History of Olympic Games

Olympic Games from Olympia to Our Days

The games began nearly three millennia ago in ancient Greece, but the modern Olympics are relatively young

276 B.C.: The ancient Olympics are held in Olympia, Greece, for the first time. They are staged every four years for nearly 10 centuries, until A.D. 394, when Emperor Theodosius the Great abolishes what he considers to be a pagan rite.

1892: Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French industrialist, proposes an athletics competition based on the uncorrupted ancient Olympics.

1896: With the financial backing of a wealthy Greek architect named Georgios Averoff, the first modern Olympic Games are held in Athens. Hundreds of athletes from 13 countries compete; winners receive a gold medal and an olive branch from the King of Greece, and the most celebrated event, the marathon, is won by a Greek peasant.

1906: After poorly organized Olympiads in 1900 and 1904 flop, Greece stages the Intercalated (Interim) Games. The event's success keeps the Olympic movement alive.

1916: The Olympics are canceled because of World War I.

1928: Women compete in track-and-field events for the first time.

1936: Although Jews in various countries urge a boycott – narrowly defeated in the United States – the Summer Games in Berlin go on. Hitler's attempts to use the Olympiad to prove Aryan superiority are foiled as the U.S. Track team, led by six black athletes including Jesse Owens, wins 12 gold medals to 4 for the Germans. This Olympiad also marks the first time that the Olympic torch is carried from Olympia to the site of the Games.

Boxing is a very popular Olympic sport. Photo by Elena (Montreal Grevin Museum).

1940: The Summer and Winter games, both initially awarded to Japan, are moved when Japan invades China, then canceled because of World War II. No Games are staged in 1944 either.

1952: The Soviet Union participates in the Olympics for the first time.

1968: Although boycotts and protests had disrupted the Games before, the Mexico City Olympics are considered to mark the beginning of the Olympics' most openly political era. Two American sprinters, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, thrust their black-gloved fists in the air on the victory stand to call for more power for black Americans. The IOC suspends them and orders them to leave the country. Meanwhile, Mexican police kill hundreds of protesting students who are part of a national strike.

1972: Stunning performances in Germany by Olga Korbut, a Soviet Gymnast, and Mark Spitz, an American swimmer, are overshadowed by the murder of two Israeli athletes and the kidnapping of nine others by Arab terrorists. Television captures the drama as the remaining athletes (all the hostages) and several of their captors are killed in a shoot-out at the Munich airport.

1980: Sixty-four nations, including the United States, boycott the Moscow games to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

1984: Most Soviet-bloc countries boycott the Summer Games in Los Angeles. The United States easily dominates the competition, and the Games turn a profit for the first time. For the first time, sports fans could follow the Olympic Games in cyberspace.