The first recorded Olympic winner was Corobey of Ellis. A chef by profession, Korobey wins the race called the "stadium" - running a distance of just under 200 meters in a straight line.
Corobeus was victorious in 776 BC, but this was probably not the year of the first Olympic Games.
Several ancient authors, such as the historian Aristodemus of Elis (who lived in the 2nd century AD or earlier), believe that before 776 BC. there have been as many as 27 Olympic competitions. Their results were never recorded because people had not previously cared to record the names of the winners, Phys.org reported.
The games were held every 4 years in Olympia - a place in western Greece where there was a famous temple of the god Zeus.
The games began in mid-August and were part of a religious festival dedicated to the supreme deity in the ancient Greek pantheon.
At the beginning of the Olympic Games, there was only one competition ("stadium") and one winner.
Other disciplines were added over the centuries, such as chariot racing, wrestling, long-distance running, and boxing. The Roman emperor Nero (37-68 AD) even "introduced a musical competition at Olympia", as reported by the biographer Suetonius (1st-2nd century AD).
Olympia winners receive a wild olive wreath. Unlike today, there were no prizes for second or third place.
The athlete Iccus from Tarentum, who lived in the 5th century BC and won a victory in the pentathlon at the Olympic Games in 476 BC, said that for him "prizes meant glory, admiration in life, and after death an honoured name."
Mostly men competed for the awards, but some women also participated.
Cynisca, daughter of King Archidamus II of Sparta, was the first woman to achieve an Olympic victory. She received the award because the horses she trained won the chariot race in 396 BC, as the traveller Pausanias (2nd century AD) wrote: "Cinisca was extremely ambitious to succeed at the Olympic Games and was the first woman to breed horses and the first to win an Olympic victory. After Tsiniska, other women have won Olympic victories, but none of them have distinguished themselves by their victories more than her."
However, competing in the games could be dangerous.
Lucius Aeneas Seneca (c. 50 BC-AD 40) describes how a father lost both of his sons in a 'pankration', a type of combat sport that was a brutal mixture of boxing and wrestling: “ A man trained his two sons in pancratism and introduced them to compete in the Olympic Games. They were divided into pairs to fight against each other. The two youths killed each other and were given divine honours."
People travelled far to see the athletes who competed in the famous games. The rhetorician Menander (3rd-4th century AD) said of the Olympic Games: "The journey there is very difficult, yet men take the risk."
In 44 B.C. the Roman statesman Cicero (106-43 BC) wrote to his friend Atticus about a planned trip to Greece to see the games: “Of course, as you say, the plan of my journey will depend on chance. I would like to know the date of the Olympic Games.'
Cicero never made it to the Olympics - he was interrupted by another job. If he had gone, the journey would have involved sailing by sea from Italy to Greece, then a carriage ride to Olympia.
After arriving in Olympia, travellers stayed in lodging houses with other travellers. There they mingled with strangers and formed new friendships.
The story of what happened when the philosopher Plato (428-348 BC) stayed at Olympia for the games is well known.
Plato lived there with other people who did not know that he was the famous philosopher, and he made a good impression on them, as the Roman writer Claudius Aelian (2nd-3rd century AD) recalled: "The foreigners were delighted with their accidental meeting. He behaved modestly and simply with them, and proved himself capable of gaining the confidence of anyone who came into his company.'
Plato later invites his new friends to Athens and they are surprised to discover that he is the famous philosopher, a student of Socrates.
It is unclear how many people attended the ancient games each time they were held, although some modern scholars believe the number could have been as high as 50,000 in some years.
The Greek writer Chariton (1st century AD) in his novel Callirhoe wrote that the athletes, who often travelled a long way to reach the games, arrived at Olympia "with an escort of their supporters".
Athletes competed naked, and women were usually not allowed to watch.
But there were some exceptions. For example, a woman named Pherenice, who lived in the 4th century BC, was allowed to attend the Olympic Games as a spectator. As Claudius Aelian explains: “Pherenica brought her son to the Olympic festival to compete. The presiding officers refused to admit her as a spectator, but she spoke publicly and justified her request by pointing out that her father and three brothers were Olympic winners, and she brought a son who was an athlete. She won the assembly and attended the Olympic festival."
Since the race was held in the middle of summer, it was usually extremely hot. According to Claudius Aelian, some people thought that watching the Olympics under the "burning embers of the sun" was a "much more severe punishment" than having to do manual labour, such as grinding grain.
The Olympia site also had problems with the supply of fresh water. According to the writer Lucian of Samosata (2nd century AD), visitors to the games sometimes died of thirst. This problem was solved when Herodos Atticus built an aqueduct on the site in the middle of the 2nd century AD.
The Athenian general and politician Themistocles (VI-V centuries BC) said that the most pleasant moment of his life was to see the audience at Olympia turn to look at me when he entered the stadium.
Spectators praised him when he attended the games at Olympia because of his recent victory against the Persians at the Battle of Salamis (480 BC).
When the games ended, the victorious athletes returned home to a hero's welcome.
According to Claudius Aelianus, when the athlete Dioxispus (4th century BC) returned to Athens after winning the pankration at Olympia, "a crowd from all parts" gathered in the city to celebrate.
The Roman historian Veleus Paterculus (born c
20 BC) called the Olympic Games "the most famous of all sporting contests."
Modern research suggests that the ancient games probably ended during the reign of the Roman emperor Theodosius II (reigned 408-450).
There may have been several reasons for the end, but some ancient sources specifically state that it was caused by a fire that destroyed the temple of Zeus at Olympia during the reign of Theodosius II.
The Olympic Games were not restored until 1896 when the first modern Olympic Games were held. | BGNES
