The Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event subdivided into summer and winter games. They are each held every four years. Until 1992, they were both held in the same year. Since then, they have been separated two years apart.
There are more than 20 Summer Olympics sports, including swimming, basketball, soccer, gymnastics, boxing, weight-lifting, yachting, cycling and equestrian events. Skiing, ice-skating and ice hockey are among the 7 Winter Game sports. A competitor must be the citizen of the country he or she represents. No more than three entries from any country are permitted in each event (4 in the winter games). Only one team per country is allowed in a team sport.
There are many myths surrounding the origin of the ancient Olympic Games. The most popular legend describes that Heracles was the creator of the Olympic Games and built the Olympic stadium and surrounding buildings as an honor to his father, Zeus after completing his 12 labors. According to that legend, he walked in a straight line for 400 strides and called this distance a “stadium” that later also became a distance calculation unit. This is also why a modem stadium is 400 meters in circumference length (1 stadium = 400 meters).
From then on, the Olympic Games were quickly becoming more and more important throughout ancient Greece, reaching their zenith in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. The Olympics were of fundamental religious importance, contests alternating with sacrifices and ceremonies honoring both Zeus (whose colossal statue stood at Olympia), and Pelops, divine hero and mythical king of Olympia famous for his legendary chariot race, in whose honor the games were held. The number of events increased to 20, and the celebration was spread over several days. Winners of the events were greatly admired and were immortalized in poems and statues. The Games were held every four years, and the period between two celebrations became known as an “Olympiad”. The Greeks used Olympiads as one of their methods to count years. The most famous Olympic athlete lived in these times: the 6th century BC wrestler, Milo Croton, is the only athlete in history to win a victory in six Olympics.
The Games gradually declined in importance after the Romans gained power in Greece. After Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the religion of the Empire and banned pagan rites, the Olympic Games were outlawed as a pagan festival in 393 AD.
In 1894, a French noble man, Pierrde, called a meeting in Paris that led to the first modern Olympic Games, held in Athens in 1896. Thirteen nations sent a total of 285 men, and the Games were revived. Since then the Olympics have been held in different cities of the world once every four years, with the exception of war years 1916, 1940 and 1944. Women first competed in 1912. In 1924 the Winter Olympics were instituted at Chamonix, France.