Essay on “Olympic Games” Complete Essay for Class 9, Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Olympic Games

The original Olympic Games were celebrated as a religious festival from 776 BC until 393 AD, when Roman emperor Theodosius banned all pagan festivals (the Olympics celebrated the Greek god Zeus). On June 23, 1894, French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin, speaking at the Sorbonne in Paris to a gathering of international sports leaders, proposed that the ancient games be revived on an international scale. The idea was enthusiastically received and the Modern Olympics were born. The first Olympics were held two years later in Athens, where 245 athletes from 14 nations competed in the ancient Panathenaic stadium to large and ardent crowds. Americans captured nine out of 12 track and field events, but Greece won the most medals with 47. The ancient Olympic Games grew and continued to be played every four years for nearly 1200 years. According to legend, the ancient Olympic Games were founded by Heracles (the Roman Hercules), a son of Zeus. Yet the first Olympic Games for which we still have written records were held in 776 BC (though it is generally believed that the Games had been going on for many years already). At this Olympic Games, a naked runner, Coroebus (a cook from Elis), won the sole event at the Olympics, the stage -a run of approximately 192 meters (210 yards). This made Coroebus the very first Olympic champion in history. The very first modern Olympic Games opened in the first week of April 1896. Since the Games were not well publicized internationally, contestants were not nationally chosen but rather came individually and at their own expense. Some contestants were tourists who happened to be in the area during the Games. Athletes wore their athletic club uniform rather than a national team one. Pole-vaulting, sprints, shot put, weight lifting, swimming, cycling, target shooting, tennis, marathon and gymnastics were all events at the first Olympics. The swimming events were held in the Bay of Zea in the Aegean Sea. Olympic Games grew with each occasion; number of participants increased and also there was increase in the number of sports events. The first Olympic Games in three decades without a boycott was hosted by the Spanish city of Barcelona in 1992. Athletes from most of the new countries of the former Soviet Union competed as the “Unified Team” and for the first time since 1964, Germany competed as a unified country. South Africa also rejoined the Games having eliminated apartheid. The 1996 Games were the first Games convened without any governmental support, which led to a commercialization of the Games that disappointed some critics. A pipe bomb exploded in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, which killed two people, but the motive or group responsible was never determined. Carl Lewis of the United States won his ninth gold medal. Approximately 10,000 athletes participated, representing 197 countries (including Hong Kong and the Palestinian Authority.