The Olympics Games

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The Olympic games are international sporting event that occurs every four years, once during summer (summer games) and once during winter (winter Games), in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in various competitions. The Olympic games are considered the world’s foremost sports competition with more than 200 teams, representing sovereign states. The Olympic games are held every 4 years, and since 1994, have altered between Summer and Winter Olympics every 2 years during the duration of 4 years.

History

This creation was inspired by ancient Olympic games held in Olympia, Greece from 8^th BC to 4^th century AD. In 1894, Baron Pierre founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) leading to first modern games in Athens in 1896. The IOC is responsible for maintaining regular Olympic games, seeing that games are carried out in sprit that inspired the revival, and promoting the development of sports throughout the world.

The evolution of Olympic movement during 20^th and 21^st centuries has resulted in various changes to Olympic games. This includes creation of winter Olympic games for snow sports, Paralympic Games for athletes with disabilities, the Youth Olympic Games for athletes of age 14 to 18, five continental games (Pan American, African, Asian, Pacific and European).

The Olympic movement consists up of international sports federation (IFNs), National Olympic Committee (NOCs) and organizing committees for Olympic games. The IOC is responsible for choosing city for each Olympic games and organizes and funds the game according to Olympic charter. IOC also determines the Olympic program, comprising of sports to be contested at the Games. Over 14000 athletes competed at 2020 summer Olympics and 2022 winter Olympics combined, in 40 various sports and 448 events.

1896 Games

The first games held under the committee IOC was hosted in Panathenaic Stadium in 1896. The games brought together 14 nations and 241 athletes who competed in 43 events. Zappa and Konstantinous Zappa had left the Greek government a trust to fund future Olympic games. Greek and public were enthusiastic about experience of hosting Olympic games. This feeling was shared by many athletes, who demanded that Athens be the permanent Olympic host city. The IOC intended for games to be rotated to different host cities around the world. The 2^nd Olympics was held in Paris.

21^st Century Games

The summer Olympics have grown from 241 participants representing 14 nations in 1896, to more than 11300 competitors representing 206 nations. The scope of winter Olympics is smaller than summer Olympics; for example, Beijing hosted 2971 athletes from 91 nations in 2022. Most of athletes are housed in Olympic village for duration of Games. This Centre is designed to be a self-contained home for all Olympic participants, and this accommodation Centre is furnished with health clinics, cafeterias and locations for religious expression.

The Olympic movement is made up of three major elements that are given below:

·       International Federation (IFs) are governing bodies that supervise the sport event at international level. For example, the international federation of association football (FIFA) is international governing body for football. There are currently 35 Ifs in Olympic movement, representing each sport.

·       National Olympic Committees (NOCs) regulate the Olympic movement within each country. For example, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) is NOC of Russian Federation. Now, there are 206 NOCs recognized by IOC.

·       Organizing committees for Olympic games (OCOGs) are temporary committees that are responsible for organization of each Olympic Games. OCOGs are dissolved after each game once final report of sport is delivered to IOC.

Purpose

The main objective of Olympic games is to bring together the world’s finest male and female athletes in some predesignated group of summer and winter sports. Winners in each of these contests are regarded as champions in their sport for duration of 4 years.

Women and Olympic Games

Although there were no women’s sports event in ancient Olympics, several women appear in official lists of Olympic victors as owners of stables of some victorious chariot entries. In Sparta, girls and young females did practice and compete. But apart from Sparta, contests for young Greek women were very rare and limited o annual local footrace. At Olympia, however, the Herean festival held every 4 years in honor of goddess Hera, included a race for young females, who were divided into 3 age groups. Yet the Herean race was not part of Olympics.

The traveler Pausanias wrote that women were banned from Olympia during the actual games under the penalty of death. Hus account later stated that unmarried women were allowed as Olympic spectators.