World Report

Archaeological finds in the 19th century excited interest in reviving the Games

he first recorded Olympic Games were held in 776 BC, although there is evidence to show that they started earlier. Originally a single event, a sprint, they later came to include discus and javelin throwing, jumping, boxing and wrestling.

The Games took their name from the city of Olympia in western Greece, where they were staged. They included song and dance as well as athletics, and were held in honour of Zeus, whose temple stood nearby.

For more than a thousand years, athletes travelled to Olympia every four years to take part, their safety ensured by the Olympic Peace, a month-long truce declared throughout the Greek world. Those who triumphed were treated as heroes and won enormous prestige for their home towns.

After the arrival of the Romans in 31BC the Games declined, and when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire they were abolished by the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius in 394 A.D. as a pagan festival.

Interest revived following excavations at Olympia in the 19th century. French aristocrat and historian Baron Pierre de Coubertin won international support for his idea of relaunching the Games and the first modern Olympics were held in Athens in 1896. Fourteen nations took part in the ancient Panathenaicon Stadium, with 245 athletes competing.

The first winter Olympics were held in 1924 in the town of Chamonix, in the French Alps, to coincide with Paris hosting the Games. In 1960 four hundred athletes from 23 countries met in Rome to take part in the first Paralympics, which have been held immediately after the Olympics ever since.

Beijing has been chosen as the venue for the 2008 Olympics. London, which has staged them twice, in 1904 and 1948, is an official candidate to host the 2012 Games.