THE OLYMPICS GAMES

(THE ANCIENT OLYMPICS GAMES)

The games

• The ancient Olympic games were a religious festival in honor of Zeus

• The games were held in Olympia during spring and summer

The athletes were all male citizens from every corner of the Greek world.

The ancient Olympic Games began in the year 776 BC,when Koroibos, a cook won the stadion race, a foot race 600 feet long.

This was the only athletic event of the games for the first 13 olympic festivals or until 724 BC.

The race commemorates the run of Pheidippides, an ancient runner who carried the news of the Persian victory at Marathon of 490 BC to Sparta .The distance of the modern marathon is about 42 Km.

NUDITY AT THE GAMES?

There are 2 stories about nudity at the ancient Olympic games.The first story was about a runner from Megara, Orsippos or Orrhippos who, in 720 BC was the first to run naked in the stadion race when he lost his shorts in the race.

Another tradition tells that the spartans introduced nudity to the Olympic Games in the VIII century BC.

Ancient Olympic events

There were 9 events :

boxing,chariot racing, horse riding,pentathlon, pankration,javeling, jumping, running and wrestling.

Boxing

Ancient boxing had fewer rules than the modern sport.Boxers fought without rounds until one man was knocked out, or admitted that he had been beaten.Unlike the modern sports, there wasn’t any rules against hitting an opponent when he was down.

CHARIOT RACING

There were both 2-horse chariot races, with separate races for chariots drawn by foals.Another race was between carts drawn by a team of 2 donkies.The course was 12 laps around the stadium track.

HORSE RIDING

The course was 6 laps around the track, and there were separated races for full-grown horses and foals. Only wealthy people could afford to pay for there training and feed of both the driver and the horse.

PENTATHLON

The ancient Greeks considered the rhythm and the precision of an athlete throwing the discus as important as his strength. The discus was made of stone, iron, bronze or lead, and was shaped like a flying saucer.

PANKRATION

Pankration was a combat sport and founded as a blend of boxing and wrestling,but scarcely any rules.The only things not acceptable were to bite and to put fingers in their eyes.

JAVELING

The javeling throw is a track and field athletics event were the javeling a about 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) in length, is thrown. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's decathlon and the women's heptathlon.

RUNNING

• There were 4 types of race at Olympia.The stadion was the oldest event of the Games.Runners sprinted for 1 stade,2 stade race and from 7 to 24 stades.

BY:

QUIZ FINALE1.GLI ANTICHI GIOCHI GRECI ERANO IN ONORE DI ERA V F

2.GLI ANTICHI GIOCHI OLIMPICI COMINCIARONO NEL 776 A.C. V F

3. GLI ATLETI SI ESIBIVANO VESTITI V F

4. LA MARATONA E’ UNA CORSA LUNGA 32 KM. V F

5. LA CORSA DEI CAVALLI ERA UN GIOCO DELLE OLIMPIADI ANTICHE V F

6.IL PANCRAZIO ERA UN TIPO DI CORSA V F

7.NEI GIOCHI OLIMPICI NON SI CORREVA V F

8.I GIOCHI OLIMPICI ANTICHI NON VENIVANO FATTI IN INVERNO V F