed from participation in the competition due to higher level hemoglobin in the blood. In the first match with the Finns, the Russian hockey players lost with a score of 1:5 and actually immediately dropped out of the fight for medals. For the first time in many years, there were no Russian athletes in the pairs competition either.

The first gold for Russia was won by sprint skiers Nikita Kryukov and Alexander Panzhinsky only on the 5th day of the Olympics. Evgeni Plushenko, who was predicted to win gold in figure skating, took only second place, which also became an unpleasant surprise and a reason for long debate. Success accompanied the ice dancers, skiers in the team sprint, biathletes and lugers, who added several more medals to the Russian team's treasury. For the first time in history Russian sports Ekaterina Ilyukhina won the gold medal in snowboarding. In the unofficial team competition, the Russian team was only 11th in number Olympic medals.

At the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games, Vancouver passed the baton to the Russian city of Sochi. Let's hope it's the next one

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The first modern Olympics

The first modern Olympics took place in Athens in 1896.
Most of the athletes were from Greece. The first Olympic Games of our time almost turned into a competition for Europeans: the US team was late for their start. In addition to the Americans, only two athletes from non-European countries competed at the Games: Australian Edwin Flack and one Chilean. The program of the Games of the First Modern Olympics included competitions in nine sports: Greco-Roman wrestling, cycling, gymnastics, athletics, swimming, shooting, tennis, weightlifting and fencing.

The Olympic Games began with athletics competitions. The first champion was American James Connolly. For the triple jump (13 m 71 cm) he received a gold medal, almost a full meter ahead of the silver medalist, Frenchman Alexandre Tuffer. The champion of Harvard University, Connolly, went to Europe without the permission of his teachers, but after his return from Athens with an outstanding achievement, pundits changed their anger to mercy and even awarded the winner the title of honorary doctorate from Harvard. Connolly subsequently became famous journalist and a war correspondent, author of 25 novels.
Athletes from the United States led the way in athletics. Thomas Burke won two gold medals in the 100 and 400 m. American sprinters used low start. This was new for that time.

The hero of the swimming competition was the Hungarian athlete Alfred Hajos. The swims at the Athens Games were not held in the pool, but in the open sea. The start and finish lines were marked with ropes attached to floats. The weather was cloudy; the sea was rough, the water temperature barely reached 13°C. 14 swimmers took part in the 100 m freestyle competition: 11 Greeks and 3 foreigners. Hayosh immediately rushed forward, and the Greek Choraphas rushed after him. The noise on the shore was unimaginable. 30 m before the end of the race, the Hungarian suddenly rushed to the right of the finish line. The audience froze. Hayosh, surprised by the silence, raised his head and noticed his mistake. And just right: the Greek was catching up with him. Alfred increased the pace and won the first gold medal in swimming in the history of the modern Olympic Games.
French cyclist Paul Massoy won the most gold medals in Athens, with three victories on the track.

The games were in full swing, and the Greeks had not yet won a single gold medal. On April 10, 24 athletes took part in the marathon race. Due to the intense heat, the fight at a distance of 40 km was very difficult. The leaders took turns replacing each other, and at the 33rd kilometer the Greek Spyros Louis took first place. The spectators jumped up from their seats, the judges rushed after the athlete and ran with him to the finish line. Joyful spectators threw many flowers and gifts at Spyros’s feet. People poured onto the field and began pumping up the hero. The Crown Prince and his brother came down from the stands and took the champion to the royal box. Spyros Louis, a young letter carrier from the village of Maroussi near Athens, became a national hero.
On the closing day of the Games, repeating the ancient ceremony, a laurel wreath was placed on the head of the Olympic champions, a medal and a palm branch were presented.
The first Olympics of modern times made a great contribution to the popularization of sports on our planet.