Olympics to know

How the Olympics Started

The Legend of Hercules

An Ancient Greek legend (a story that is not real) tells how Hercules founded the Olympic Games. Hera gave Hercules twelve tasks to do as a punishment. Five of these twelve tasks were defeating a lion, defeating a boar, finding the golden apples of Zeus, killing a bull, and cleaning out the huge, filthy stables for King Augeas. When Augeas tried to cheat Hercules out of his award, Hercules killed him and founded the Olympics as his victory.
The Olympic Games honored the God of all Gods, Zeus. They also honored Hera, Apollo, and some of the other Olympian Gods. Originally, all the Olympic games, except the horse races, took place near the huge, gold, ivory statue of Zeus.

When the Olympics began, they had only one event, a foot race of about 200 meters. Fifty years later, a second race of 400 meters was added. There were many other sports added after that. Soon the festivities were expanded into a five-day event.

The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to April 15, 1896. It was the first Olympic Games held in the Modern era. Ancient Greece was the birthplace of the Olympic Games, consequently Athens was perceived to be an appropriate choice to stage the inaugural modern Games. It was unanimously chosen as the host city during a congress organized by Pierre de Coubertin, a French pedagogue and historian, in Paris, on June 23, 1894. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was also established during this congress.

Despite many obstacles and setbacks, the 1896 Olympics were regarded as a great success. The Games had the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date. Panathinaiko Stadium, the first big stadium in the modern world, overflowed with the largest crowd ever to watch a sporting event. The highlight for the Greeks was the marathon victory by their compatriot Spiridon Louis. The most successful competitor was German wrestler and gymnast Carl Schuhmann, who won four gold medals.

After the Games, Coubertin and the IOC were petitioned by several prominent figures including Greece's King George and some of the American competitors in Athens, to hold all the following Games in Athens. However, the 1900 Summer Olympics were already planned for Paris and, except for the Intercalated Games of 1906, the Olympics did not return to Greece until the 2004 Summer Olympics, some 104 years later.

The 1900 Olympics, hosted by his own country, greatly disappointed Pierre de Coubertin. Coubertin and the IOC lost control when the French government took over the organizing and planning of the Games.
At the same time of the Olympic Games, Paris was also hosting the World Exhibition, an international fair of immense size. Because of the fair, the Olympics were poorly organized and poorly publicized.

Though more athletes attended the 1900 Games than in 1896, the conditions that greeted the contestants were abysmal. Scheduling conflicts were so great that many contestants never made it to their events. And even when they did make it, athletes found the area for the running events to be on grass (rather than on cinder track) and uneven; the discus and hammer throwers often found that there wasn't enough room to throw so their shots landed in the trees; the hurdles were made out of broken telephone poles; and the swimming events were conducted in the Seine River which had an extremely strong current.

It was in the 1900 Olympic Games that women first participated as contestants.
At least 1,066 athletes participated, representing 19 countries.

History of the Olympic Games

1896 - Athens
1900 -Paris
1904 - St. Louis
1906 - Athens
1908 - London
1912 - Stockholm
1916 - Not held
1920 - Antwerp
1924 - Paris
1928 - Amsterdam
1932 - Los Angeles
1936 - Berlin
1940 - Not held
1944 - Not held
1948 - London
1952 - Helsinki
1956 - Melbourne
1960 - Rome
1964 - Tokyo
1968 - Mexico City
1972 - Munich
1976 - Montreal
1980 - Moscow
1984 - Los Angeles
1988 - Seoul
1992 - Barcelona
1996 - Atlanta
2000 – Sydney
2004 – Athens,
2008 - Beijing
2012- London

Abhinav Bindra has made India proud winning the first individual gold medal at the Olympics in China. Bindra won the gold medal in the 10m air rifle event with a near perfect shot. This is the first ever individual gold for India at any Olympics.