The Ancient Greek Olympics

The ancient Greek Olympic games were a religious festival to honor Zeus the father of the Greek gods. The festival and the games were in Olympia. The Athletes were all males from all around Greece. The Games began in 776 BC when Koroibos, a cook from a city nearby won the stadium race, a foot race 600 feet long. That was the only time in their festival from 724 BC to 776 Bc. The games were held in Olympia every four years for 12 centuries.

The Marathon was not a event in the ancient games. The Marathon is a modern event that was first introduced in the modern Olympic games of 1896 in Athens. It was from northeast Athens to to the Olympic Stadium. It was a a distance of 40 kilometers. There are two stories how nudity started in the Ancient games. One story is a runner was in the stadium race and lost his shorts in the race. The second story is the Spartans introduced nudity into the Ancient Olympics. There was no torch in the ancient Olympics in Greece.

I got my info at
http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/olympics/olympicorigins.shtml

It tells you about the ancient Olympic games in Greece. It is a really cool web site if you want to learn about the Ancient Greek games.