The history of the Olympics
...lympic games. Mount Olympus was the most sacred site in ancient Greece because it was believed to be the home of the gods. The festival at Olympus was held to honor Zeus, who was the King of Greek gods, and to celebrate the beginning of human history. (John Kieran, 12) Originally, athletic competition at the Olympic festival was limited to male Greek citizens only. Foreigners, slaves, and woman were banned from competition and spectating (John Kieran, 12). The penalty for breaking that rule was death. As time went on, Olympic rules changed. By the 128th Olympics, women were allowed to participate. The athletes had to take an Olympic oath swearing that they had been training for ten months and had done nothing to offend the gods. For many decades, there were just a few footraces. As years passed, more races and other athletic events were added. Among the early Olympic sports were footraces, chariot races, wrestling, boxing and pancratium. Pancratium combined boxing, wrestling, biting, kicking, gouging, and strangling (Theodore Knight, 16) Men were often injured permanently or even killed. The pentathlon was also an early event, which combined five sports. Contestants threw a flat wooden and metal plate called a discus and a light spear called a javelin. They also did long jump, sprints, and wrestling. Three footraces were especially popular. The dolichos was a race of twenty-four lengths of the stadium field. The runner ran around two columns, with much shoving, pushing and many injuries. The diaulos was a similar race. It was only two stadium lengths. The stade was a sprint for one stadium length. Foot-soldiers dressed in full armor and carrying their swords and shields ran in a special race (Theodore Knight, 17). Chariot races also thrilled spectators. The most important race was the quadrigae. It was a race for light, two-wheeled chariots pulled by four horses. The distance of the course was twelve laps around two columns at opposite ends of the hippodrome. Usually forty teams entered the race, but accidents occurred so often that many people got injured or killed. Over the centuries, Greece grew to be the most powerful nation in the world, and the Olympics grew in importance and size. When Greece was conquere...