Ancient Olympic Games Research Paper

The ancient Olympic games were named after Olympia, a sacred site located on the western coast of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece. The site is sacred because it was a meeting place for religious and political activities. Because of this, the games were continuously held here. The stadium could hold thousands of spectators and additional sites were built for the athletes to train and live in during the time of the games. The games were held every olympiad, which is every four years. It is believed that the ancient Olympic games were founded by Heracles, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, therefore, the games were dedicated to the Olympian gods. “The Panhellenic Games were of major religious significance. Each of the Games was celebrated in honour of a specific god: Zeus, the king of the gods, at Olympia and Nemea. Apollo, the god of light and of reason, …show more content…
The first event was running, which tested speed. Running was split into three events: the stade, the diaulos, and the dolichos. The stade was only one length of the stadium. The diaulos was two lengths of the stadium. And the dolichos was twenty lengths of the stadium. The second event was wrestling, which was cherished as a form of military training without any equipment or weapons. Wrestling was over when one contestant accepted defeat. The third event was boxing, which was violent because the contestants would add pieces of metal into the leather of their gloves. The fourth event was Pankration, which is martial arts with a combination of wrestling and boxing. Pankration was considered to be one of the toughest sports of the games. The fifth event was the equestrian competitions, also known as horse and chariot races. These races were the only events that took place in the hippodrome and not in the stadium. The sixth, and last, event was the pentathlon, which was split into five events: running, long jump, discus, javelin, and