The origins of the Olympic movement can be traced from written history back to 776 BC. But the Ancient Olympics may have existed for centuries before that. Ancient Greece is a mythological kingdom, beautiful and moving mythological stories and twisted folklore, for the origin of the ancient Olympic Games covered with a layer of mysterious color. Legend: The ancient Olympic Games were a regular athletic competition held in honor of Zeus. Another legend has to do with Zeus's son Heracles. Hercules was known as "Hercules" because of his great strength. He in the city-state of Elis accomplished the task that ordinary people can not be accomplished, less than half a day's effort to sweep the king piled up cow dung in the barn, but the king did not want to fulfill the promise of 300 head of cattle, Herakles in anger drove away the king. To celebrate his victory, he held the games at the Olympics.
The origin of the Olympic Games is actually closely related to the social situation in ancient Greece. In the 9th-8th centuries B.C., the Greek clan society gradually disintegrated, and the city-state system of slave society gradually took shape, with the establishment of more than 200 city-states. The city-states were governed separately without a unified monarch, and there were constant wars among them. In order to cope with the wars, each city-state actively trained its soldiers. Children in the Spartan city-states were raised by the state from the age of seven and were engaged in sports and military training, leading a military life. War needs soldiers, soldiers need strong bodies, and sports are a powerful means of training capable soldiers. Greek states and countries have built for people to exercise training field, training field once became one of the symbols of the ancient Greek cities and states. Ancient Greece's training ground, usually a large rectangular field, the field is surrounded by a corridor. Practice field on the track, track surrounded by bleachers, practice field without a roof, athletic practice in the open air, the ancient Greeks believe that the sun is a sign of health, white skin means that the body is not strong. In ancient Greece into the stadium, but also a citizen's honor. In ancient Greece, people respected sports, so almost every Greek free citizens to the training ground to have been trained, especially the aristocrats, they believe that only to the training ground to have been trained, only is considered to be educated people, otherwise they will be classified as doing crafts and low-born among the ranks of the people. War promoted the development of Greek sports, and the events of the ancient Olympic Games bore a clear military imprint. The people were disgusted by the continuous warfare and generally longed for a peaceful environment on which to rest and recuperate. Later, the Spartan king and the king of Elis signed the treaty of "Sacred Truce Month". Thus, military training and athletic competition in preparation for military service were gradually transformed into games of peace and friendship.
The ancient Olympic Games were basically held every four years, a cycle known as the "Olympiad". According to this cycle, from 776 BC to AD 394 years, after 1168 years, *** should be held 293 sessions; but in fact, the number of times to be held much less. However, the ancient Olympic Games have provisions, an Olympiad for a term, whether held or not the number of times as counted. Ancient Olympic Games in the early stage, the competition is not much, so the first 22 sessions of only one day. Later, with the increase in the number of competitions, it was extended to two days. From the 37th increase in juvenile competition, the time was extended to five days. The first day of which is the opening ceremony with dedication and oath-taking ceremonies, the second, third and fourth days are the specifics of the competition, and the fifth day is the closing ceremony with the awarding of prizes and honoring of the gods.
Initially, the Olympic Games were held in the village of Olympia in the Alzheimer's field of the gods, and later in the northeast corner of the field of the gods to build a rectangular stadium, surrounded by natural terrain built into the grandstands. The track was 32 meters wide, allowing 20 runners to compete at a time, and was 192 meters long. The starting line was paved with stone strips, on which two parallel grooves were carved for athletes to use when starting. The Ancient Olympics was not only an athletic competition, but for more than a thousand years it was actually a national holiday for the ancient Greeks. After the "sacred truce" was declared, thousands of people flocked to Olympia, where representatives of the city-states took part in festivals and processions; political ambassadors concluded treaties; artists exhibited their works; scholars and teachers discussed academics; eloquent speakers delivered speeches; merchants sold their wares; and people dressed in their finest clothes and carried the most precious jewels to show off their wealth to one another. The best athletes from the city-states fought in the arena, entering naked to show God and the spectators their superhuman fitness, good health, and good breeding. The spectacle of the Olympic Games greatly exceeded the scope of the athletic competition, it is an important part of the Greek religious, political, economic and cultural, and played a role in promoting political exchanges, promote the development of trade, the prosperity of Greek culture, the integration of national feelings, which makes the whole of the Greek people in a peaceful atmosphere to come together in its rich content and spectacular scenes, forming the greatest festival in all of Greece.
