Rites and participants
The sanctuary ofOlympia is located in the Peloponnese on the territory of the city of Elis, which is responsible for organizing the event every four years in summer. Ten months before the start of the competitions, the King of Elis assembles the hellanodices, the judges who ensure that the rules are respected. Then, heralds set off across the Greek world to announce the Olympic truce: one month before the Games, conflicts between cities must cease so that the athletes can come in peace. Violators, such as the Spartans during the Peloponnesian War, were fined heavily. All Greek cities, and later their colonies, sent delegations of pilgrims and athletes. In the sacred stadium and racecourse, with the exception of the priestess of the cult of Demeter, only men were allowed to enter, whether Greek, barbarian or slave. And in the rest of the sanctuary, sacrificers, dancers and musicians provide the entertainment.
Course of the tests
Until 472 BC, the Games lasted just one day. At dawn, the athletes gather to swear respect and obedience to the Olympic rules before the altar of Zeus. The first events were the horse races. These were held at the racecourse, located by archaeologists but still buried beneath the alluvial deposits of the Alpheus. Quadrigas pulled by four horses set off first for 12 laps of the track (around 14 km). Synoris (two-horse chariots) follow for 8 laps and keles (bareback horses) for 6 laps. Most of the time, it's slaves who compete, but the owner of the winning horse(s) receives the prize, a rule that has enabled a few women to be crowned champions. The spectators then move on to the stadium, where the gymnastic ("naked") events take place, with the athletes competing simply coated in oil to limit dehydration. Still accessible today, the track is 192.27 m long, equivalent to 600 times the length of Heracles' foot. With the sun already beating down, the pentathlon begins, an event combining discus throwing, javelin throwing, long jump, running and wrestling. Then comes the dolichos, a long-distance race over 24 stadia (4.6 km), and the showpiece event, the stadion, where athletes sprint over a stadium (192.27 m). After each event, the winner receives his or her reward: not a single drachma, but a laurel wreath and the honor of hearing his or her name, that of his or her father and that of his or her city. The sand is then sprinkled for the so-called "heavy" events: wrestling, pugilism (similar to English boxing) and pancrati, a kind of free fight where all blows are allowed... except fingers in the eyes. The competition concludes with the arms race, introduced in 520 BC, where runners in hoplite garb (helmet, shield and spear) complete two stages. The Games are over. A long, drunken night begins.
Other games
From the 7th century B.C. onwards, many similar competitions were held in Greece, such as the Pythian and Delian Games organized in the sanctuaries of Delphi and Delos in honor of Apollo. Events sometimes changed, with additional disciplines (singing and poetry in Delphi, for example) or different stadium lengths (units of measurement varied from one city to another). Athletes therefore have a busy schedule. They try to concentrate on the most prestigious competitions: first those of Olympia, then the Pythian Games (in Delphi), the Isthmian Games (in Corinth) and the Nemean Games (in Nemea, then in Argos). These four form what are known as the Panhellenic Games ("of all the Greeks"). Held alternately each year over a four-year cycle, they set the pace for the life of the cities and continued to do so until the early Middle Ages.
The decline
In 148 BC, two years after Rome's conquest of Greece, Roman athletes were allowed to compete in the Olympic Games. This provoked the anger of many Greeks. And, indeed, the Romans gradually distorted the spirit of the Games. First, they introduced money, not directly into the sporting arena, but by paying dearly to build up stables of athletes. In 80 B.C., competing Games were held in Rome, with gold prizes for the winners, so few athletes made it to Olympia that year. And in 67 BC, Nero himself took part in several Olympic events. In the quadriga event, the emperor fell from his chariot on a bend, but he had corrupted the hellanodices so well that he was declared the winner. The following year, after his assassination, all his victories were annulled. As a result, the most famous sporting event in the Mediterranean gradually lost its aura. It lasted until 394 CE, when Emperor Theodosius banned all pagan ceremonies in the now Christian Empire. The sanctuary at Olympia was abandoned, burnt down by Theodosius II in 426 and buried several times by the waters of the Alpheus.
The modern Olympic Games
The memory of the Olympiads resurfaced in the 19th century, when the practice of sport began to develop. Two men strove to recreate the Games: Dimitrios Vikelas of Greece and Pierre de Coubertin of France, who founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894. It was a difficult undertaking, but the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896. Such was the enthusiasm for the Games that every country in the world soon wanted to host them. However, the Olympic spirit was largely distorted: women were admitted (we won't complain), new disciplines were introduced, the Olympic truce was no longer respected, etc. The big change was above all in the way the Games were run. The biggest change was that the Games were no longer held in Olympia, but in a different city every four years. However, in 2004, Greece became the smallest country to host the modern Games, after Finland in 1952. Between 1997 and 2004, with the support of the European Union, the country embarked on a vertiginous project to celebrate the great sporting event. The Olympia stadium will only host the shot put event, a poor consolation prize as this discipline did not exist in ancient Greece. The Olympic construction site will be severely delayed by bureaucratic and financial obstacles, as well as by the numerous interruptions caused by the archaeological remains uncovered by the work. Nevertheless, Greece will be ready in time, but at what price? The return of the Games to Greece, originally estimated at 4.6 billion euros, will end up costing 11.2 billion according to official figures, bringing the country's economy to its knees.
