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Before the Olympics in all the cities of Greece were travelingambassadors. They stopped at the city squares, and the residents listened attentively to the news about the upcoming holiday. The Olympic Games were held in honor of the main god of Greece - Zeus. The holiday was repeated every four years. During the sports games was a sacred peace, the condition of which is the cessation of hostilities and the inviolability of civilians. The Olympic games were held in Elid, it was there that the residents came to see the competitions. In this area of ​​Ancient Greece, where Olympia was, the spectators traveled by sea. Therefore, the mouth of the river Alpheus and the Ionian Sea during the holiday filled with beautiful and solemnly decorated ships. Most people went to the holiday on foot, regardless of how far was the place for the Olympic Games. Richer people came riding on carriages. Only men could visit the competition, but even so, there were tens of thousands of spectators. The stadium, where the festival was held, could accommodate about 40 thousand people. During the Olympic Games on the bank of the river Alphey a whole city arose, which consisted of tents and huts. The big road was almost entirely occupied by wooden barracks, which supplied the inhabitants with everything necessary. The town was filled with the animation and the noise of a huge crowd. The travelers tried to visit all the local attractions: a sacred grove, hippodromes, a stadium, temples, altars and much more. The first day of the Olympic Games was opened by competitions in the race. Competition began at sunrise. Only free people who never violated the law could participate in the games. They put their names on the list one year before the holiday. In the main race there were 20 people divided into five groups. In addition, there was a double and armed run. After this sport began a fight. It was conducted in three categories: simple (without weapons), fist (participants in helmets, fists wrapped in leather spiked belts) and combined (fighters in helmets, but without straps). The next day, the pentathlon began, which included running, wrestling, throwing a spear and a disk, jumping. The Olympic Games ended with chariot races.

One of the most scandalous Olympics in historyIs the one that was held in 1912. The enumeration of all the violations and squabbles that were recorded on it, fit into a separate book of 56 pages. One of the biggest scandals at that Olympics was connected with the American athlete-athlete. He was an Indian by birth. At the competitions he got 2 gold medals and became the leader of those Games. However, the US leadership was dissatisfied with the fact that the first place was taken by the representative of the tribe, with whom the Americans had irreconcilable differences. And America independently demanded to deprive the champion of medals (despite the fact that these awards were in the treasury of the USA), arguing that he is a professional sportsman and can not take part in the Games of amateurs. After that, the medals were selected, and the champion's career was broken. At the games in 1904 in the US there was a scandal with the marathon runners. It was this discipline that was at that time one of the most promising. At the finish, the first came the American Fred Lorz, who greatly outscored his rivals. Later, the mystery of his quickness was revealed. Running about a third of the road, he stopped. The reason was simple - his legs hurt. However, here the sportsman turned one of the fans who accompanied his idols on the car along the road passing by. He suggested that the marathon runner give him a little lift. So they reached almost to the finish line. But when Fred Lortz disembarked from the car to run further, the audience saw it in the stands. So the deception unfolded. After that, the medal was transferred to the second athlete who came to the finish. However, it turned out that with his race, not everything is as smooth. Literally at the end of the track, he became ill, and his coach put an anesthetic injection, which would now be regarded as doping. Hitler's dictatorship left its imprint on the Olympics in 1936. Then from participation in competitions the applicant for gold in run from Switzerland was suspended. The reason is quite typical for that time and the policy of the Fuhrer - the sportsman was married to a Jew. In 1972, at the Olympic Games, a controversial situation arose between the US and the USSR basketball teams. Arbitrators violated the rules and filed a siren, indicating the end of the meeting, 3 seconds before the end of official time. As a result, the American team won. However, it was this violation that was the reason to challenge the results. The last time had to be changed. At additional time, the USSR team was able to execute the required throw and became the winner. The Americans then lost for the first time. Because of this, they boycotted the awarding ceremony. Scandalous champions can be called a number of athletes who won at the "Olympics of judicial errors". It was held in 1932 in Los Angeles. Here, almost every competition was disrupted due to the incorrect work of judges and arbitrators. So, for example, in the 200 meters race, the athlete who ran 2 meters less than the one that came to the finish second. This was due to technical imperfections in the tracks. The first doping scandal unfolded in 1988 in Seoul. Then the Canadian athlete-runner finished the distance with an unexpectedly high result - 9.79 seconds. Naturally, he received a gold medal. However, two days later, he was deprived of her due to the fact that the use of a doping champion was established. The Olympics in Salt Lake City is also rich in scandals. Russian fans joyfully celebrated the first place in figure skating by Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. However, the American side did not like this alignment, because their favorites were Canadians. Talks began that the Russians bribed the judges, and as a result they got a prize. In order to avoid further gossip, an unprecedented decision was made, and two pairs - Russians and Canadians - went to the awards ceremony for gold medals at once. Someone with Iryna Slutskaya got a problem with getting the medal. The judges considered that the program of American Sara Hughes was better than that of the Russian woman. However, according to international observers, everything was completely different. But the judges remained adamant - as a result of Slutskaya's second place. Another trouble at the same Olympics occurred with the Russian skier Larissa Lazutina. At the moment when she was already a step away from the gold medal, she was disqualified, explaining this by the fact that the athlete, according to the results of the tests, was taking prohibited preparations.

