NEW 100% UNOFFICIAL OLHYISTOMRY OF PTHE IC presents Over 2,000 years of sport, politics and competition L A CI ln FFI ao Relive the O t N i % U giit medals and 0 d 10 i moments that D E have defined the greatest ND ON show on Earth SECOEDITI Welcome to HISTORY OF THE I t’s been called the greatest show on Earth, and that’s not far from the truth. Every four years, the world comes together to watch the best of the best compete for gold, silver, bronze and glory. It’s a spectacle filled with fire, spirit and national pride. It’s the Olympic Games. Now you can chart the entire history of the Olympics, from its earliest days in Ancient Greece all the way to the postponed Tokyo Games. Uncover the real reason the Romans did away with the competition, and meet the Frenchman who brought it back in 1896. Find out about the Olympics-inspired competitions like the Special Olympics and head around the world to see the birth of the Paralympics and Winter Olympics. But it’s not all glory and riches. We reveal the truth behind controversies like the Russian doping scandal, and explain why some cities end up in crippling debt after hosting the sporting event. Everything you ever wanted to know about the history of the Olympic Games is just over the page… HISTORY OF THE OLYMPIC Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA Editorial Editor Katharine Marsh Designer Madelene King Compiled by Drew Sleep & Andy Downes Senior Art Editor Andy Downes Head of Art & Design Greg Whitaker Editorial Director Jon White Cover images Shutterstock, Getty Images Photography All copyrights and trademarks are recognised and respected Advertising Media packs are available on request Commercial Director Clare Dove International Head of Print Licensing Rachel Shaw [email protected] www.futurecontenthub.com Circulation Head of Newstrade Tim Mathers Production Head of Production Mark Constance Production Project Manager Matthew Eglinton Advertising Production Manager Joanne Crosby Digital Editions Controller Jason Hudson Production Managers Keely Miller, Nola Cokely, Vivienne Calvert, Fran Twentyman Printed in the UK Distributed by Marketforce, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HU www.marketforce.co.uk Tel: 0203 787 9001 The Olympic Games is a registered trademark. 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Future plc is a public Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne company quoted on the Non-executive chairman Richard Huntingford London Stock Exchange Chief financial officer Penny Ladkin-Brand (symbol: FUTR) www.futureplc.com Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244 Part of the bookazine series CONTENTS THE 18 GAMES 10 The Ancient Olympics - 16 Ancient Olympians - 84 18 The Birth of the 58 Modern Olympics The Special 48 Olympics - 26 - Women and 62 the Olympics Murder in Munich - - 30 66 The Strangest Sports Liberty Bell in Olympic History Classic - - 36 68 The First Atlanta 1996 Winter Olympics - - 74 74 China’s First 40 The Nazi Olympics Olympics - - 48 80 Rise of the Russia’s Doping Paralympics Scandal - - 54 84 The Tlatelolco Building up to Massacre Tokyo 2020 6 THE 92 96 102 40 Keeping the Hosting the Keeping to RITES Flames Alive Olympic Games Tradition 102 92 58 80 THE 112 120 Nadia Comaneci Alice Coachman OLYMPIANS - - 114 122 Aladár Gerevich Sawao Kato 108 Usain - - Bolt 116 124 Simone Biles Larisa Latynina - 110 - - Jackie 118 126 Joyner-Kersee Vera Cáslavská Sky Brown 7 T H E G A M E S 18 58 68 8 40 10 40 The Ancient The Nazi Olympics Olympics - - 48 Rise of the 16 Ancient Olympians Paralympics - - 18 54 The Birth of the The Tlatelolco Modern Olympics Massacre - - 26 58 Women and The Special the Olympics Olympics - - 30 62 The Strangest Sports Murder in Munich in Olympic History - - 66 Liberty Bell 36 The First Classic 48 Winter Olympics - 68 Atlanta 1996 - 74 China’s First Olympics - 80 Russia’s Doping Scandal - 84 Building up to 84 Tokyo 2020 9 The Games The Ancient Olympics The origins of these spirited events revealed Words David Stuttard E very four years from 776 BCE to around So it remained for two generations, but from and Nemea – the Olympics reigned supreme. By 425, competitors and spectators flocked to a 724 BCE other events were introduced, and the 6th century BCE, competitors were arriving sanctuary in southern Greece to participate the reputation of the festival began to spread. at Olympia from all over the Greek world and, in one of the most extraordinary events of the Coincidentally, this was a time of new beginnings when in the early 5th century mainland Greeks ancient world. It was a festival in honour of Zeus, for the Greeks, as many mainland cities sent successfully fought off the Persian invasions king of the gods, who ruled from the snow-capped shiploads of citizens to plant new settlements while Sicilian Greeks defeated the Carthaginians peaks of Mount Olympus far to the north. Indeed, in foreign lands from Marseilles in the west to and Etruscans, it was at Olympia that they made it was from Olympian Zeus that the location of the Byzantium in the east, and from Cyrene in Libya offerings of thanks. sanctuary was named: Olympia. to Epidamnus in modern Albania. As the festival’s status grew, the Games The festival had humble origins. In its early As Greek territory expanded, Greeks felt a expanded to cover five days. At the same time, years, participants came mainly from Elis, the city growing need to maintain, or create, a cultural new opportunities to display power through just under 65 kilometres away that controlled the identity. The 5th-century-BCE historian Herodotus sacrifice and banquets meant that Olympia was sanctuary. On the morning following the August writes that what united them was “kinship now attracting not just athletes but the rich and full moon, they sang hymns, chanted prayers, and in blood and speech, the shrines of gods, the influential as well as kings and politicians eager sacrificed oxen to Zeus, burning the bones and fat sacrifices that we have in common, and the to strut the international stage, hold high-level on the altar as an offering before cooking the meat similarity of our lifestyle”. He might have added conferences and negotiate high-profile deals. for that evening’s banquet. ‘competitiveness’, because inspiring almost every Many were keen to compete in the chariot As the mouth-watering aromas filled the air, Greek was the advice given to Achilles in the Iliad, race, the Games’ most expensive event. Among many of those present made their way a little to an epic poem with its roots in the 8th century them was Alexander I, king of Macedon, whose the east, stripped down to their loincloths – only BCE: “Always to be best and to surpass all others”. people many considered not to be pure Greeks. from 720 BCE were competitors naked – and, As the Iliad, with its tales of bravery culminating In 504 BCE, he successfully proved his eligibility while the rest looked on, raced back to the in funeral games for Patroclus, was fuelling the by tracing his ancestors back to the Peloponnesian finishing line near the altar. The distance, around Greeks’ imagination, the setting where they could city of Argos. 180 metres, was called in Greek a ‘stade’, the origin locate themselves as the true heirs of the heroes Almost a century later, in 416 BCE, the Athenian of our word ‘stadium’. In 30 seconds the race was of the Trojan War was fast becoming recognised playboy politician Alcibiades also used the over, and in 776 BCE the winner was proclaimed. as Olympia and, although other sports-related Olympic chariot race to proclaim his wealth and He was a local baker called Coroebus, that year’s festivals sprang up – notably at Delphi, Corinth power by entering an unrivalled seven teams. only victor, for the foot race was the only contest. RIGHT Quatremère de Quincy’s 1815 reconstruction of Pheidias’ statue of Olympian Zeus wrongly imagines it beneath an arched roof The Olympic Games began as one Olympic game. 10