How did the Olympics start?

The oldest data speak of the games that were held in 776 BC on the fields near the city of Olympia.

An Olympic gold medal is probably the greatest honor an athlete can experience. But do you know that the idea of ​​holding the Olympic Games was born 2500 years ago!

According to Greek legend, Hercules, the son of Zeus, founded the Olympic Games. The oldest data speak of the games that were held in 776 BC on the fields near the city of Olympia. For a full thousand years, these games were held every four years, until the Romans abolished them in 394.

The ancient Greeks considered the Olympic Games to be very important, so they measured the time according to the interval between their holding. That gap was four years and was called the Olympics. The Olympic Games are an example of how the Greek ideal "in a healthy body - a healthy spirit" was realized. Nothing dared to prevent the games from taking place. If a war were to be fought at that time, it would be stopped.

It was not until 1500 years later that the French baron Pierre de Coubertin came up with the idea of ​​reviving the Olympic Games. At his suggestion, the International Congress of Fifteen Countries was held in Paris in 1894. The participants of this Congress unanimously decided to reintroduce the games and hold them every four years. Two years later, the first modern Olympic Games were held at the renovated stadium in Athens.

Today's Olympic Games include many sports that did not even exist in the old days: basketball, water polo, football, cycling, archery, field hockey and many others.

Today, the Olympic Games are taken care of by the International Olympic Committee, and each country has its own national committee that decides on its participation in the Olympics.