In the fifth century BC, the ancient Greek slave society entered its heyday, but soon thereafter, internal wars diverged and social conflicts intensified. At the end of the fifth century BC, the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War made the Greek slavery began to decline, but also the ancient Olympic Games from boom to bust of the turning point. The war made the economic depression, the social atmosphere is low, sports competition has lost its original meaning, and gradually become the means of people to pursue wealth, the Games appeared on the bad tendency of self-serving, detrimental to the Olympic Games, the noble ideals of the Olympic Games have been distorted.
In the second century BC, Rome conquered Greece, the world-famous ancient Olympic Games to the decline. At the end of the fourth century A.D., the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, who ruled Greece, announced the establishment of Christianity as the state religion, so the ancient Olympic Games sacrificed to the god Zeus as a pagan activity, in order to maintain the Roman rule over Greece, in order to consolidate the status of Christianity, in 394 A.D., Theodosius I ordered the termination of the ancient Olympic Games, which lasted 1,169 years of ancient Olympic Games have since disappeared.
On November 25, 1892, Coubertin made a speech entitled "Revival of the Olympic Games" at the 3rd anniversary of the founding of the "French Sports Federation", which was the first time that he formally put forward the initiative of founding the modern Olympic Games. 1894 April 16th Paris International Sports Conference was held in triumph on June 23rd, the General Assembly adopted a resolution establishing the Olympic Games. On June 23, the General Assembly adopted a resolution establishing the International Olympic Committee. The Conference stipulated that French should be the official language of the IOC and that the Games should be held every four years, following the tradition of the ancient Olympic Games. The first Olympic Games was originally proposed to be held in Paris in 1890, and later considered Greece as the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games, held in Greece than in Paris is more significant, the General Assembly decided to change the first session in 1896, in view of the classical site of the Olympic Games Olympia has been in ruins, the site was changed to the capital of Greece, Athens.
Ancient Olympic Games competition regulations
561 BC, the ancient Greek philosopher Zoros for the ancient Olympic Games drafted a competition regulations, the relevant provisions of the statute has been the Olympic Games must comply with the rules.
1. The organizers of the athletic games were specifically responsible for the representatives of the slave-owning aristocracy - local officials and religious headmen, who had the right to decide on the qualifications of athletes and spectators.
2. The arbitration committee of the games was composed of the full-time priests of the temple of Zeus and the elected referees***.
3. Anyone who bribes the referee or misbehaves during the competition is fined a large sum of money.
4. Athletic games can only be played between individuals and not between groups.
5. Athletes must be Greeks, must be politically, morally, religiously and legally unblemished, and their identity must be certified by the referee.
6. Women were not allowed to attend and visit the games, and offenders were punished by death.
Coaches, athletes and referees of the ancient Olympic Games
Coaches:
The coaches of the ancient Olympic Games were selected from the old warriors who were loyal to the city-states and had rich experience in fighting, and most of them had won victories in large-scale competitions, and they had a high level of knowledge of culture, morality, health care, nutritional hygiene, training methods and psychology. They are respected and trusted by the people because of their high level of knowledge in culture, morality, health care, nutrition, training methods and psychology.
Many coaches have widely applied the theories of famous ancient Greek medical doctors and health care experts to sports training to help athletes recover as soon as possible after training and competing in a large amount of sports, so as to improve the quality of the athletes and create excellent results.
The coaches also try to train the athletes to be calm, cool and good at controlling their own players in order to cope with all kinds of situations arising in the arena. Their training and management is extremely strict.
Athletes:
The ancient Olympic Games had a very distinctive national and religious color, so the identity of the athletes had strict rules:
1. must be pure Greek; 2. must be free; 3. must be men.
Athletes were also required to take an oath ceremony in front of the statue of Zeus, in which they pledged not to win by illegal means and not to break Olympic rules. When a series of examinations were passed, their names were written on a board and hung up in the most conspicuous place in Olympia. From that point on, they could not withdraw from future competitions for any reason, and had to fight tooth and nail to win the title.
Referees:
The referees of the ancient Olympic Games enjoyed great honor and great power. They had the following duties:
1) to go to Iris to learn the rules of the games before the start of the games; 2) to qualify the athletes according to the rules; 3) to supervise the training of the athletes and explain the ethics of sports; 4) to give the order of the "Sacred Truce" to all the Greek city-states; 5) to lead the athletes to take the oath of allegiance; 6) to organize the games, 6. organizing competitions, deciding on winners, and administering penalties.
