The Ancient Olympics

The Olympics were created very early in Greek history. The Olympics were invented to honor the gods, mostly Zeus. They wouldn't have any wars during the Olympics so that people could travel safely through the cites to get to Olympia. They made an Olympic village for the athletes in the village they also had a 40 foot statue of Zeus made of ivory and stone. They had a arena that seated 50000 fans and also included steam baths and practice areas. The earliest written record was won by a man named Coroebus, he won the 200 yard footrace. At first the Olympics were only for male Greek citizens. Every athlete had to take an Olympic oath swearing that they had practiced for ten months before the games and that they had done nothing to offend the gods. Most of them weren't just peasants because they need enough money to travel to Olympia. Women for a long time until the 128th games, they weren't allowed to be participant's or spectators and the penalty was death. In written records one of the winners of the chariot race was a woman from Macedonia. At first the Olympics were just a few footraces then they added on wrestling, boxing, discus, high jump, javelin, and a sport called pancratium which was boxing, wrestling, biting, kicking, gouging, and strangling and most participants ended up permanently injured or killed. They games returned by a Frenchman named Baron Pierre de Coubertin who worked very hard and finally started up the games and the first games after hundreds of years started out again in Athens Greece. (Knight, Theodore. "The Ancient Olympics." The Ancient World. Print.)