The Olympic Games are so named becausewere held in the city of Olympia, in the northwestern part of the Peloponnese Peninsula. Once in four years the heralds dispersed throughout all the cities and villages of Greece, announcing that it was time for the next games. From all parts of the country, people rushed to Olympia. If there was a war, a truce was for the period of the match. According to myths, the beginning of these games put the great hero Hercules. The first authentic date of the Olympics dates back to 776 BC. Initially, athletes competed only in running for a distance equal to one stage - about 190 meters. Then the number of kinds of competitions increased. The most dangerous of them were considered to be a fist fight and chariot races. The winner became a real idol of his native city, he was honored almost like a god. In Greece, many such games were held, but the Olympics were the most significant, since they were dedicated to the supreme god - Zeus. Here, in Olympia, stood a temple, where one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was located - a statue of Zeus, the work of the famous sculptor Phidias. She was so gorgeous that the Greeks did not spare the most enthusiastic words for her description. More than a thousand years, these wonderful competitions were held, even in those days when Greece was conquered by the Romans. And then, by the decree of the Roman Emperor Theodosius, who became a zealous Christian, games were banned as pagan, and the stadium and other sports facilities of Olympia were badly damaged. Archaeologists found them only in the XVIIIth century. And a hundred years later, a group of enthusiasts led by the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin achieved the resumption of the Olympic Games. The first Olympiad of modernity took place in Athens in 1896.

Long before the games began, the messengers rode all over Hellas,announcing the upcoming competitions. And from all ends, people began to flock to Olympia. In order to save them from unnecessary dangers, a general truce was declared. It operated for some time before the games, for the period of their holding, and even some time later - to allow athletes and viewers to freely travel from Olympia to their native places. The violation of this truce was considered a terrible sacrilege, which would entail cruel punishment from the gods. Theoretically, every free and full-fledged citizen could take part in the competition. In practice, to achieve high results, to claim victory, it was necessary to train constantly and for a long time. Consequently, people living their own labor - poor merchants, artisans, peasants, fishermen - simply could not perform at the Olympics. They were there only as spectators. Well, strangers or slaves could not do this. Women were not allowed to compete at all under the threat of death. The most plausible version of such a stern ban is to not embarrass the athletes who have long competed naked. The beginning of the games was the ceremony of lighting the fire in the temple of Zeus the Olympian. The Greeks thus honored the memory of the titan Prometheus, who, according to legend, stole fire from the gods and gave it to people. The lit torch was brought to the place of competition, where it was supposed to sanctify the coming games. For a long time athletes competed only in running for a distance of 1 stage (about 192 meters). It was from this term that the word "stadium" occurred. Then the program included other types of competitions - running at different distances, fisticuffs, wrestling, chariot races. The winner was honored as a hero who glorified his native city. The Olympic Games took place over a thousand years and were banned in the 394th year. They were revived only in the late 19th century.

