In less than one hundred days from now, 10,500 athletes and 5,500 team officials from 202 nations, will assemble in Athens, the immortal city of civilisation and democracy, for what is being termed as ‘the greatest show on earth.’
Twenty-eight different sports disciplines will be practised in 35 venues over a period of 16 days, starting on August 13, with the exception of football, when preliminaries will begin two days prior the opening ceremony.
21,500 members of the media are expected to cover the Olympic Games. Some 45,000 security personnel will be on duty. These include 25,000 from the police, 7,000 from the military, 3,000 coast guards, 1,500 fire-fighters, 3,500 private security contractors and 5,000 trained volunteers. 301 medal ceremonies will be staged.
Greece was the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games. The decision for the Games to return to their origins was taken at the 106 International Olympic Committee’s session on September 5, 1997 in Lausanne when Athens defied the bids made by Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Rome and Stockholm to host the XXVIII Olympiad.
60,000 volunteers from all over the world are currently being trained for the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games which will be staged in September (17-28) also in Athens. Without volunteers, the Games as we know them today would not exist. These volunteers come in all ages, cultures and background; their common factor being their love for sport and the Olympic ideal, though I hardly believe that this ‘ideal’ has lost its real and original meaning.
Besides the athletes, these are the people who best personify the Olympic spirit. They will work on the maintenance of the venues, the supervision of events, hospitality and orientation of visitors and athletes, transport, logistics, catering, ticketing, looking after the VIPs and cleaning of dressing-rooms and Stadia are all part of the jobs of these volunteers who will be proud to wear a uniform and show an accreditation card, for their pains.
Commercial Impact
These impressive figures give a slight idea of the grandeur of the event and one can imagine the commercial impact on the country; however, I leave that to the financial experts in case non entities from the Maltese scene dispute trivialities.
Millions will be glued to the small screen to watch the events and the rituals like the opening ceremony, the carrying of the torch, the traditional march past, the lighting of the Olympic flame, the Olympic oath, the officials’ pledge to be fair and just, the raising of the flag, national anthems galore, the usual tears of the victors as the limits of humans will be brought to the fore.
The Greeks will remind the world that the Games originated in their country. History tells us that in 776 BC, Hercules, the strongest of all men, challenged his four brothers to a race before the Gods, in the fields of Olympia to set the stage for the beginning of the ancient Games. These took the character of a festival of sport and were held continuously for almost 1200 years.
Nude
Athletes originally wore shorts, but according to one ancient writer Pausanias, a competitor deliberately lost his shorts so that he could run more freely in 720 BC and clothing was then abolished.
Women were banned to watch the Games, not because of the nudity of the male athletes, but because Olympia was dedicated to Zeus, and was therefore a sacred area for men.
The athletes who won were hailed as heroes and often elevated to the status of royalty once they returned to their hometown. Statues were erected in their honour around the magnificent temple of Zeus.
Centuries of earthquakes and floods buried Olympia and the temple of Zeus, but in 1870, excavations which were carried out by a group of Germans unearthed the beautiful and magnificent statues of the classic Greek games.
Different versions
Many attribute the archaeological findings as the reason why the games were revived toward the end of the twentieth century. These archaeological findings in the sacred ground of Olympia fascinated Pierre de Coubertin so much that he was inspired to conceive the idea of reviving the Modern Olympic Games.
On June 23,1894 speaking at the Sorbonne in Paris to a gathering of international sports leaders from nine countries, he made his proposal.
In 1896 245 athletes (some say the figure was actually 311) from fourteen countries competed in the ancient Panathenaicon. Records show that the Americans won eleven top medals and that they triumphed in nine of the twelve track and field events, while the Greeks won a total of 47 medals. The highlight of the games was the victory by a native peasant, Spiros Louis in the first marathon which was run on the same course covered by the Greek hero Pheidippides after the battle of Marathon in 490 BC.
The programme included 43 events connected with nine sports disciplines.
The first Olympic champion in more than 1500 years was the American James Connolly who won the triple jump, while the German Karl Schumann finished in the top four in four of the events. The winners were awarded a silver medal and a crown of olive branches.
French educator Baron Pierre de Courbertin did not found the modern games because they were founded more than forty years earlier. He did found the International Olympic Movement in 1894. Evangelis Zappas founded the Games which were staged in 1859 in Athens. The Wenlock Olympian Society which was founded by William Penny Brookes also organised Olympic-like games in 1860. In fact Baron de Coubertin visited Dr Penny Brookes in Much Wenlock in Shropshire England and was actually inspired by him to establish the IOC.
The reason that everyone believes that Baron de Coubertin was the founder is down to him promoting himself as the founder selfishly and without mentioning Dr Brookes, or Mr Zappas or Mr Panagiotis Sautos, a Greek poet who first wrote about the Games’ revival in his poetry in 1833.
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