The Olympic Games are referred to as "Olympic Games". A world multi-sport event hosted by the International Olympic Committee. It is named after its origin in Olympia, ancient Greece. Held every four years. The ancient Olympic Games lasted for 293 times from 776 BC to 393 AD, and were later abolished by the Roman Emperor Theodosius on charges of pagan activities.

At the International Sports Conference held in Paris in 1894, the International Olympic Committee was established based on Coubertin's initiative and decided to resume the Olympic Games. The first modern Olympic Games was held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. Since then, it has been held in rotation around the world, with each session lasting sixteen days.

There are more than thirty major competition events***. The Olympic Games in winter sports began in 1924. It is customary to refer to the Olympic Games in non-winter sports as the "Summer Olympic Games" or "Olympic Games".

Introduction to the Olympic Games

The Olympic Games, referred to as the Olympic Games, include the Summer Olympics, Winter Olympics, Paralympic Games, Youth Olympic Games and Special Olympics. It is an international games covering a variety of sports hosted by the International Olympic Committee and is held every four years. The Olympic Games first originated in ancient Greece (776 BC) and were named after the venue where they were held in Olympia.

The truly modern Olympic Games were founded by Baron Coubertin of France at the end of the 19th century. The Olympic Games have been held every four years since 1896 (it was interrupted three times during the two world wars, in 1916, 1940 and 1944), with a duration of no more than 16 days.

Since the Winter Olympics were established in 1924, the Olympic Games are also customarily called the "Summer Olympic Games". The Olympic Games have now become a symbol of peace and friendship. The spirit of the Olympic Games is passed down from generation to generation and never stops.

Olympic Movement Symbols

The Olympic Movement has a series of unique and distinctive symbolic signs, such as the Olympic logo, motto, Olympic flag, anthem, emblem, medals, mascots, etc. . These symbols have rich cultural meanings and vividly reflect the value orientation and cultural connotation of the Olympic ideal.

The "Olympic Charter" stipulates that the property rights of the Olympic logo, Olympic flag, Olympic motto and Olympic anthem belong exclusively to the International Olympic Committee. The International Olympic Committee may take all appropriate measures to obtain legal protection for the Olympic symbols, flags, mottos and anthems at national and international levels.

Extended information

The legend of the origin of the Olympic Games

During the summer solstice in 776 BC, in front of the Temple of Hera under the Holy Mountain of Olympus, the solemn The priest lit the holy fire on the altar, and a group of strong men waiting in the distance saw the light of the fire and ran towards the holy fire on the altar. The first group of warriors to arrive were designated as the messengers to deliver the holy fire.

This is a sacred duty. They will set out from Olympia to deliver the oracle to various city-states. After receiving the oracle, each city-state immediately disbands its armies and ceases war, and sends people to participate in the Olympic Games to be held on the day of the full moon. Since then, the Olympic Games have been a symbol of peace and friendship. But there are various legends about the origin of the ancient Olympic Games.

In fact, the origin of the Olympic Games turned out to be three different versions of myths. These three stories are all related to one person. He is the most famous god in Greek history-Zeus, who governs the sky and the earth. . This god has the greatest power. He is just like our Jade Emperor. He is so famous that he has dominated the West for many years. So let’s start with the Olympics from Zeus’ father.

Zeus's father is very interesting. When he was young, he believed what a fortune teller said. The fortune teller told him that the children you would have in the future would kill you. Therefore, all the five children he gave birth to later were swallowed by him.

After the birth of the sixth child, Zeus, Zeus’s mother was very nervous because she was afraid that Zeus would be eaten by his father again, so she hid Zeus in a cave and was fed by two very beautiful girls. The fairies took care of him.

When Zeus grew up, he started a duel with his father with the help of his grandmother. Zeus faced not only his father alone, but also a group of gods from the interest groups his father represented. Together with Zeus's father, these gods fought against Zeus.

Later Zeus forced his father to vomit out his five brothers and sisters, and then he and his brothers and sisters built a castle in the Olympics to fight against the immortal group represented by his father. This war lasted for four years, and Zeus finally won. Therefore, the Olympic Games will be held every four years.

The second story involves the illegitimate son of Zeus, his illegitimate son named Hercules. He was the son of Zeus and the beautiful goddess Alcmene. This son is very powerful, he is a Hercules, so he has basically been fighting against the sky and the earth, people and demons, and he is busy fighting every day.

His story is very legendary. When Zeus’s first wife Hera knew that he had given birth to an illegitimate child, she felt very unhappy, so Hercules was in the jealousy and revenge of Hera. When he grew up, in order to prevent Hercules from being harmed by Hera, Alcmene asked Hercules to complete 12 major things that others could not do, in order to temper his son's will and increase his knowledge.

One day, when Hercules passed by the city-state of Elis, he saw the king's announcement, saying that whoever could clean the cattle pen with 3,000 cows in one day would be the winner. Received a reward of 300 cows. Hercules said: "I can!" Of course the king would not believe this young boy who came from afar, and the two even made a bet.