At the time of the first winter games, athletesDid not even suspect that they are participating in the Olympics. In February 1924, they gathered in a small French town of Chamonix, organized by the owners of the Paris Summer Olympics, entitled "International Week of Winter Sports". The following year, the International Olympic Committee decided to hold regular winter games and announced the first Winter Olympics in Chamonix. So, American skater Charles Jewtraw was surprised to learn that he was the first champion in the history of the winter games. The second game was already held according to all the rules - a city competition was held, and at the opening ceremony in the winning Swiss St. Moritz, the Olympic flame was lit. Before the Second World War caused a break in the Olympics, winter games were held in the American Lake Placid (1932) and German Garmisch-Partenkirchen (1936). The first post-war winter competitions were again held in the Swiss St. Moritz (1948), but the sportsmen of the lost war against Germany and Japan were not invited to them. In 1956, the winter Olympiad finally came to the server of Europe, to which the lion's share of medals always goes. The VI games took place in the Norwegian capital, Oslo. After 46 years, Norway once again hosted the Winter Olympics - XVII games were held in Lillehammer. As it is not strange, in no other country in Northern Europe has so far been held the Winter Olympics. But in the US they took place four times (1932, 1960, 1980, 2002), in France - three (1924, 1968, 1992). The games were played twice in Japan (1972, 1998), Austria (1964, 1976), Canada (1988, 2010) and Italy (1956, 2006). Once a winter forum of Olympians was held in Yugoslavia (1984). In 2014, this list should be added to Russia, which received the right to hold XXII games, and in four years - South Korea, which will host the XXIII Winter Olympics.

The birthplace of the Olympic Games is the locality,Located next to the sanctuary of Olympia near the cities of Ellis and Pisa. Its ruins, destroyed by an earthquake in the 6th century AD, can still be seen by visiting Greece. This sanctuary was, according to Greek mythology, erected by Hercules in honor of the gods, it was in it stood the famous statue of Zeus, 12 meters high, made of gold and ivory by the great ancient Greek sculptor Fidius. It belonged to one of the seven wonders of the world. It was the name of this sanctuary that was used to refer to athletics competitions held there every four years. The first, on the run, passed in 776 BC. The distance measured by the stops of Hercules was about 190 m. From the Greek word "stage" - a step, the name "stadium" also occurred. The exact occasion for holding the first Olympic Games is unknown. There is one version, quite mythical, that Zeus stood at their foundation, on the other - it was Hercules, who decided to hold them every 4 years. Whatever it was, it is reliably known that the competitions were held between the eternally warring and competing cities of ancient Greece and the fact that at the time of their conduct all hostility and all wars ceased. The authenticity of these games and their winners was so great that time and dates the Greeks began to determine by the past Olympiads and measure it in the four-year periods. These games Were carried out until the V century AD. And were banned as a pagan rite by the emperor Theodosius. When the generalized Christianization began. The interest in the Olympic Games, which arose after the ruins of ancient Olympia were discovered, arose in the middle of the XIX century and in 1896 they were renewed on the initiative of the French political and public figure Pierre de Coubertin. Since then, the holding of such games serves for prestige and raising the reputation of any country in the world, and participation in them and, especially, victory, is the dream of any athlete.

The first documented OlympicGames were held in Greece in 776 BC. Nevertheless, there is information that can indirectly indicate that such competitions were held earlier. In particular, there is a legend according to which the Olympic Games were first organized by Hercules as far back as 1210 BC, although no confirmation was found. From the documents that reached us it became known that the Olympic Games initially included only one kind of competition - running, moreover they were not numbered, as in our time, but received their name on behalf of the winner. The scientists also found out that during the games there should have been a truce between the warring states, however, unfortunately, this rule was repeatedly violated. The games were canceled several times, and when Christianity became the official religion, they were banned altogether, after christening pagan fun. The Olympic games were forgotten for many centuries, but there are reports that in the 17th century such events, only on a regional scale, were held in a number of countries, Among which were Greece, France, England, etc. In the nineteenth century, the theme of the Olympic Games arose in the works of the Greek poet Panagiotis Sucos. The poet repeatedly sent petitions to the ruler and spoke about how important it is to revive the Olympic Games. However, the result he managed to achieve only after many years with the help of the Greek public figure Evangelis Zappas, who in 1859 spent his own savings on the Olympics. A few decades later, the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin strongly supported the idea of ​​the Greeks. He was sure that it was the French, who had suffered a shameful defeat in the war with Prussia, should strengthen not only the bodies, but also the souls. Moreover, Monsieur Coubertin dreamed of uniting athletes around the world to finally reach mutual understanding and stop bloody wars. Thanks to the efforts of Pierre de Coubertin, in 1896 the first Summer Olympic Games were held, after which they were repeated every four years and are still held. In 1924, the first Winter Olympic Games were organized. At first they were held in the same year as the Summer ones, but, beginning in 1994, they began to organize with an interval of two years. Later, the Olympics received special development: since 1960 special competitions for disabled people have been held, and since 2010 - for juniors from 14 to 18 years.