The Olympic Games is the biggest sporting event in the world, where the best athletes from all over the globe gather together to compete in a variety of sports.

The Olympics is an international multi-sport event subdivided into summer and winter sporting events. The summer and winter games are each held every four years (an Olympiad). Until 1992, they were both held in the same year, but since then, they have been separated two years apart. After each Summer and Winter Olympics, the Paralympic Games are held which are for athletes with a disability.

The history of the Olympic Games (ancient Olympics) can be traced back to Athens in ancient Greece. It is said that the Olympic Games began in 776 BC in Olympia and were started by Heracles, a Greek hero and the son of Zeus, who built the Olympic stadium and surrounding buildings as an honour to his father. According to legend he walked in a straight line for 400 strides and called this distance a ‘stadion’ that later also became a distance calculation unit. This is also why a modern stadium is 400 metres in circumference length (1 stadium = 400m).

Youths and sportsmen from different parts of Greece competed with each other in the ancient Olympics which included several events such as running, pentathlon, chariot-race and wrestling. The winners became national heroes and were honoured with money and gifts. The ancient Olympic Games were stopped by the Christian emperor Theodosius I in the year AD 393 due to its links with paganism.

During ancient times normally only young men could participate. Competitors were usually naked, not only as the weather was appropriate but also as the festival was meant to be, in part, a celebration of the achievements of the human body. Upon winning the games, the victor would have not only the prestige of being in first place but would also be presented with a crown of olive leaves. The olive branch is a sign of hope and peace and is presented at today’s Olympics.

The Olympic Games were restarted after 1500 years of abolishment by a French national, Pierre Frédy, Baron de Coubertin who helped found the International Olympic Committee. The first of the IOC’s Olympic Games were in 1896 in Athens, and came to be known as the Modern Olympic Games.

As Pierre de Coubertin was instrumental in the revival of the Olympic Games, he is known as le Rénovateur and the Father of Modern Olympics. The first modern Olympic Games had 241 participants from 14 nations taking part. Since then the Games have grown and nearly 11,100 competitors from 202 countries participated at the Athens 2004 Olympics. The upcoming games in Beijing are planned to comprise 302 events in 28 sports.

The Olympics are one of the largest media events. In Sydney in 2000 there were over 16,000 broadcasters and journalists, and an estimated 3.8 billion viewers watched the games on television.

The Olympic movement uses many symbols, most of them representing Coubertin's ideas and ideals. The best known symbol is probably that of the Olympic Rings. These five intertwined rings represent the unity of five inhabited continents (with America regarded as one single continent). They appear in five colours on a white field on the Olympic Flag. These colours, white (for the field), red, blue, green, yellow, and black were chosen such that each nation had at least one of these colours in its national flag. The flag was adopted in 1914, but the first Games at which it was flown were Antwerp, 1920. It is hoisted at each celebration of the Games.

The official Olympic Motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius", a Latin phrase meaning "Faster, Higher, Stronger". Coubertin's ideals are probably best illustrated by the Olympic Creed:

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

The Olympic Flame is lit in Olympia and brought to the host city by runners carrying the torch in relay. There it plays an important role in the opening ceremonies. Though the torch fire has been around since 1928, the relay was introduced in 1936.

The Olympic mascot, an animal or human figure representing the cultural heritage of the host country, was introduced in 1968. It has played an important part of the games since 1980 with the debut of Misha, a Russian bear.

Did you know?

The sixth century BC wrestler Milo of Croton is the only athlete in history to win a victory in six Olympics.