PICS: Millie's facial reaction when Oscar was being pummelled on the ropes!
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Found an article:
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-a...pic-games.html
By Earl Hunsinger
The first documented Olympic Games were held on the plains of Olympia, Greece in 776 B.C.E. According to the Classics Technology Center, the first Olympic winner was a true amateur athlete, a cook from Elis named Koroibos. The event he won was called the stadion, a foot race of 600 feet. Incidentally, the stadion, which was both the distance and the name of the event, is the origin of the name given to a large structure used today for sporting events, a stadium.
Run the Planet, a world wide resource for runners, says that while some literary traditions indicate that "this was the only athletic event of the games for the first 13 Olympic festivals or until 724 BC," there is both literary and archaeological evidence indicating that sporting events took place at Olympia much earlier than this, perhaps as early as the 9th century B.C.E. There is also some evidence that indicates that multiple events may have taken place at these earlier games.
Although when they first began the Olympics were a one day event, by the 5th century B.C.E they lasted five days and included three foot races of various lengths, as well as other events, such as boxing and wrestling. The pentathlon had also been added. This was an event where the athletes competed in five separate contests: wrestling, long jump, discus, javelin, and a foot race. Equestrian events were added in later years. These games were held every four years until the Romans introduced the gladiatorial contests, at which time it was no longer possible for a mere cook, or an amateur of any kind, to participate.
Although the modern day marathon race commemorates Pheidippides, the runner who carried the news to Sparta when the Persians landed in Marathon in 490 B.C.E., the ancient games had no marathon race. While Pheidippides ran 149 miles, the modern marathon race was standardized at a little over 26 miles when the race was held in London in 1908. For more about Pheidippides and the myths surrounding his famous run, see the article "The Great Marathon Myth" on Cool Running.
There is another difference between the ancient and modern Olympic Games; originally the athletes all competed in the nude. According to the travel site Around Greece this was to prevent cheating and for the purpose of safety. At first only Greek men could compete and women were forbidden to even enter the stadium to watch. According to the Classics Technology Center, this rule only applied to married women. ******* were allowed to watch, as was the priestess of Demeter Chamyne. Any married woman who entered would be thrown off mount Typaeum.
The ancient Olympic Games began as a religious festival. Olympia was a religious center at the time, with numerous temples dedicated to Zeus, who was worshipped as the father of the Greek gods and goddesses. The games were held in his honor. The popular Olympic torch of the modern games is a symbol taken from this ancient religious origin. According to National Geographic, fire was sacred to the ancient Greeks. They believed it was given to man by the god Prometheus and symbolized the creation of the world, renewal, and light. For this reason, they kept fires burning in front of their temples. During the first games, a flame ignited by the sun was kept burning on the altar of the goddess Hera. This was supposed to symbolize reason, purity, and peace between nations.
Originally, the games were supposed to glorify the individual. Honorable competition was paramount. Winners were given a wreath of wild olive leaves. Their names were known throughout the land. Statues were made of them and poems were written about them. Eventually the nation became more important than the individual and selfishness and brutality became more common. According to the International Sports Hall of Fame and Olympic Museum, Roman emperor Theodosius I officially banned the Olympics and all pagan festivals in 394 C.E. This ended the first 1100 years of Olympic competition, which wasn’t to be revived until 1500 years later, when the era of the modern Olympics began in Athens, in 1896.Last edited by Benny Leonard; 12-08-2008, 05:16 PM.Comment
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I read somewhere she was pleading for people to stop the fight. She begged Shaefer to stop the fight.Comment
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