Ancient Olympics Research Paper

Ancient Olympics The first ancient Olympic Games can be set back to 776 B.C and went on until 393 A.D, according to historical records. The Games lasted for twelve centuries and were dedicated to gods of the Olympians. As these games went on, Olympia became the site of these ancient games. The site of the Ancient Olympics is located in the western part of Peloponnese. According to Greek mythology, Peloponnese is the island of Pelops, the founder of the Olympic Games. Olympia, Greece is where there were ancient Greek gods. The central part of Olympia was dominated by the temple of Zeus. The ancient games enjoyed a good tradition and aimed at having good relations between the cities of Greece and showing physical sports and watching the performances that the
The games had a little bit of a spirit as they included people from other Greek cities. The Olympic Games originally had just one competing event, the ‘stadion’ or ‘stade’ race. It was a short race having the distance of 180 or 240 meters or the length of the stadium. It was only rarely that the rules were modified for the stade race and other sporting events were also introduced. Other running events that were in the Ancient Olympics were ‘dolichos’, which was similar to what we now call a marathon event; ‘diaulos’ or two stade race and ‘hoplitodromos’ in which the athlete wore the heavy armor some of the time or all the time,they carried a shield and was also equipped with greaves or a helmet. The other popular events that were added to ancient games were boxing, chariot racing, wrestling, pankration and pentathlon, stadion, wrestling, javelin throw and discus throw. In the ancient Olympics, married women were not allowed to be apart of the games in any way. However unmarried women could watch the Olympic Games. The ancient Olympic Games did not allow female participants; but they were allowed at the Herean Games, staged every four years to honor Hera, it allowing female athletes