When was the first Olympics? First Olympics in Greece. First Winter Olympics

Greece is truly a magical country. There, the wind plays in the olive groves, the waves gently patch the banks, and the generous sun allows to green and blossom the nature even in winter. It seems that this fertile land is saturated with some extraordinary ether, helping people to create the beautiful and eternal. Greece, the ancient Hellas gave the world so many great scientists, architects, poets, thinkers! It is not surprising, therefore, that the very first Olympics in the world took place there.

Olympic gods and ancient Greeks

Ancient Hellas was a pagan country. The people there worshiped different gods, the most powerful of which was Zeus. He and his "colleagues" lived in the heavenly pantheon on Mount Olympus and were called Olympians. The Greeks built temples for them, arranged ritual ceremonies and even sacrifices. Especially revered Zeus. At the time when there was the first Olympics, Hellas often fought. It was necessary to repel invader attacks, and to seize new lands by themselves. And internecine skirmishes constantly occurred, because Hellas was divided into dozens of regions. Each of them considered herself a small state with its own rules and ambitions. In the people in those years, very much valued physical strength, agility and endurance, because without them it was difficult to survive in the battles. Therefore, the men were extremely proud of their muscular bodies and wore clothes that did not hide biceps. In Hellas, there was even a cult of a strong and healthy body. It was the thirteenth century BC ...

How the Olympics were born

The history of the first Olympics is rich in myths and legends. The most popular of them is about the Delphic oracle and the king of Ifith. He was a brave Argonaut and a good king, who wanted prosperity for his people. Approximately in 885-884 BC Hellas swept through the Hell, which carried with it thousands of lives. And then there were endless internecine strife. Iphit decided to go to Delphi to the oracle. He wanted to know how to achieve peace in Hellas for a short time at least. The oracle advised us to occupy the warlike Hellenes with contests acceptable to the gods. During their conduct, no one should have taken up arms, and the competitions themselves had to be held honestly and openly. Iphit rushed to Sparta to the local king Lycurgus. The Spartans attached great importance to physical exercises, and Lycurgus, although he did not praise Iphyt, met with force. After agreeing, the two rulers made an agreement, the text of which was minted on an iron disk. This great event happened in 884 BC. It is a pity that such a good king Hercules later threw off the cliff.

Olympic Games and Hercules

There is another myth about how the first Olympiad arose. A year then went 1253 BC. Elis, a small region in the Peloponnese, the cunning and deceitful Augean ruled. He owned a huge herd, but never cleaned his animals. Hercules was instructed in one day to clean the stables of tons of mud there accumulated. He demanded for this part of the herd, and Augee agreed. Nobody believed that Hercules would cope, but he could. For this he sent rivers to the stables, changing their beds. Augee was pleased, but he did not give the promised. The hero left with empty hands and a desire to take revenge. After a while he returned to Elis and killed Avgia. Happily, Hercules sacrificed to the gods, planted an olive grove and organized competitions in honor of the mighty Zeus. This was the first Olympics in Greece. There are other myths about this event, for example, that the Olympics was arranged by Hercules in honor of the victory of his father Zeus over Kronos, swallowing his sons.

Olympia - the birthplace of the first Olympics

The venue for the Olympics was Olympia. This is the territory in Elis, hundreds of kilometers from Mount Olympus. Here was the legendary olive grove Altis with the altar of mighty Zeus. It was bordered by a wall and considered sacred. Also here was the temple of Zeus, where hundreds of years of rituals. Later, as early as the fifty-second Olympiad, a new temple was founded. It provided training palesters, gymnasiums, houses for guests and athletes, prototypes of the Olympic Village. Also, statues were installed there for the winners. On one of them the date was stamped - 776 year. This is how scientists, who unearthed Olympia in the 19th century, established when the first Olympiad was held. The stadium for the competitions was at the foot of the Kronos mountain. On its slopes were arranged stands, which could seat up to 45 thousand spectators. We completed this grandiose complex in a hundred and more years, somewhere around 460 BC. The new church safely stood for 8 centuries, and in 406 was destroyed by Theodosius II, who hated everything pagan. Nature completed the defeat of Olympia, spilling all that remained, two powerful earthquakes, and then flooded with an unprecedented flood of rivers.

