Ancient Olympics

The Greeks held a sporting festival in July at Olympia every four years. The Olympic games began over 2700 years ago and were the biggest sporting event in the ancient Greek calendar. The Games were also a religious festival and honour of Zeus. The largest ivory statue of Zeus stood at Olympia.

The athletes competed for their city-state. Winners were given a wreath of leaves and considered blessed by the gods. They had their choice of rich wives and were idolized. They named their years after winners.

During the ancient olympics, a ‘sacred truce’ was held and all fighting stopped. Even today, the Olympics are meant to encourage peace. Olympia was transformed into the world’s first training/sporting city, with training centres and stadiums. It had a stadium that could hold 40 000 spectators. Only men competed, and only the elite could afford to take part. Most of the events were based on skills used in warfare: charioteering, running, wrestling, and throwing.

The Olympics continued for 1200 years. They were stopped by a Christian emperor, Theodosius in 394 CE because they were then viewed as a pagan event.