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1) When and where were the first official Olympic Games organized?
2) What kinds of sports did these Games include?
3) What decision was made by the International Olympic Committee in 1925?
4) Why does the popularity of the Olympic Games remain unchanged?
5) What do you know about the winter Olympic Games held in our country?
More than two thousand five hundred years ago the first Olympic Games took place
at Olympia in Greece. Only men could take part in them. Women were not allowed
even to watch the competitions at the stadium under the fear of death penalty.
The Olympic Games took place every four years and the time between each Games
was called an Olympiad. The Games had been for about eleven hundred years, until
the emperor Theodosius banned them for religious reasons in 394 A.D.
The revival of the Olympic Games began long time afterwards, in 1892, when a
young French teacher Pierre de Coubertin made a public speech before the Union of
French sports club in Paris. At that time many people in many countries practiced
various kinds of sports and games. They wanted to make friends and compete with
sportsmen from other lands.
The first official modern Olympic Games were organized in Athens, the capital of
Greece, in April 1896 Two hundred and eighty five athletes from thirteen countries
took part in them. During these Games there were competitions in nine kinds of sports:
athletics, swimming, gymnastics, weight lifting, wrestling, tennis, fencing, cycling and
shooting.
Winter sports made their Olympic debut in 1908, when ice figure – skating was
included in the Olympic programme among summer sports. International Competitions
in winter sports often took place in the beginning of the 20th century, but only in 1925
the International Olympic Committee made the decision to consider the International
Winter Sports Week, that had taken place in 1924 in France as the first winter Olympic
Games and to hold them since that time on.At first only men took part in the Games. Later rules were changed many times.
Women were allowed to participate in the competitions, many new sports and games
were added to the Olympic programme, several sports were stricken off. One thing
remains unchanged – the popularity of these festivals of health, youth and beauty.
Different cities of the world welcomed sportsmen from many countries. Modern
Olympics keep old traditions of equality, honour and justice of the international
competitions. They help to bring peoples closer together.
In 1980 the 13th winter Olympic Games were held in Lake Placid, USA. In summer
the Games of the 22nd Olympiad were held in Moscow. New sports complexes and
living quarters were built. Stadiums, cycling tracks, swimming pools and
hippodromes were equipped with various modern techniques and devices.
About half a million spectators were present at competitions, millions in our country
and abroad watched them on the television. For two weeks the flag with five coloured
interweaved rings flew over Moscow and the fire, lit by the sun rays in Olympia, the
birthplace of the Olympic Games, was burning above it.