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Games of the Gods
The Olympics
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The Olympic Games as we know them started in 1896, in Athens. Two hundred eighty (280) athletes from 13 nations competed in a 43 events. Mimicking the ancient Olympic games held in Greece as long ago as the 76 B.C., no women competed. It simply wasn’t permitted. The ancient Olympics also prohibited married women from attending.

The ancient Greeks based the games on warfare. Free men demonstrated the abilities and skills that would serve them well on the battlefield: running, jumping, javelin, fencing, archery, wrestling, boxing, and more. The ancient competition featured chariot races with some famous competitors such as Roman Emperor Nero in 67 A.D., who entered a 4-horse race with 10 horses and didn’t finish. The influence of politics and its attendant corruption declared Nero the winner of that race anyway.

Female Participation
Female Participation
Four years after the first modern Olympics convened and 26 years before they earned the right to vote in the USA, women gained access to the games as competitors and as spectators. In 1900, the Games in Paris, France featured 22 women among 997 athletes total. They competed in five sports: tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrian, and golf. Female participation expanded to archery in 1904; skating in 1908; aquatic events in 1912; gymnastics in 1928; skiing in 1936; canoeing and kayaking in 1948; volleyball and luge in 1964; rowing, basketball, and handball in 1976; hockey in 1980; shooting and cycling in 1984; and, table tennis in 1988. 

In 1991, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decreed that any new sport seeking to be included in the Olympic program was required to include women’s events. Existing program events soon followed, with badminton, judo, biathlon, curling, ice hockey, football, softball, weightlifting, modern pentathlon, taekwondo, triathlon, bobsleigh, wrestling, golf, and rugby opening up to female participation over the next 15 years.

Due to the physical differences between men and women, they do not compete against each other except in one sport: equestrian.
Changing Program
Changing Program
The Olympic program has changed beyond the switch from all nude competition and awards for first place winners only, as was the practice in ancient Greece. Events have come and gone over the decades. Since 1896, only athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, and swimming have continued without interruption.

Some events featured in 1896 program that no longer exist in the modern program include: croquet, cricket, jeu de paume, pelota (precursor of baseball), polocrosse, roque, rackets, tug-of-war, lacrosse, baseball, softball, and motor boating, military patrol (the precursor to the biathlon), men’s special skating, and alpinism. Other discontinued events include plunge for distance, underwater swimming, standing high jump, running deer shooting, and dueling pistol. Between 1912 and 1948, the Olympic Games even featured art competitions.

Recent additions to the Olympic program include golf and rugby (added in 2016); and, baseball, softball, karate, roller sports, climbing, and surfing (added for 2020).

Technological Evolution
Technological Evolution
Throughout the decades—or even millennia—the human body remains remarkably unchanged. However, the accoutrements and accessories employed in the Olympic sports have changed considerably. The Games and the athletes must straddle a fine line between safety and the all-consuming desire to win. To that end, the IOC enacted many rules governing allowance of performance enhancements and safety equipment, from protective helmets and streamlined swimsuits to racquets that analyze the tennis player’s every swing. As technology has increased athletes’ ability to analyze and refine their performance, the IOC also uses it to more accurately measure results such that the winning shot or winning time may be hundredths of a second or a tenth of a millimeter better than closest scores.

The changing mores of society and the changing sports of the Olympic Games makes for fascinating reading:


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