The Grandest Stage
UNO experts discuss the Olympics from a historical perspective.
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The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro are well underway and the world is watching as athletes from more than 200 countries compete in more than 40 athletic competitions.
But the Olympics are more than just a showcase of physical prowess. They are also a window into ancient history and an important symbol of international collaboration.
UNO Associate Professor of History Jeanne Reames explains that the very first Olympics began as a religious event, held locally in Olympia, that built on a history of Greek athletic competitions held to honor early kings following their deaths.
“At the Olympics, Zeus was chiefly honored, but so was his wife, Hera,” she explains. “Like us, they had opening and closing ceremonies, but theirs were parades and sacrifices honoring the god to whom that particular set of Games was dedicated, not showboat entertainment extravaganzas.”
Reames also adds that the very first Olympic contests, or Agonēs, occurred in 776 BCE and only contained one athletic event, the stadē race, or running one length of the stadium: about 600 feet. It wasn’t until the 14th Olympic games that a second event, wrestling, was added.
By the time the last Olympic Games were celebrated, in 261 AD, they had expanded well beyond Olympia and even Greece, as we know it today.
“Ancient Greece, unlike modern Greece, was a geographical region united by language, religion, and culture,” Reames explains. “Within that, city-states had their own governments, laws, traditions, and coinage. As Greeks moved out of the mainland to colonize the coastal areas of Asia Minor, the Black Sea, south Italy, Sicily, and northern Africa, Greeks from these colony cities also came to compete.”
The inclusive, and competitive, nature of the Olympics carried over to the modern games we know today when they returned in 1896 as an international competition.
Patrick McNamara, interim director of International Studies & Programs, says over the last 120 years the Olympics have come to stand for global equality.
“The Olympics have historically been a time that politics is put aside and global unity is a goal,” he says. “All athletes are on equal footing no matter what country they represent. The opening ceremonies are particularly important for that show of unity.”
Despite these best intentions, some Olympics have become famous for their controversial nature. Not only were the Summer Olympics in 1916, 1940, and 1944, outright cancelled due to the two World Wars, but the Games have also been the site for iconic moments that have led to major political shifts.
“When Jesse Owens, an African American, won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics in 1936, the Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler’s ideology was challenged,” McNamara says. “There were also the 1968 Mexico City Olympics when African American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their black glove fists in the well-known black power gesture.”
The Olympics have changed dramatically since their origins. Not only were the first set of competitions singles events, but only men and boys were able to compete. Additionally, Reames points out, women were not allowed to attend – let alone compete.
“If they did, they might be executed,” she says. “At Olympia, only one woman was allowed, the Chief Priestess of Hera, as Hera was Zeus’s wife, and her priestess was her representative.”
In other ways, the Olympics of ancient history is very similar to today’s Games.
“Money was all over the ancient Games, just like the modern,” Reames says. “Then as now, ancient victors also commanded huge fan followings. The names of ancient athletes might be better known than generals and statesmen.”
Ultimately, the Olympic Games, both ancient and modern, have been and continue to be a place where the best of the best from around the world can showcase their talents and invoke local and national pride on the grandest stage of them all.