History Of Olympics

The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. The Olympic flag, featuring this symbol on a white background, flew for the first time at the Antwerp Games in 1920. In the opening ceremony, King Georgios I and a crowd of 60,000 spectators welcomed 280 participants from 12 nations (all male), who would compete in 43 events, including track and field, gymnastics, swimming, wrestling, cycling, tennis, weightlifting, shooting, and fencing. The Olympic Games are an international sports festival that began in ancient Greece. The original Greek games were staged every fourth year for several hundred years until they were abolished in the early Christian era. The earliest reliable date that recorded history gives for the first Olympics is 776 B.C., although virtually all historians presume that the Games began well before then. The revival of the Olympic Games in 1896, unlike the original Games, has a clear, concise history. Pierre de Coubertin (1863–1937), a young French nobleman, felt that he could institute an educational program in France that approximated the ancient Greek notion of a balanced development of mind and body.

The ancient Olympic Games included several of the sports that are now part of the Summer Games program, which at times has included events in as many as 32 different sports. The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (French: Jeux Olympiques) are leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Movement consists of international sports federations (IFs), National Olympic Committees (NOCs), and organizing committees for each specific Olympic Games.

By: Anirudha Sharma
Government Senior Secondary School, Bopara