6 Fun Facts About the Olympic Games
by Krish Gupta
The Olympics are a huge part of our world as we know it today and, of course, like any
wonderful thing, they originated in the ancient classical world. While we may know a little more about
the games than most because of our status as classics students, we still do not know a lot about these
games. Here are some fun facts that are likely new even to us!
1. While it is traditionally agreed that the Olympic
Games originated in 776 BC, it is not exactly known
how they came about. Some used to believe that
Heracles ran a footrace in Olympia one time and
decided to make it required every 4 years. 2. While many of us know about The Discobolus statue
in which an athlete is throwing a discus, we may not
know that the famous statue is a replica. The original
statue was sculpted in Bronze by Myron, an Athenian,
and was lost. However, the statue was quite famous in
the ancient world so it was copied and duplicated
numerous times, hence why the statue is so famous
today. Funnily enough, in the original statue, the athlete
is facing backwards toward the discus, but in some
incorrect restorations, the athlete is facing to the front
where he is throwing.
3. The Olympics actually became integral to marking
the passage of time uniformly throughout Ancient
Greece. The time between two games (4 years) came to
be known as an Olympiad and became a uniform
standard unit for measuring years in history books. 4. Part of the reason that the Olympics are so important
today is that they are considered a place for countries to
compete with each other without any repercussions and
build international relationships. The games had a
similar effect in the Ancient World. In fact, during the
time of the games, the entirety of ancient Greece would
be under a truce, and the use of capital punishment,
wars, or battles would not occur.
5. While the Olympic Games may have originated in
776 BC under mysterious circumstance, we know
exactly when and why the games were stopped. In the
year 313, Emperor Constantine allowed the practice of
Christianity in the Roman Empire and it eventually
spread to nearly every following emperor. One emperor
decided to take his dedication to his faith even further
and remove all pagan festivals, which included the
Olympics since they were held in honor of Zeus. 6. The Olympic Games finally made a return in 1896.
These games were hosted in Athens and Greece won
the most medals with a total of 47 which, let’s be
honest, is exactly how all of us think it should be.
OJCL Fall Torch page 4