The Olympic Games back in antiquity were an incredibly large-scale sports competition. Born back in the VIII century BC, they existed until the year 394 AD, not quite surviving until the final fall of the Western Roman Empire, with which the ancient world as a whole perished. The ancient capital of the Olympic Games was located in the city of Olympia, from
which, in fact, they got their name. In the polis and in the Roman period, competitions were incredibly popular. Thus, an ancient stadium excavated by archaeologists in the 19th century accommodated up to 45,000 spectators, despite the fact that the population of all of Hellas totaled, according to various estimates, from one to three million inhabitants. Sport has become so popular that it literally towered even above political and social issues that faded into the background during the games. Everyone knows the ancient tradition of armistice in these periods (which the Greeks themselves called ekherkhia). Moreover, for diplomats on both sides, the capital of the Olympic Games was a place for meetings and negotiations. The cancellation of this sporting event was associated not with the crisis trends of the ancient empire in general, but more with the emergence of Christianity as a state ideology. The religion, aspiring to world domination, was gaining strength by the Olympic traditions of sacrifice, an obvious pagan orientation, the cult of human strength and dexterity, a beautifully built body. In 394, a ban was imposed by Emperor Theodosius, and the games did not quite live up to the fall of civilization itself under the onslaught of barbarians.
The revival of traditional competitions
At the end of the 19th century, when sport did not just gain huge popularity again in our world, but became professional, the first competitions began to be created. It is not surprising that their ancestor, Greece, was chosen to hold new games. And the first capital of the
Olympic Games of our time is the city of Athens. Although, as the first attempt, they had many shortcomings, very different from modern ones, but they aroused quite a lively interest.
Athens, the ancient city, the capital of the Olympic Games again, it gathered a lot of spectators and athletes from fourteen countries of the world. Once again, competitions have become one of the highest incarnations
world sport, a
symbol of peace. However, there were different things. In 1936, the summer capital of the Olympic Games - Berlin - was also the capital of the aggressive Hitler regime, which in the same year sent its troops into the Rhine demilitarized zone and for several more years committed flagrant violations of international treaties, which ultimately led to the Second World War II and the temporary suspension of the competition from 1940 to 1944.
Russian welcome
Among all the others, an interesting difference between modern competitions and their ancient prototype is the inclusion of winter sports in them. Accordingly, today there is a winter and summer capital of the Olympic Games. So, the last summer events were hosted by London in 2012, and the winter ones by Vancouver in 2010. In 2014, the capital of the Olympic Games was Russian Sochi.