How did the Olympic Games begin?

A festival for Zeus

Long before scoreboards and TV cameras, the Olympic Games were held in a quiet green valley called Olympia, in western Greece. It was a holy place where the ancient Greeks honoured Zeus, the king of their gods. The Greeks counted the first Games as 776 BC, when a man named Koroibos from the nearby city of Elis won the foot race. After that the Games were held every four years, and the four-year gap itself was called an Olympiad.

That date comes from the lists of winners the Greeks kept, and historians treat it as the traditional start rather than an exact fact. What is certain is that the Games kept going for almost twelve centuries.

At first there was only one event, a sprint called the stadion: one length of the running track, a little over 192 metres. (Our word "stadium" comes from it.) Over the next few centuries the Greeks added a two-length race, longer races, wrestling, boxing, a five-part contest called the pentathlon, and chariot races. At its biggest, the programme had 18 events spread over five days.

Truce, rules and olive wreaths

Travelling to Olympia could be risky, because Greek city-states often fought each other. So before each Games, messengers from Elis announced a sacred truce. It did not stop every war in Greece, as people sometimes say. Its job was to protect the Games: nobody was allowed to attack Elis, and athletes and spectators were guaranteed safe passage to Olympia. When the Spartans once attacked Elis after the truce had been announced, they were fined and not allowed to compete.

Only free-born Greek men could compete, and they trained in gymnasiums and competed without clothes. Women could not take part in the Games themselves, although they could win by owning a chariot team or a horse, and girls had their own footrace at Olympia in honour of the goddess Hera. Married women were not allowed to watch.

There were no gold, silver or bronze medals. Each event had one winner, who was crowned with a wreath of olive leaves. Winners did not get money at Olympia, but back home they were treated like celebrities. Some cities gave their champions free meals.

The Games fall silent, then return

The Games lasted until about AD 393, and perhaps a few decades longer. By then Greece was ruled by Rome, whose emperors were Christian and discouraged the old religious festivals. The Games were first of all a celebration of Zeus. Many books say the emperor Theodosius I banned them, but historians have not found a law that names the Games, and some think they simply faded away in the early 400s. Over the following centuries, earthquakes and river silt buried much of Olympia, until the site was found again in 1829 and then carefully dug up by German archaeologists from 1875.

It took about 1,500 years for the Olympics to return. People had tried to revive the Games before. In 1850 an English doctor, William Penny Brookes, started the Much Wenlock Olympian Games in a small Shropshire town, with races, football, cricket and, a few years later, even a blindfolded wheelbarrow race. In Athens, a wealthy Greek called Evangelos Zappas paid for Olympic-style Games, first held in 1859. Both were national events, and neither became international.

The person who made the Games international was a Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin. He visited Much Wenlock in 1890, and in June 1894 he convinced delegates at a congress in Paris to re-establish the Olympic Games. He had planned to hold the first modern Games in Paris in 1900, but the delegates were so keen that they moved it forward to 1896, in Athens, the capital of Greece, the home of the ancient Games.

Athens, 1896

The first modern Olympics opened on 6 April 1896 in the Panathenaic Stadium, an ancient stadium in Athens that was refurbished for the Games thanks to a gift from a wealthy Greek, Georgios Averof. Only men took part. The counts differ: the usual figure is 241 athletes from 14 countries, but historians who checked every name found fewer, about 176 from 13 countries. Either way it was small, and many of the world's best athletes stayed away because the Games were not well advertised.

The first champion of the modern Games was an American, James Connolly, who won the triple jump, the first title decided at the modern Games. There were no gold medals yet: the winner of each event received a silver medal and an olive branch, and the runner-up a bronze medal.

The organisers also added a brand-new race, the marathon, inspired by an old legend of a messenger who ran from the battlefield at Marathon to Athens with news of a Greek victory. (The ancient Games never had a marathon, and most ancient writers did not support the legend.) The home crowd longed for a Greek winner, and got one: a local man, Spyridon Louis, won to wild cheers.

Australia joins the Games

In 1896 Australia was still a collection of colonies, but one Australian was in Athens. Edwin Flack, a young accountant from Melbourne who was working in London, took leave from his job and travelled to Greece. Australia had no Olympic committee yet, so he was entered through a London club, but he ran in the colours of his Melbourne club. He won both the 800 metres and the 1500 metres, becoming Australia's first Olympic champion.

The day after his 800 metres final, Flack entered the marathon, a distance he had never run before. He led for a while, but collapsed at about the 34-kilometre mark and Spyridon Louis passed him. The crowds nicknamed him the "Lion of Athens". His private decision to go to Athens began Australia's unbroken run at the Summer Games: Australia has competed at every one since.

In 1908 and 1912 Australian and New Zealand athletes competed together as a team called Australasia. At Stockholm in 1912, Fanny Durack won the 100 metres freestyle to become Australia's first female Olympic gold medallist, with her rival Mina Wylie second. The two women had to raise their fares through a public appeal.

Later Australians added their own chapters. Dawn Fraser won the 100 metres freestyle at three Games in a row (1956, 1960 and 1964), and Cathy Freeman lit the cauldron at the Sydney 2000 opening ceremony and then won the 400 metres. Australia has hosted the Games twice, in Melbourne in 1956 and Sydney in 2000, and Brisbane will host them in 2032.

📚 Words to know

Olympiad

The four-year period between two Games. The ancient Greeks used Olympiads to count the years.

Stadion

The ancient Greek sprint of one length of the track, a little over 192 metres. It gave us the word "stadium".

Sacred truce

A promise that protected athletes and spectators as they travelled to the ancient Games at Olympia.

Pentathlon

A contest of five events. In ancient Greece it was a sprint, long jump, discus, javelin and wrestling.

Marathon

A long running race of about 42 kilometres. It was invented for the 1896 Games and was not an ancient event.

🧪 Try this: hold an ancient-style sports afternoon

1. Ask an adult to help you find a flat, open space, such as a park or school oval, with no holes or hazards. Mark a start line and a finish line about 20 big steps apart. Warm up with some gentle stretches and a slow jog.
2. Write each player's name on a scrap of paper and draw the names from a hat to make the heats. The ancient Greeks also drew lots to decide who raced whom.
3. Race each heat. Do not time anyone: in the ancient Games the aim was to be first, not to set a record. The winner of each heat goes through to the final.
4. Crown the winner of the final with a wreath of paper olive leaves. Did racing without a stopwatch feel different?
5. Challenge: how many of your steps make one stadion (192 metres)? Measure 10 metres with a tape or trundle wheel, count how many steps you take to cover it, then multiply to find out.