Ancient Olympic Games
According to some literary traditions this was the only athletic event of the games for the first 13 olympic festivals or until 724 bc. The ancient games included running long jump shot put javelin boxing pankration and equestrian events.
The stadion track at olympia is shown here.
Ancient olympic games. The buildings were eventually torn down and the city was buried under earthquakes and floods. Before the 1970s the games were officially limited to competitors with amateur status but in the 1980s many events were opened to professional athletes. Full of blood passion and extraordinary feats of athletic endeavour the olympic games were the sporting social and cultural highlight of the ancient greek calendar for almost 12 centuries.
Involving participants and spectators from all over greece and even beyond the games were the most important cultural event in ancient greece and were held from 776 bce to 393 ce a run of 293 consecutive olympiads. The ancient olympic games were initially a one day event until 684 bc when they were extended to three days. Olympiad olympic games athletic festival that originated in ancient greece and was revived in the late 19th century.
Pelops in particular was a hero local to olympia and his grave is still said to be in the altis. Every four years around 50 000 people came from all over the greek world to watch and take part. The olympic games began over 2 700 years ago in olympia in south west greece.
In the 5th century b c the games were extended again to cover five days. The games were named for their location at olympia a sacred site. The first ancient olympic games can be traced back to olympia in 776 bc.
The ancient olympic games began in the year 776 bc when koroibos a cook from the nearby city of elis won the stadion race a foot race 600 feet long. The ancient olympic games ολυμπιακοί αγώνες olympiakoi agones were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city states and one of the panhellenic games of ancient greece they were held in honor of zeus and the greeks gave them a mythological origin the first olympics is traditionally dated to 776 bc. The ancient olympics were originally funeral games historians believe that despite some greek mythological origin stories the ancient olympics actually developed from funeral games held in honour of deceased local heroes in the bronze age.
The ancient olympics were held every four years between august 6 and september 19 during a religious festival honoring zeus. The ancient olympic games were a sporting event held every four years at the sacred site of olympia in the western peloponnese in honour of zeus the supreme god of greek religion. He had outlawed the worship of the ancient gods because of new beliefs in christianity.
The ancient olympic games were held for over a thousand years and ended in 393 ad when the roman emperor theodosius banned them.
