History of the Ancient Olympics - Week 1

The Olympic games first began in 776BC. A Greek legend says that great Herakles won a race at Olympia , (a small state of Elis) and then Herakles ordered that the race should be held every four years.

Others say that Zeus (one of the gods) had originated the festival after defeating Cronus for the excellence of power of heaven. There were festivals which were a cultural gathering. The three major PanHellic festival are : the Pythian ,the Nemean and the Isthmiar.

Back then the Ancient Olympics were different to today.There were less events than to what we have now, and only free men who spoke Greek were aloud to compete.Also the games were always held in Olympia ; instead of moving around different to countries.

The end of the ancient Olympics began before the Romans took over Greece. When the Romans took over Greece, they changed the Olympics stadiums into a amphitheaters (an oval or circular un-roofed building with tiers of seats ; round a central area) and the athletes were forced to be slaves who were forced to fight wild beast. The Olympic games ended at 393AD .

Click on any of these sites below for more info

http://images.google.com.au/images?hl=en&q=ancient+olympic+sport&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

http://images.google.com.au/images?hl=en&q=ancient+olympic+games&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

http://www.hickoksports.com/history/olancien.shtml

http://www.richeast.org/htwm/Olympics/olympics.html