Monday, June 21, 2010

The Olympic Games - a short (and weird) story

It 'easy to take the excitement of the modern Olympic Games. With so much drama, romance, long, long drive, hard, overall this show is nothing less than perfect gift. But there is no need to dig too deep to have to discover a humble and often times particular source. Indeed, it took several decades of Hollywood magic to now produce the polished sports event for us, of course.

Roman legend, the original Olympic Games were after 'Founded by none other than Heracles, the son of Zeus super-human, no doubt an opportunity for his God, as the strength to show in front of the ladies. An alternative legend tells the story of Pelops, a romantic greek, and father of the Olympic Games. In a desperate attempt, the hand of his bride, Hippodamia, Pelops challenged to earn his father, the king of Pisa in a chariot race. For the edge, Pelops replaced the king with a focal point of the wax, which melted during the race, Start the King from his car and killed him. In the race to win the girl, and the entire empire, Pelops declared this the first Olympic Games - forever instilling the qualities of fraud and deceit on games.

The ancient Olympics had their own version of celebrity appearances, including Homer, Socrates, Aristotle and Hippocrates. Even Plato in games, winning not one but two gold medals in the event Pankration.

The original "Games> "really only) brought a game, a 192 meters indent Stuff known as the" stade "- (running naked again giving Heracles a strut his apology. In fact, the word" gymnasium "comes from greek" GYMNOS " which literally means "school for naked exercise". Later additions to the Olympic Games including boxing, jump, javelin and disc, which contained clothes love. The surprising exception to these events, the list is Marathon. This famous track, including Torch, were never part of Olympia, and no place on the site until about 1500 years later.

The ancient games lasted about 1,200 years, at least 776 BC-393 AD when the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, a Christian, abolished the games because he thought they were evil and pagan. And so the Olympic Games slept for over a thousand years, until 1892, when a young Frenchman named Pierre de Coubertin proposed the idea at a meeting of the Union des> Athlétique Sports in Paris. His pitch failed miserably. But always the optimist, Pierre tried again two years later, this time before a meeting of 79 delegates from 9 countries. The delegates voted unanimously for the revitalization and so, in 1896 in Athens, were again the Olympic Games.

1896 games were a disaster. When the games were published bad, they never need international support. Participants were not covered bytheir respective countries, and in fact were forced to travel to Greece at their own expense. Many of the attendees were tourists who happened to be on holiday in Greece.

Because of poor planning, 1896 games, time was kept very cold, although consisting entirely of "summer" events. In his first book on the wall, 100 years of Olympic swimming, Kelly Gonsalves describes the first swimming event: "Not only are fighting waves of 12 feet, but the weather in Greeceunusually cold and icy water was 55 degrees Fahrenheit. "The book goes on the story of Garner Williams, an American swimmer who say that despite spending a fortune to train and race at the Olympics, jumped out of the water after only a few minutes into the race yelling" I'm cold. "

Even other athletes have had difficult experiences at the Olympics. After a journey from Rome to Athens on foot, a journey of a month, the Italian athlete Carlo Airoldi was banned fromGames, because it is a pro. When the book describes "The most bizarre Olympic moments Dorando Pietri was denied his marathon gold because an anxious official helped him cross the finish line.

The Olympic Games are usually like an event of the unity of the world thought the story would have something to say. The official Olympic flag in 1914 by Pierre de Coubertin conceived, contains five interconnected rings, which symbolize the "five great continents of the world"Leaving Africa completely off the map. 1936 brought the game pre-war Germany, the opportunity to demonstrate the superiority of race games "Aryan", or so he thought Adolf Hitler's campaign to ensure strength. Of course, many will remember, Jesse Owens, the African-American runner who proudly taught the Germans a thing or two. The victory Josef Barthel of Luxembourg in 1952 was greeted with an embarrassed silence. Since no one expected a Luxembourg athlete to win the orchestrawas the award ceremony without guests Luxenbourg's national anthem.

Over the years, various attempts have been made to improve the Olympic Games. Both boats motor racing, cycling and polo were introduced, and later removed from the game. Hollywood has literally been taken to add some pizzazz to the Winter Games 1960 Disney has been appointed head of the organizing committee of the opening ceremony, which included special effects, ice statues, and the release of 2000white doves.

Scams, politics, wins and lovesick: these words apply equally well to the modern Olympic Games, as the old ones. When the Olympic games have taught us anything, is that society never changes, even after thousands of years. If Pelops could visit our games today, as it could and the illusions of Hollywood impressed with our bright fireworks, I think that would feel perfectly at home with the real nature of the game screen: human.

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