The rules of the first Olympiads, which are in force now

Modern Olympiads are significantly different from those that took place more than 3000 years ago. However, some rules have been preserved so far. The most important of them is the honesty of the competitions. Now athletes take an oath of allegiance to the Olympic tradition. Previously, there were no vows, but if the athlete was convicted of cheating, he was cast out in disgrace, and the copper statues of Zeus were cast for the penalty money that he had to pay . Before the beginning of the competition, they were shown to participants as a sign of edification. The second immutable rule is to hold the Olympics once every four years. Then the Greeks introduced a special chronology, called the Olympic year. He just equaled four ordinary. And one more important rule of past and present Olympics is to stop military operations at the time of their holding. Unfortunately, and when there was the first Olympiad, and now it is not adhered to at all. In other respects, the first Olympiads from the current ones are very different.

Rules of the first Olympiad, no longer existing

Representatives of all countries and peoples can compete now. When the first Olympics was held, the rules forbade participating in competitions not to the Greeks, the needy, but also to slaves and women. The latter did not even have the right to attend the competitions. Otherwise, they could be thrown off the cliff.

For the entire ancient history of the Olympics, only one Fereniya was able to get there. She was his son's coach in fistfight. On the game Ferenia dressed up in a man's suit. Her son won, and the woman in a tide of joy betrayed herself. She was not thrown off the cliff just because the people stood up. But since then, all the trainers of athletes, the so-called Hellanodics, had to show themselves up to the waist. The athlete who asked to participate in the competition, reported this for a year. All this time he intensively trained, handed over the established standards, and if he passed, another month he trained with a special coach. Interestingly, there was no Olympic flame at the first Olympiads, this "ancient" tradition was invented in the twentieth century. In Hellas, they ran with torches, but not in Olympia, and in Athens - at various festivals.

Types of contests of the first Olympiads

The first Olympics in Greece took only one day and included a run at 192.14 meters, the so-called one-stage, equal to 600 feet of Zeus. According to legend, the distance was measured by Hercules himself. Since the 14th Olympiad have entered races on 2 stages, and from 15th - on endurance. The distance included from 7 to 24 stages. Since the 18th, the fighting and the pentatlon (pentathlon) have been included in the regulations, consisting of fighting, running, jumping long, throwing a spear and a disk. Athletes jumped long, holding cobblestones in their hands. Landing, they were thrown back. It was believed that the result is better. The spear was thrown at the target, and the disk - with a special elevation. With the 23rd in the program appeared fisticuffs, and from the 25th - chariot races. The 33rd Olympiad has further expanded the program. Now the athletes competed in races on horses, foals and donkeys and wound themselves in pankration (something like our fights without rules). A total of 293 Olympics took place. Thanks to Theodosius II they were forgotten, but in 1896 the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin revived the glorious tradition.

How the Winter Olympics was born

The first Winter Olympics took place in France in 1924. Figured skating wanted to include Pierre de Coubertin in the program of the first renewed Olympiad, but it happened only in 1908. Figure skating included 4 disciplines. In an arbitrary program, our Russian Panin-Kolomenkin won. Thus began the history of the first Winter Olympics. IOC proposed to include in the program of the Olympic Games a week of winter sports. But the Swedes, who took the 5th Olympics, refused, because they already had such competitions. They justified the refusal by the fact that there were no winter competitions in ancient Greece. The 6th Olympiad fell on 1916 and did not take place. At the 7th IOC included in the program figure skating and hockey. The year 1924 arrived. The Olympics were accepted by the French, who did not object to winter sports. The competitions aroused crazy interest, and the IOC finally approved the Winter Olympics law, and the past competitions were given the status of "I Winter Olympic Games".

Further development of the Olympic movement

The first winter Olympics had a fairly wide program. It included hockey, curling, figure skating, skating, bobsledding, several types of cross-country skiing and jumping from a springboard. Now the list of disciplines has replenished with freestyle, sleigh and alpine skiing, skeleton, snowboard and short track. First winter competitions were held simultaneously with summer, but later were shifted by 2 years. The list of participating countries has also significantly expanded. Now in the winter sports not only the northern peoples compete, but also the representatives of African countries. The popularity of the Olympic movement is growing every year. Now regional Olympics are held, and in 2015 the first European Olympic Games will be held in Baku.