THE OLYMPIC GAMES BETWEEN POLITICS AND SPORTS
THE OLYMPIC GAMES BETWEEN POLITICS AND SPORTS

Summary/Abstract: All sports competitions were held at Olympia, a religious, cultural and sports centre of ancient Greece, located in the city of Elis. For the ancient Greeks, the Olympiad was the interval of 1457 days, 10 hours and 40 minutes between two editions of the Olympic Games, denoting, in current speech, the respective event, i.e. its festive event. There are 293 recorded Olympiads held in ancient Greece. They took place regularly for almost 1,200 years, because in 393 AD to be banned by the Byzantine emperor Theodosius I, who, converted to Christianity, considered the manifestations dedicated to Zeus to be pagan. All the buildings of Olympia were burned and ruined by order of Theodosius II in AD 426. To these were added robberies and natural calamities, and the city was then forgotten for 1,500 years. The Olympics played an important role in the social and economic life of the ancient Greeks, being a manifestation of national solidarity, meant to awaken the consciousness of the ethnic community of all Hellenes. It was 1,503 years before Baron Pierre de Coubertin succeeded in relaunching the Olympic Games. The French presented this idea as early as 1892, but the rebirth of the Olympics was consecrated to him only two years later, on June 16, 1894, during an international congress held in Paris. On June 23, 1894, the International Olympic Committee was founded by Baron Pierre de Fredi, Baron de Coubertin (France). The presidents of the C.I.O., from its establishment until the period of the Second World War, were: Demetrius Vikelas (1894-1896, Greece), Pierre de Coubertin (1896-1925), Count Henri de Baillet-Latour (1925- 1942, Belgium). Unfortunately, during the 20th century, the Olympic Games had quite a lot to do with politics, with propaganda in the turbulent 20th century, the symbols of the great competition being tarnished throughout this century.

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