OLYMPIC FACTS

CLICK HERE FOR THE NEW 'GARDEN OF EADEN WEBSITE' AND SEED SHOP

The Ancient Olympic Games were a series of competitions held between representatives of several city-states and kingdoms in Ancient Greece. These games featured mainly athletic but also combat and chariot racing events.

The Olympics were of fundamental religious importance, featuring sporting events alongside ritual sacrifices honoring both Zeus - whose famous statue by Phidias stood in his temple at Olympia and Pelops, divine hero and mythical king of Olympia.

The Olympic Games reached their peak in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, but then gradually declined in importance as the Romans gained power and influence in Greece.

The first significant attempt to emulate the ancient Olympic Games was the L'Olympiade de la République, a national Olympic festival held annually from 1796 to 1798 in Revolutionary France. The competition included several disciplines from the ancient Greek Olympics.

In 1850 an Olympian Class was started by Dr William Penny Brookes at Much Wenlock, in Shropshire, England.

 In 1859, Dr Brookes changed the name to Wenlock Olympian Games. This annual sports festival continues to this day.

In 1890, after attending the Olympian Games of the Wenlock Olympian Society, Baron Pierre de Coubertin was inspired to found the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Coubertin managed to establish and internationally rotating Olympic Games that would occur every four years giving birth to the modern Olympic movement that we still see today.

Olympic facts

1. No-one actually knows when the Olympic Games began. The earliest recorded event was at Olympia, Greece in 776 BC, but it was probably held even earlier.

2. From 776 BC onwards, it was held every four years, and the ancient Greeks calculated their calender in four year periods called 'Olympiads'.

3. The word "gymnasium" comes from the Greek root "gymnos" meaning nude. In fact, the literal meaning of "gymnasium" is "school for naked exercise." This makes more sense when you find out that athletes in the ancient Olympic Games would have participated in the nude!

4. The ancient Olympics ended in AD 393 when the Roman Emperor Theodosius banned the games because they were becoming too pagan.

5. The earliest games were held to honour Zeus and included a ceasefire in all wars in the region.

6. When the modern Olympics began in Athens in 1896, only 13 countries took part.

7. The five Olympic rings represent the five major regions of the world – Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceana, and every national flag in the world includes one of the five colors, which are (from left to right) blue, yellow, black, green, and red.

8. The last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912. Nowadays, each medal must be at least three millimeters thick and 60 millimeters in diameter. Also, the gold and silver Olympic medals must be made out of 92.5 percent silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams of gold.

9.  During the 1900 Olympic archery competition, live pigeons were used as targets.

10. Britain has always won at least one gold in every modern Olympics - however, one was the grand total of gold medals for the UK in 1904, 1952 and 1996 - embarrassing!

11. Because of World War I and World War II, there were no Olympic Games in 1916, 1940, or 1944.

12. During the ancient Olympic games, married woman were barred from watching the games. In fact the only only married woman allowed in was the Priestess of Demeter - a goddess of the harvest.

13. Women were first allowed to participate in 1900 at the second modern Olympic Games.

14. Three continents – Africa, South America, and Antarctica – have never hosted an Olympics.

15. The 'Berlin Olympics' held in 1936 were the first Olympic games ever to be broadcast on television. 

16. Olympian Oscar Swahn of Sweden is the oldest olympian to have participated in any of the olympic events so far. He was a shooter who participated at the 1920 Antwerp Games at the age of 72 years.

17. Baron Pierre De Coubertin of France is known as the father of the modern olympics.

18. The very first modern olympics were held in Athens, Greece 1896. 



For related articles click onto:
American Revolution: The truth behind the Boston Tea Party
Ancient Olympic Games 
ATHENS: The Parthenon
ATHENS: The Temple of Zeus
Charles Darwin's Greatest Experiment
Charles Darwins Legacy - 200 years on
Christopher Columbus
Cowboys and Lawmen: Who was Bass Reeves?
Darwin's Theory of Evolution
GREECE: The Ancient Olympics
Knole House and the Ghost with no Name 
Olympic Facts
Rembrandts House
Rome: How to get to Villa D'Este from Rome
Rome: How to make Roman bread - Panis
RHS Wisley Gardens - A Photographic Walk Through
RMS TITANIC - Father Frank Brownes Photographs
Rome: Gladiator Graveyard Discovered!
Rome: How to get to Villa Adriana from Rome
Rome: How to get to Villa D'Este from Rome
Rome: Julius Caesar
Rome: Opening Times for Villa D'Este
Rome: Photographs of and around the Colosseum at Night
Rome: Villa Adriana - Tivoli
Rome: What did Gladiators Eat?
Rome: What did the Romans Eat?
Rome: Who were the Ancient Gladiators?
Sissinghurst Gardens - a secret history
The Evolution and Devolution of Man - Finally explained
The Flying Dutchman
The History of the Olympic Games
The Olympic Games 
The Olympic Medal 
The Sinking of the Titanic
The Titanic
Titanic Pictures
Titanic Survivors
What is the Flying Dutchman? 
Where is Sissinghurst?
Wyatt Earp
Cowboys and Lawmen: Who was Wyatt Earp?
Based on an article by William Hartston published in the Daily Express 26/7/2012
Images care of http://cd7.e2bn.net/e2bn/leas/c99/schools/cd7/veryoldwebsite/Greece.htm and http://www.jeanpaulleblanc.com/Miscellaneous.htm and http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2012/07/londons-first-olympics.html