Olympic Game Competitions

The first Olympic Games were held in 776 B.C., in an outlying province called Ellis, located in western Greece. Within the province of Ellis, there was a sacred valley of Ancient Greece called Olympia. This valley was the site of the Olympic Games. The games first began as a religious festival for the Greek god Zeus and were held every four years in Olympia. The games started on the day after the first full moon …

…festival, but they turned it into what we know as amphitheaters. They would put slaves in the stadium to fight for their lives against wild animals. This version of the games continued until finally, in 394 A.D., Theodosius I formally abolished the games. Olympia once again became a sacred, quiet valley of Greece. In 1896, a French sports enthusiast, Baron de Coubertin, revived the Olympic Games and started the tradition of the modern day Olympic Games.