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Olympic Games
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The first "women's Olympic Games" was a one-day track meet in Paris in 1922. Eighteen athletes broke world records before 20,000 spectators. The second Games were held in Gothenberg, Sweden, four years later. Women from 10 nations, including distant Japan, took part. (Canada was not one of them). With a spectacular opening ceremony and marchpast, the patronage of the Swedish royal family, and several world records, the Games evoked comparisons with the IOC's Stockholm Olympics of 1912.
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The Olympic Games are competitions of individual athletes, not of nations, and the IOC does not keep national scores. However, the media of all nations report national standings according to one of two scoring systems. In the point system of scoring, 10 points are credited for first-place in the various events, 5 points for second-place, 4 points for third-place, 3 points for fourth-place, 2 points for fifth-place and 1 point for sixth-place. The other scoring system, lists the number of medals won by each nation's competitor.
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The period of sacred truce for the duration of the Olympic Games had a special name -- ekecheiria. The first truce was made for a month between Iphitos of Elis, Kleosthenes of Pisa and Lykourgos of Sparta, according to Olympics Through Time:
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[One] myth about the origin of the Olympic Games comes from the Tenth Olympian Ode of the poet Pindar. He tells the story of how Herakles, on his fifth labor, had to clean the stables of King Augeas of Elis. Herakles approached Augeas and promised to clean the stables for the price of one-tenth of the king's cattle. Augeas agreed, and Herakles rerouted the Kladeos and Alpheos rivers to flow through the stables. Augeas did not fulfill his promise... and after Herakles had finished his labors he returned to Elis and waged war on Augeas. Herakles sacked the city of Elis and instituted the Olympic Games in honor of his father, Zeus.
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The Olympic Games are administered by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IOC was created in 1894 in Paris, France, as an independent committee selecting its own members. (To begin the process... Coubertin himself chose the first 15 members.) IOC members are officially considered to be representatives from the IOC to their own nations, not delegates from their own countries to the IOC. Most members are elected to the IOC after serving on the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of their own countries.
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Of all the games held throughout Greece, the Olympic Games were the most famous. Held every four years between August 6 and September 19, they occupied such an important place in Greek history that in late antiquity historians measured time by the interval between them—an Olympiad. The Olympic Games, like almost all Greek games, were an intrinsic part of a religious festival. They were held in honour of Zeus at Olympia by the city-state of Elis in the northwestern Peloponnese. The first Olympic champion listed in the records was Coroebus of Elis, a cook, who won the sprint race in 776 BC. Notions that the Olympics began much earlier than 776 BC are founded on myth, not historical evidence.
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