The Olympic flame for 2008 has already reached Beijing, China. This flame was lit from Olympia and transferred by famous Olympians to the venue as during past years.
We covered a capsular over view on the topic last fortnight at school...Here goes the summary....
Olympics is a global sports festival.its held once every four years. This four year period is called an Olympiad.
Ancient olympics was held at Olympia in Greece in honour of their God Zues, from 776BC to 392AD.Only greeks participated in these games for thousand of years. During the 293rd Olympics, King Theodosius had banned the games...
Pierre de Fredi, Baron de Coubertin, a French educator, studied about the history of these games and pioneered the International Olympics Committee. He is considered the Father of Modern Olympics.
The first Modern Olympics was initiated in 1896 at Athens, Greece. 14 nations participated. There were 245 players in 43 events.
From then it progressed into 202 nations, 301 events and 11099 participants in the last Olympics of 2004 also at Athens...
The Olympic Motto is coined from three Latin words- Citius, Altius and Fortius-meaning swift, higher and stronger...
The Olympic Creed as per Bishop Ethelbert Talbot can be read as follows:
" The most important thing is not to WIN but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph,but the struggle.The essential thing is not to have conquered, but to have fought well."
Games are usually held in stadiums. This comes from the word "Stade" which is a unit equivalent to about 182metres.
In Ancient Olympics, the prize were leaves of plants; whereas in Modern Olympics it varies from Gold(first),Silver(second) and Bronze (third) medals with a Diploma.The national anthem of the respective country of the winner is also played in their honour.
The opening and closing ceremonies are the greatest mega events in world history. The release of doves symbolise peace; parade with national flag; flame and torch relay; many arts forms and so on make the evenings colourful and memorable.
Olympics flag was designed in 1920. It is a set of intertwined five rings with colours of blue, yellow, black, red and green on a white background. This represents the five populated landmasses in the world and theres atleast one color from the flag of any country as well...
The Olympic events are generally Summer Olympics, Winter Olympics and Paralympics for the disabled.Most common events are athletics, swimming, gymnastics, soccer and hockey.Softball is the only sport exclusively for women.
The first winner in Ancient Olympics is koroibos whereas the player who won maximum gold medals is Ray Ewry. He had been debilitated by polio as a child but rectified by Physiotherapy exercises and made up the way all along to Olympics medal many times.
The Olympic oath according to Victor Boin : " We swear that we will take part in the Olympic Games in a spirit of Chivalry, for the honour of our country and for the glory of sport."
The most attractive events of our choice are synchronised swimming and rhythmic gymnastics....We are waiting for the show...eagerly...
(Prepared during the Olympic games of 2008...)
