Title: The Olympic Games
Headings: The Olympic Games
The Olympic Games
Content: He won the race by fielding ten horses while all competitors could use four. In the end he was declared a winner even though he had abandoned the race, but the records were later expunged. Because the games were integrated with the worship of Zeus--a Pagan god-- they were not approved by the Christians of the late Roman empire, and were banned in 393 CE by emperor Theodosius I in his drive to purge all Pagan festivals. He also ordered the destruction of the temples of Olympia, and soon that the sanctuary along with the Olympic games were forgotten. But 1500 years after Theodosius' ban, the modern Olympic revival began in 1896, when the first modern Olympics convened in Athens with the patronage and leadership of Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France. For the occasion, the Hellenistic Panathenaic stadium was renovated to host the games in Athens. The first Greek to win the modern games was Spyridon Louis, a water seller who won the Marathon event. Since 1896, the Olympics have occurred every four years in different countries (interrupted only by the two World Wars), and they have become one of the largest sports entertainment events in the world, drawing billions of dollars in revenues, and enjoying wide participation by the vast majority of nations. As a tribute to their ancient roots, before each Olympic event the Olympic flame is initiated in ancient Olympia, in the temple of Hera. In an imaginative choreography that depicts the ancient Vestal Virgins, the olympic torch is ignited by sun rays concentrated by a concave mirror on its tip.