Essay On Olympic Games

Everyone knows about the Olympic Games in present times; the world watches the top athletes from every country compete in a variety of sports. But few really know of the essence of the games other than they are held every four years, there are winter and summer games, the best of the best are entered, and the famous Olympic torch never dies out.

There is more to the Olympics than meet the eye; these games actually originated over 3,000 years ago in Greece. According to Thomas Sienkewicz, author of Ancient Greece, the games were thought to have started because of the suggestion of an oracle from Delphi to promote peace throughout Greece (595). A truce was put into place for the entirety of the games, by all city-states who competed, which

Similar to the modern day Olympics, the ancient games were held every four years, and the time between each of the games was referred to as an Olympiad (595). The games would start after the first full moon after the summer solstice (594). The ancient Olympics had action, faith, and fair competition. "A competitor would be surrounded of the largest number of Greeks in peace that he would ever experience. Perhaps as many as 40,000 Greeks would gather for the Olympics Games” (The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization, The Olympics) Spectators traveled from as far as modern day Russia and Spain, most of which by foot to watch the display of athleticism (The Ancient Olympics) Everyone, who was anyone, went to watch

As Betsy Carpenter, author of The First Olympics, expressed, “... The Greeks not only only competed in the buff they oiled themselves beforehand until they glistened. Not surprisingly, gymnasiums, to which most freeborn Greek men belonged, were prime pickup spots, where older men chased buff, beautiful youths.” A ban declaring married women could not be at the Olympics was to prevent any sort of gawking or attempted cheating with athletes. Greeks were accustomed to marrying off their daughters as we would call it, obviously each man wanted what was best for his daughter. Unmarried women went to compete in the Olympics, but also went to be showcased to athletes by their father or guardians. Elder men exposed their daughters to the best of the best men. These athletes were painted as the perfect men because of the connection of mind and body that was created by Greek