HISTORY OF MODERN OLYMPICS
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History of Modern Olympics
The transition of the Olympics into modern Olympics involves the period when athletics and gymnastics reappeared in history both in Greece and internationally. The society accorded high esteem to games and athletics such that they introduced physical education into the school curriculum as an independent lesson in the eighteenth century. In order to unify the athletic events, the same authority invited representatives from all nations and all sports societies. The first president of the International Olympic Committee was Demetrios Vike1as. Pierre de Coubertin was the originator of modern Olympics. These men were responsible for the revival of the modern Olympics in Athens in, 1896.
Pierre de Coubertin, a French man, was born in 1863 from a French family. He made the first attempt in reviving the Olympics Games, thus considered the father of the modern Olympic Games. His path of patriotism was that of physical education and sports. He articulated the idea of nationalization of sports where the French sports would get to experience competition with other advanced countries. Coubertin organized a congress on June 18, 1894 where representatives from eleven sport societies attended where he presented amateurism as a principal subject. He presented his plans to establish a date for the first Olympic Games. The first international Olympics Games took place in 1896 in, Athens, Greece. This was to influence a halo of glory and grandeur.
The main aim of the congress was to revive the Olympics games, not on the notion of rivalry and profitmaking, but based on noble competition. Many people were part of the realization of the first Olympic Games. The Panathenaic stadium was refurbished to host events in the 1896, 1906 and 2004. On 23rdJune 1894, Athens was chosen to hold the modern Olympic Games. Before Coubertin, the Greek attempted to revive the Olympics through The Zappas Olympic Games. Zappas Olympiads took place in Athens, in 1859. They were mainly agricultural, industrial and cultural based contests. The Romanian Greek Evangelis Zappas financed the Zappas Olympics in 1859 and organized by the local Athenian sports authorities.
The history of the revival of the Olympics Games was like a British, French and Greek affair. William Penny Brookes and Zappas of the Zappas Olympiads in Athens proposed the basic arguments of the history of the games. The arguments reinforced Coubertin’s original idea of revival. However, David C. Young has a different argument on the history of the Olympics. Young was a classical scholar who studied the lyric poetry of the ancient Greek poet Pindar. He argues that an English physician at the University of Florida made the greatest contributions towards establishing the modern Olympics. In Young’s argument, William Penny Brookes organized the Much Wenlock Games in England in 1850. Both Brookes and Zappian’s efforts were influential in making Olympic Games an international affair. However, the story of the revival of modern Olympics is accredited to Pierre de Coubertin (Guttmann, history of modern games, 42). This is because he organized the first International congress in Paris, the first International Olympic Committee, stood at the helm of the Olympics boat for 30 years out of the 100 years, and finally, orchestrated the personalities and events of the Greeks so that they could host the first Olympic games in Athens in 1896 (Young, 13). Young speculates that Brookes and Coubertin had a peculiar relationship. They exchanged documents dating between 1889 and 1894. Brookes sent Coubertin materials containing his Olympics matters in England among other matters like health, physical education and athletic sports. The material Coubertin sent to Brookes mainly contained physical education matters. Brookes invited Coubertin to Much Wenlock in 1889 to witness the staging of the Much Wenlock Olympian Games. Coubertin got impressed and gathered ideas from this event and conceived the idea of Olympics in his mind.
The first series of athletic games took place in Athens, in 1859, 1870 and 1875. Evangelis Zappas sponsored the games. Not only did Zappas sponsor the games, he also initiated the construction and refurbishment of the Panathenaic stadium that hosted the games. The first modern Olympic Games took place in Loudovikou, Athens because the Panathenaic stadium was incomplete. At that time, the Olympic Games had not fully conceptualized as an international affair. The games were predominantly a traditional Athenian event and the participants in the games were exclusively from the Greek community. The common games that the athletes competed included running, javelin, wrestling, jumping and pole climbing.
In April 1896, the first international Olympics took place in the modern era. It was a multi-sport event referred to as Summer Olympics (Games of the I Olympiad). During that time, the stadium overflowed with large crowds of spectators who were eager to watch the games. Penny Brookes conceptualized the idea of an international multi-sport event and later on Coubertin took up the idea. Penny Brookes, a local physician, founded the Wenlock Olympian games which was a sports and recreational centre that included sports such as cricket, football and quoits. Coubertin later took up the idea from the inspiration of Much Wenlock, which gave, birth to the modern Olympics. In 1894, Coubertin proposed plans to a congress in Paris to choose a date for the first modern Olympic. He later suggested that the games would take place in Paris alongside the Universal exposition in 1900. The congress then suggested that six years was a long period and instead the games be held in 1896. However, there was a contradiction on which city between Paris and Athens should host the games but Athens was finally the city of choice. A contradiction arose among the congress as to whether London or Athens should be chosen as the venue for the selection process. However, Coubertin and Demetrius Vikelas agreed on Athens. Vikelas was the first president to head the International Olympic Committee.
