Neeraj Chopra, Mirabai Chanu, Bajrang Punia and many other players are all olympics heroes today.
While earlier the main field of interest had been cricket and football now Sports like javelin throw and fencing are gaining popularity among the youth.
The reason for this tremendous change is the Tokyo Olympics of 2021. So when did the Olympics begin, and how does it work now?
The ancient vs modern Olympics
The ancient Olympic Games are celebrated once in 4 years, known as the Olympiad at the sanctuary of Greek Gods Zeus at Olympia in Greece.
The most widely accepted Inception date of the Olympics is 776 BC, and its ending is 393 AD.
The main attraction of this event for the Pentathlon was a five-event match consisting of running, wrestling, leaping, throwing the discus and hurling the javelin.
It was only later that other Sports live boxing Chariot racing, were included in the schedule of the summer games.
French educator Pierre Fredy Baron de Coubertin established the International Olympic Committee IOC, and the first modern Olympic games were held in Athens in 1896.
A total of 241 athletes from 14 different nations took part in 43 events.
Olympic flag, Motto and Mascot
The Olympic flag carries five intertwined rings representing the unity of five inhabited continents – Africa, America, Asia, Oceania and Europe.
The Rings are blue, yellow, black, green, and red on a white background. The game’s motto is Citius Altius Fortius, a Latin expression meaning faster, higher, and more robust since 1924.
The Olympic Mascot is an animal or human figure representing the host country’s culture introduced in 1968.
The mascot of the Tokyo Olympics was Miraitowa. The Olympic movement consists of the International Olympic Committee responsible for selecting the host city, overseeing and planning the Olympic Games, updating and improving the sports programs etc.
Olympic Creed And Flame
An essential thing in the Olympic Games is not winning the game but taking part in it. Similar to the fact that struggle is more important than victory.
The satisfaction of having given your best in the game is what counts, and this is the creed of the Olympics.
The Olympics flame symbolizes the Olympic games commemorate the theft of fire from the Greek God Zeus by Prometheus and given to humankind.
Today the flame is lit in front of the temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece. It emphasizes the link between the ancient games and the modern ones.
A priestess ignites the Torch from the Solar parabolic mirror and passes it onto a relay runner; the last runner lights the flame in the stadium’s cauldron.
Medals and women participation
In the beginning, every winner was awarded the silver medal, but in 1904 the top three Olympic champions started to receive gold, silver and bronze medals.
Till 1912 participants received gold medals made of solid gold, then made of gilded silver, and now gold-plated silver.
As the cost of pure gold medals steadily increased, making the awards crafted out of pure gold became a burden.
Women were allowed to compete in the Olympics at the Paris games in 1900, but at the end of the 1992 Summer Games, 35 countries had not fielded a single female athlete.
By 2010, only three countries had never sent female athletes to Brunei, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
At the 2012 Olympics in London, every competing country had female athletes for the first time in Olympic history.
Some interesting facts
- Earlier tug of war used to be an Olympic sport and was a part of athletics. The event was held between groups referred to as clubs, and one country could enter multiple clubs, and the country could win numerous medals.
- Obstacle swimming and pigeon shooting are some other bizarre games that were a part of the Olympics.
- In 1967, the International Olympic Committee, for the first time, banned the consumption of certain substances before the game. A pentathlete from Sweden was disqualified for having a couple of beers.
- Ethiopian Olympian Abebe Bikila won the top slot at the 1960 Rome Olympics, running the marathon barefoot.
