It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of today’s Olympics. With so much drama, so much romance, so much pizzazz, it’s hard to imagine this world spectacle being anything less than perfect. But you don’t have to dig too deep to discover a humble and often peculiar origin. Truly, it has taken several decades of Hollywood magic to produce the polished sporting event we take for granted today.
According to Roman legend, the original Olympic Games were founded by none other than Heracles, the superhuman son of Zeus, no doubt as an opportunity to display his divine strength in front of the ladies. An alternate legend tells the story of Pelops, a Greek romantic and father of the Olympic Games. In a desperate attempt to win the hand of his bride, Hippodamia, Pelops challenged his father, the King of Pisa, to a chariot race. To give himself the upper hand, Pelops replaced the king’s keystone with one made of wax, which melted during the race, throwing the king from his chariot and killing him. Winning the race, the girl, and the entire empire, Pelops declared these to be the first Olympic Games, forever instilling the qualities of cheating and deceit into the games.
The ancient Olympics had their own version of celebrity appearances, including Homer, Socrates, Aristotle, and Hippocrates. Even Plato participated in the games, winning not one but two gold medals in the pankration event.
The original “games” actually only involved one game, a 192-meter race known as “the stadium,” played completely nude (once again giving Heracles an excuse to strut). In fact, the word “gym” comes from the Greek “gymnos,” which literally means “school for naked exercise.” Post-Olympics additions included boxing, vault, discus, and javelin, which gladly did include clothing. The surprising exception to this list of events is the marathon race. This famous race, including the torch, was never part of the ancient Olympic Games and was not added to the venue until more than 1,500 years later.
Ancient games lasted nearly 1,200 years, from at least 776 B.C. C. until 393 AD. C., when the Roman emperor Theodosius I, a Christian, abolished the games because he considered them pagan and evil. And so the Olympic Games slept for more than a thousand years until 1892, when a young Frenchman named Pierre de Coubertin proposed the idea at a meeting of the Union des Sports Athlétiques in Paris. His launch failed miserably. But ever the optimist, Pierre tried again two years later, this time in front of a gathering of 79 delegates representing 9 countries. The delegates voted unanimously in favor of revitalization, and thus, in 1896 in the city of Athens, the Olympics were reborn.
The 1896 games were a disaster. Because the games were poorly publicized, they never received the necessary international support. The contestants were not endorsed by their respective countries and were in fact forced to travel to Greece at their own expense. Several of the contestants were tourists who happened to be in Greece on vacation.
Due to poor planning, the 1896 games were held in very cold weather, although they consisted entirely of “summer” events. in his book First to the wall, 100 years of Olympic swimming, Kelly Gonsalves describes the first swim event: “Not only did they battle 12-foot waves, but the weather in Greece was unusually cold and the water was 55 degrees Fahrenheit.” The book goes on to tell the story of Garner Williams, an American swimmer, who despite spending a fortune to train for and travel to the Olympics, jumped out of the water after only a few moments of racing screaming “I’m freezing.”
Other athletes also had difficult experiences at the Olympics. After traveling on foot from Rome to Athens, a month-long journey, Italian athlete Carlo Airoldi was banned from the games for being a professional. like the book The strangest moments of the Olympics describes, Dorando Pietri was denied his gold in the marathon because an overeager official helped him cross the finish line.
The Olympic Games are often considered an event of world unity, although history would have something else to say. The official Olympic flag, designed in 1914 by Pierre de Coubertin, contains five interconnected rings symbolizing the “five significant continents of the world”, leaving Africa completely off the map. 1936 brought the games to prewar Germany, an opportunity to demonstrate the superiority of the “Aryan” race, or so Adolf Hitler thought, who campaigned heavily to secure the games. Of course, many will remember Jesse Owens, the African-American racer who proudly taught the Germans a thing or two. The victory of Josef Barthel of Luxembourg in 1952 was greeted with embarrassed silence. Since no one expected a Luxembourg athlete to win, the orchestra at the medal ceremony was left without the sheet music for the Luxembourg national anthem.
Over the years, various attempts have been made to improve the Olympic Games. Both power boat racing and cycle polo were introduced and later removed from the games. Hollywood was literally brought in to add some pizzazz to the 1960 Winter Games. Walt Disney was chosen to head the organizing committee for the opening ceremonies, which included special effects, ice statues, and the release of 2,000 white doves.
Scams, politics, victories and heartaches: these words apply to the modern Olympics as well as to the ancient ones. If the Olympic Games have taught us anything, it is that society never changes, even after thousands of years. If Pelops could visit our games today, while he might be impressed by our brilliant fireworks and Hollywood illusions, I think he would feel very comfortable with the real game on display: human nature.