According to young, Olympia was in the land of Triphylians, which consisted of three tribes. Pisa was the main city, but Triphylians controlled the site from a period. Later, the Eleans from the north took control from Triphylians and organized and controlled the Olympic Games. At one time, the Eleans had to invent legends that would make them claim that they were the initial sponsors of the Olympic Games. Iphitos, the Elis’ King made a treaty with Lycurgus, Spartan official and king Cleomenes to hold the games. Delphic initially instructed King Iphitos to revive the Olympics (Young, the modern Olympics, 3). According to Young, Olympia was not inhabited and was a religious sanctuary that belonged to the Zeus. In 1829, a French team initiated the excavation of the temple of Zeus in Olympia but later abandoned. A German team, lead by Ernst Curtis later took up from where the French had left. The German team started their first excavations in 1875. Young also states that the plan of the sanctuary was a mystery, and excavation continued to date. According to Young, the Ancient Olympics began in 776 BC and took place after every four years. This continued for more than a millennium. Results from archeologists say that the Ancient Olympics continued up to 400 AD. Young claims that, how the Ancient Olympics events took place was only evident on paintings. Ancient Olympics had regularity and lack of change (Young, the modern Olympics, 3). The nineteenth century saw the revival of international Olympics. This was enhanced through better means of communication and transport mediums such as the railway and the telegraph that enabled people to intermingle. Olympic Games seek to unify nations on the notion of rivalry under noble competition through Olympic Games.
The purpose of the Olympic Games was to honor the Greek god, Zeus. Athletes trained and competed in Olympia, a religious sanctuary. In the years that Coubertin sport and the Sorbonne congress, there were significant puzzles that came up. Baron Pierre de Coubertin dedicated a lot to traveling and learning the physical education in other countries. The education systems incorporated physical education, an element that France lacked. During the time, when Coubertin was seeking answers for the educational problems, some archeologists from Germany were excavating Olympia. This was a time when this historical sites attracted many people including Coubertin. As he visited this historical site, Coubertin came up with an idea of competition among the athletes. The reason behind Coubertin’s idea was to engage athletes in performing in events from an amateur level to a professional level.
Coubertin’s vision was to restore the Olympics’ games. He published books to convince athletes about the importance of a unifying Olympic event. Coubertin helped establish the Athletics sports union in 1888 and this facility aimed at improving physical education in French schools. The French government sent Coubertin to other countries around the world to try to study the physical education trends. This was after the government noticed the importance of physical education in French schools.
In his endeavors, he started a worldwide amateur competition in 1892. Although his idea was not readily accepted, he initiated small amateur groups and nine countries attended in 1894. However, Coubertin convinced congress to revive the Olympics. This proposal went through, and the modern Olympic Games commenced henceforth.
Many people in Greek later accepted the sports competition and events. It then turned to be an international event whereby many countries took part in the competition. The committee heading the Olympics then decided that the events were to take place after every four years. Only Greece qualified to form a standard team of sport development in the country among the fifteen countries represented.
According to Young, the events took place after every four years and specifically during the months of July and august. An Olympiad was as the time between two Olympic Games. During the start of the games, the first day had only a single event, gradually more events occurred, and the games lasted for five years. The games were initially ten in total and included running, pentathlon, javelin, wrestling, boxing, horseracing and chariot racing among others. In the beginning of modern Olympics, only men could participate in the games while the women could not participate or even watch the games. Any athlete who desired to participate in the games had to present himself or herself at Elis. This was the organizing location for the games. Hellanodikes conducted the organization and supervision of the games and rules of the game. Hellanodikes was a jury chosen by citizens at Elis.
The Olympic Games are one of the biggest and most momentous events in the world, and athletes from different countries take part in the sporting events. The Olympic flag consists of five rings that represent the five continents in the world and the international nature of the games. The games are unique from other events, in that, athletes and other sports fans from different nations gather to witness the sporting celebrations. The purpose of the Olympic movement is to link sports with culture and education, promote sports and to help build a better place to live in through the practice of sports in a spirit of peace, excellence, respect and friendship.
References
David C. Young, A Brief history of the Olympic Games. (Australia: Blackwell publishing, 2004) 1-13
David C. Young, The Modern Olympics: a struggle for revival (New York: John Hopkins University Press, 1996)
Professor John J. MacAloon, the revival of the Olympic games 84.169-182 http://www.ioa.leeds.ac.uk/1980s/84169.htm (accessed 8th November, 2011)
Kids universe, About Olympic games http://www.athensinfoguide.com/olympic.htm (accessed 8 November, 2011)
Why were the Olympic Games revived? http://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/olympics/revival/ (accessed 8 November, 2011)
Allen Guttmann. The Olympics, a history of modern games (Illinois: university of Illinois press, 2002) 10-70.
The First Modern Olympic Games at Athens, 1896 in the .., http://www.desk.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/download/es_5_Koulouri_2.pdf (accessed November 9, 2011).
Ancient Olympics, http://ancientolympics.arts.kuleuven.be/eng/FAQ.html (accessed November 9, 2011).