In order to prevent the king from defaulting on his debt, Hercules found witnesses and wrote a contract stating that if he cleaned the cattle pen, the king must keep his promise and give him 300 cows. The clever Hercules removed the partitions of the cowshed, dug a ditch next to the cowshed, diverted water from the river, and washed the cowshed clean.

Later, he reinstalled the partitions and the bullpen had a new look. But the king defaulted on his debt. Not only did he not fulfill his promise, he also insisted that he never said he would give so many rewards. This offended Heracles, who drove the king away in anger, and the people who had been oppressed by the king for a long time applauded this. This happened to be the twelfth great deed that Hercules had done that no one else could accomplish.

From this time on, Hercules wanted to host the Olympic Games. Why? Because he has a good relationship with God, he wants to show his divine power through the Olympics. This guy is a decathlete, doing whatever he wants. After he held the Olympics, he won the championship in almost every competition.

It is said that he organized the first Olympic Games. At that time, there was only one event - racing. So how long is the racing venue? 192.27 meters is said to be 600 times the length of his feet, and 600 times the length of his feet is used as the length of the race. This is the second story.

The third story is more interesting. It involves Zeus’s grandson Pelops. Pelops’ fate was a bit rougher. His father was sent to hell for being disrespectful to God, so he also He also suffered disaster and was driven out of the city of Troy. This guy lives in the wilderness, but even though he is down and out, he still misses women.

Legend has it that Pelops fell in love with Hippodamia, the only daughter of the king of the ancient Greek city-state of Pisa. Because the princess was very beautiful, there were so many suitors that the gates of Pisa were almost crowded. But a fortune teller warned the king: "You cannot let your daughter get married, because according to my speculation, your future son-in-law will definitely kill you!"

This made the king very unhappy. So he came up with a way to neither let his daughter get married nor make countless suitors complain: he asked the suitors to have a driving race with him. If the suitor wins, he can marry the princess; if he loses, he will be stabbed to death. As a result, 13 suitors were killed by the king's spear in one day.

Pelops was the 14th suitor, and he happened to be the princess's sweetheart. Inspired and inspired by the power of love, Pelops accepted the king's challenge.

But the king's carriage was the best, and with his own carriage it was difficult for Pelops to win the race. So he went to find help, and who did he find? He found Poseidon.

Because Poseidon has a very famous chariot of fire. He thought it was very good, so he borrowed a fire chariot from Poseidon and pulled it with four horses, running very fast. This kid got on the chariot of fire and wanted to reach the finish line.

Unknowingly, when his prospective father-in-law caught up with him in a two-horse express train and was about to stab him in the vest with a spear, Poseidon came out and stabbed him in the back. The king wheel screws were removed. So when the king stabbed Pelops, the wheel fell off and the king was thrown to death.

After falling to death, the silly boy looked back and saw that his father-in-law's palace had just been struck by lightning. The fire was raging until only one pillar was left. He was frightened and hurried back to save his wife-to-be. In the end, a beautiful marriage was achieved, and he also became the new king of the city-state of Pisa.

A few days later, in order to celebrate his victory and wedding, Pelops held a grand athletics meeting in Olympia. At this grand event, he arranged chariot, wrestling and other competitions. It is said that this was the beginning of the Olympic movement.

What these people in the above three myths want to express is to show the power and beauty of muscles. Just look at all the statues in ancient Greece, basically all of them were naked. We were not used to it when we first saw it, because in our Chinese culture, nudity is never seen.

Look again, when they are fighting, they are not even wearing pants, they are truly naked. Look at the Greek women, such as Venus with her broken arm. They are very beautiful, and they are also naked. Think about our Chinese beauties again. When have you ever seen Wang Zhaojun naked or Diao Chan naked? No.

But if you look at all the goddesses and all the men in Greece, they are basically naked. Do you know why? The reason why during wars, the protagonists in mythical stories kill and compete naked is to show the strength and beauty of muscles.

So the basic spirit of the Olympic Games is the combination of strength and beauty. It can be seen from these myths that the Greeks loved fighting and competition. For example, in the third story, there is still a horse-drawn carriage race between him and his father-in-law, and there is also a struggle between him and his father. What does this mean? That's the nature of the game.

Then the nature of this kind of competition developed until 776 AD, that is, the beginning of the Greek era, and there were sports games. Moreover, the theme of this sports meeting is very clear, which is the combination of strength and beauty.

So by the time of the 14th Ancient Olympic Games, the athletes who appeared were basically naked. From the perspective of our Chinese culture, this kind of thing is unimaginable and unreasonable, but what Greek culture emphasizes is the power and beauty of primitive muscles.

In the first three mythological stories, when Zeus dealt with his father, it was a group of people led by Zeus against a group of gods led by his father. The number of both sides was equal, and they played basketball and Volleyball is the same.

The third story, the grandson of Zeus and his father-in-law, are also one-on-one. Therefore, this symmetrical competition is the essence of Greek culture - fairness, and what this symmetry expresses is strength and beauty. When he fights, in addition to showing strong strength, his movements are extremely beautiful, so he can be made into a statue, but all competitions must have fairness as the spiritual connotation.

Reference source; Baidu Encyclopedia-Olympic Games