The first referee in the ancient Olympic Games was King Iphitos of Delphi, who was later succeeded by the Iris. During the first two hundred years of the Games, there was only one referee. In 580 BC, it was changed to two referees. In 480 B.C., the number of referees was increased to nine, from which a head referee was elected, and a clearer division of labor began to emerge: three were responsible for the Pentathlon, three for the Camargue, and three for the other competitions. In 384 B.C., the number of referees was officially set at ten, with no further additions or deletions. Referees have to hold a solemn oath ceremony in front of the statue of Zeus, they promise not to accept bribes, to ensure that the duties of the referee openly and honestly. In the Olympic Games, if you are not satisfied with the referee's decision, you can appeal, and if it is indeed a miscarriage of justice, the referee will be fined a heavy amount of money, but the decision cannot be overturned.
Winners:
The winners of the ancient Olympic Games were highly respected and admired throughout Greece, and the title of champion brought great honor not only to the winner himself, but also to his parents and his city-state. In the minds of the Greeks, won the Olympic Games champion title is Zeus God's favorite warrior, is the most outstanding citizens of Greece, the ancient Olympic Games awarding platform in front of the god Zeus statue. The winners of the award to the wild olive leaves braided laurels, the preparation process is very grand. The winners stood on a podium made of gold and ivory to receive their prizes, and the referee, wearing a laurel wreath and a reddish-red dress and holding a palm branch, announced to the public, in a loud and solemn voice, the names of the winners, their personal histories, the names of their parents, the names of their city-states and the countries they belonged to and the events they had won at the Games, and at the same time awarded them with a branch of palm leaves. The winners were then surrounded by spectators at various celebrations, and thousands of carrier pigeons took to the air and into the sky to spread the fame and achievements of the winners of the Olympic Games. The olive crown became the supreme prize of the ancient Olympics, and winning it was the highest honor. Return home to the winners to be a grand welcome, the city-state government will also give the winners generous treatment, such as exemption from all taxes, lifelong support by the state, in the theater to keep the best place and so on. Therefore, all participants in the Olympic Games athletes believe that the purpose of the competition is to win the championship.
In order to permanently commemorate the winners, the Olympic Games also decided to give the winners of the three championships in the Olympia temple area statue. Many of the artists who made statues of the winners were among the most outstanding and greatest sculptors of ancient Greece.
Ancient Greeks on some of the particularly fit winners as God, folk have a disease, are to seek help, the worship of the winners reached the peak of the degree of excellence.
Ancient Olympic Games competition program
Running
1, sprinting
Sprinting is the only competition in the ancient Olympic Games at the beginning of the program. Running distance of about 192 meters. The competition is divided into preliminaries and finals, athletes draw lots to determine the group and starting position.
2, the middle of the run
The middle of the run is the 14th ancient Olympic Games in 724 BC was first listed as an official event. The length of the middle run is two track lengths (384 meters). At the finish line, there is a turning stone pillar, the athletes go around the stone pillar, and then turn back to run back, the running method is similar to the round-trip running.
3, long-distance running
Long-distance running in the 15th ancient Olympic Games in 720 BC was listed as an official program. It is to make many round trips on the runway, running 24 runway length (4608 meters).
4, armed race
The project was listed as an official event in the 65th ancient Olympic Games in 520 BC. Early participants are wearing armor, helmeted head, legs wrapped in leather knee pads, the left hand holding a shield, the 4th century BC, evolved into naked holding a shield to participate. Starting with one leg in a kneeling position, the running distance is four track length (768 meters) for two round trips. The armed race was a spectacular and fiercely contested spectacle, and was the closing ceremony of the ancient Olympic Games.
In the above races, athletes naked barefoot running, running posture is largely the same as today.
Wrestling
Wrestling is a very favorite project of the ancient Greeks, is a compulsory course at all levels of school. At the 18th Ancient Olympic Games in 708 BC, wrestling was included as one of the five athletic events, as well as a separate competition.
Before the match, lots were drawn to determine the opponent. During the match, as long as the shoulders, chest, knees and other parts of the ground, it is ruled to lose a point, such as the loss of three points will be ruled a failure. The winner then draws lots and continues the game until there is only one person left on the field, which is the final winner.
