History of the Olympics
The Olympic Games were 1st off a part of a religious festival. Like the modern Olympics there were no money prizes for winning any of the events but they were given a crown made of olive branches. They were special olive branches which came from an olive tree near the temple of Zeus.
People travelled great distances to go to the festival at Olympia. At the festival there were sports events which the best athletes from all of Greece would take part in. And at the beginning of the festival all of the athletes took an oath.The Olympic Games were 1st off a part of a religious festival. Like the modern Olympics there were no money prizes for winning any of the events but they were given a crown made of olive branches. They were special olive branches which came from an olive tree near the temple of Zeus.
The festival lasted 5 days. On the 2nd day there was a pentathlon. It was similar to the modern day pentathlon with 5 separate events javelin, running, long jump, wrestling and discus.
On the 3rd day there was an important ceremony, oxen were sacrificed. The meat was shared around the crowd and parts of the meat were burned on top of a large altar. Also on the 3rd day there were running races. On the 4th day there was boxing, wrestling and pankration, which is like wrestling but with hardly any rules. There was also a running race where armour was worn. On the 5th day the events were over and prizes were given out to the champions of the events
The Interesting Facts of The Olympic Games (then and now).
- Men were the only people who were allowed to compete in the Olympic events
- Women who watched or competed in the Olympic events in the olden times were sentenced to death.
- Milo, a 6th century B.C. wrestler won the wrestling crown six times.
- The last medals that were awarded that were made of real gold were awarded in 1912.
- When choosing a location for the Olympics to be held, the the IOC specifically gives the honor of holding the Games to a city rather than a country.
