Regardless from where you are and what language you speak you will know this symbol. The symbol of the modern day Olympics one of the most important sporting events that brings people together regardless of nationality and gender. But what is the history behind it? How did it start? And why takes it place every four years?
In this article I will try to give you a insight on what the Olympics where and how they became what they now are.
Everything started 776BC in Greece as a tradition in the name of the pagan gods. The Antique Olympians competed naked and sometimes fought till death. But for this tradition countries came together ignoring the state of war they might have been in at that time. The games took place in a town called Olympia hence the name of the games, and took place all four years between August 6 and September 19 to celebrate Zeus.
Back then women were not allowed to compete and married women were also not allowed to watch the men compete. The sports back then in witch the athletes competed were mostly running and combinations of boxing and wrestling. Around the mid of the 2 century BC the Romans conquered Greece at first the games continued although the Romans made some restrictions and tried to make themselves the winner of the games. 393AD the Roman emperor Theodosius made an end to it all he prohibited all actions dedicated to pagan gods and with that also the Olympic games.
This prohibition resulted in there not being Olympic games till the 19 hundreds. There where many people trying to revive this tradition but they all failed. Till the day where Pierre Coubertin a french baron and a big fan of sportsmanship had the idea of reviving the games and the spirit of the Olympic games. He founded the IOC the International Olympic Committee in 1894. Two years later in 1896 the first modern Olympic games where held in Athens in a stadium build 600BC. But how did the Olympic games get the logo with the 5 Rings?
1913 Coubertin designed the first version of the logo with the rings each representing one of the inhabited continents. And the colors were chosen as every country partaking in the games by that time had at least one of these colors in their representing flag. That the games took place every four years stayed the same just in 1916, 1940 and 1944 there were no Olympic games because of the world wars I and II. 1924 they added the Winter games to the repertoire and later on they also added the Paralympics to accommodate athletes with disability.
Something else that changed compared to the Ancient Olympics is that now women take part in the competitions and they are almost on a 50/50 ration as in the 2020 Olympics that got delayed to 2021 48,9 percent of the competitors were women.
I hope that you now know more about the Games.
Sources:
https://www.paris2024.org/en/history-of-olympic-games/
https://olympics.com/ioc/faq/history-and-origin-of-the-games/what-is-the-origin-of-the-olympic-games