Pentathlon
The event was designated as a competition at the 18th Ancient Olympics in 708 B.C. Its five disciplines include running, long jump, discus throw, javelin throw and wrestling.
1. Running
As with sprinting alone, the running distance is 192 meters.
2. Long jump
Sub-standardized long jump and running long jump two kinds. Running long jump technology is very different from modern. Athletes must hold 1.5 ~ 4.5 kilograms of stone or metal dumbbells, the ancient Greeks believe that this can accurately grasp the amplitude of the two arm swing, increase the thrust, increase the distance of the jump, but also to maintain balance, so that the feet land smoothly, according to the provisions of the two feet do not land parallel to the results are invalid.
The long jump competition in the flute accompaniment, the purpose is to stimulate the mood of the athletes, master the rhythm of the run and calculate the time.
3. Discus Throwing
Competitors first hand dipped in sand or dirt, and then hold the cake swinging back and forth, with a step or three steps on the method of throwing. At that time, the diameter and weight of the discus varied greatly, and there was no uniform specification. Due to the lack of protective measures, casualties often occur.
4. Javelin
There are two kinds of throwing quasi and throwing far. The gun is about 1.6 meters long, thick and thin with the same index finger. Used to throw quasi, installed with a sharp-edged spearhead, used to throw far, installed without a sharp-edged spearhead. In the front of the javelin in the center, with a thin strip of leather wrapped around the end of the strip of leather into a circle, throwing the index finger and middle finger inserted into the holster, the ancient Greeks believe that this will help to maintain the direction of the flight and thrown farther.
5. Wrestling
and wrestling alone is not exactly the same, each group only one game will determine the winner, but also prohibit the use of some of the dangerous moves in the single wrestling.
Boxing
Boxing was introduced as an event at the 23rd Ancient Olympic Games in 688 BC. There were no rounds, no weight classifications, opponents were drawn by lot, and there was no time limit until one of the fighters was knocked unconscious or raised his right hand in acknowledgement of defeat. The winners then draw lots for fistfights between themselves until one remains.
Mixed martial arts
Mixed martial arts is a mixture of wrestling and boxing, and was first recognized as an event at the 33rd Ancient Olympic Games in 648 BC.
Instead of wrestling, where the opponent is simply dropped, mixed martial arts involves striking the opponent with a variety of maneuvers, as allowed by the rules, until the opponent loses the power of resistance or admits defeat. Rules allow the use of methods are: tripping, blocking the nose, pulling the ear, broken fingers, choke (not allowed to choke), etc., in order to win, some people also use some of the more dangerous action, so the competition is often injured and maimed, bleeding to death.
The chariot race
In 680 BC the 25th Ancient Olympic Games was listed as a competition. The races were divided into 4-horse-drawn chariot races and 2-horse-drawn chariot races, and were held on a racecourse 800 meters long by 320 meters wide. The chariots ran for about 10 kilometers, and each vehicle was painted with different colors, brilliant and majestic. Race is very intense, athletes bare whip, horse forward, car overthrow accidents often occur, run the whole course is usually less than half.
Horse Racing
In 648 BC, the 33rd ancient Olympic Games as a competition. Horses were raced without saddles or stirrups, depending on the skill of the athletes. Some athletes fell off their horses and were injured or even killed on the spot.
The owner of the car and the horse is often the richest slave owners, they both want to win the championship, but also worried about death from injury, so often let the slave driving and riding on behalf of the car, if you win, the olive crown to be worn on the head of the owner, and the real rodeo can only get the owner of the meager reward.
Other athletic events
From the 37th Ancient Olympic Games in 632 B.C., the gradual emergence of juvenile athletic events, such as juvenile running, wrestling, boxing, etc., the rules of the requirements and the difficulty of the action is lower than that of adults.
From the 96th Ancient Olympics in 396 BC, the crier competition and the piper competition were also included in the official program and were used as the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
From 444 BC, the ancient Olympic Games appeared in the art competition, there are many famous scholars, historians, poets, dramatists and artists have been to the Olympic Games to participate in the competition, the Olympic Games not only promote the development of sports, but also promote cultural exchanges.
In short, in more than a thousand years of Olympic Games history, the main athletic program has more than ten, most of the projects and military-related, therefore, the game confrontational, competitive, some projects even casualties, but the Olympic Games is to these competitive embodiment of bravery, strength and fitness, reflecting the noble ideals and pursuits of the ancient Greeks, and thus left a valuable sports heritage to future generations.