The Games

The first Olympic Games are traditionally dated to 776BC. Games were held all over ancient Greece; but the most famous were held every four years in the sanctuary at Olympia, in the Peloponnese, as part of a religious festival in honour of Zeus. 

These Games attracted crowds of tens of thousands, who gathered to watch athletes compete in events such as running, boxing, discus, long jump and pentathlon; to pay homage at the giant gold and ivory statue of Zeus; and to witness the ritual sacrifice of 100 oxen. Athletes would compete, mostly in the nude, for the chance to win a wreath of leaves and to receive a hero's welcome on their return home. 

But the Games' popularity waned after Greece was conquered by Rome in the 2nd century BC. They ended around AD394, when Theodosius I outlawed pagan celebrations, and weren't held again for another 1,503 years.

The word "Olympics'' started to be used again for sporting events in England in the Renaissance: the Cotswold Olimpicks were held near Chipping Campden from the early 1600s

The’ Cotswold Olimpick Games’ is an annual public celebration of games and sports now held on the Friday after Spring Bank Holiday near Chipping Campden, in the Cotswolds of England. The games likely began in 1612 and ran (through a period of discontinuations and revivals) until they were fully discontinued in 1852. However, they were revived in 1963 and still continue as of 2024.

The games were founded by a local lawyer, Robert Dover, with the approval of King James I. Dover's motivation in organising the games may have been his belief that physical exercise was necessary for the defence of the realm, but he may also have been attempting to bring rich and poor together. The games were attended by all classes of society, including royalty on one occasion.  The poetry of the period eulogises the games as "an occasion of social harmony and communal joy”.

Events included horse-racing, coursing with hounds, running, jumping, dancing, sledgehammer throwing, fighting with swords and cudgels, quarterstaff, shin-kicking, and wrestling. Booths and tents were erected in which games such as chess and cards were played for small stakes, and abundant food was supplied for everyone who attended. A temporary wooden structure called Dover Castle was erected in a natural amphitheatre on what is now known as Dover's Hill, complete with small cannons that were fired to begin the events.

The games took place on the Thursday and Friday of the week of Whitsun, normally between mid-May and mid-June. Many 17th-century Puritans disapproved of such festivities, believing them to be of pagan origin, and they particularly disapproved of any celebration on a Sunday or a church holiday such as Whitsun. By the time of King James's death in 1625, many Puritan landowners had forbidden their workers to attend such festivities; the increasing tensions between the supporters of the king and the Puritans resulted in the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, bringing the games to an end.

Revived after the Restoration, the games gradually degenerated into a drunk and disorderly country festival according to their critics. The games ended again in 1852, when the common land on which they had been staged was partitioned between local landowners and farmers and subsequently enclosed. Since 1966, the games have been held each year on the Friday after Spring Bank Holiday. Events have included the tug of war, gymkhana, shin-kicking and dwile flonking (or dwyle flunking) This is an East Anglian pub game, involving two teams of twelve players, each taking a turn to dance around the other while attempting to avoid a beer-soaked dwile (cloth) thrown by the non-dancing team. 

In case you are interested, "dwile" is a knitted floor cloth, from the Dutch dweil, meaning "mop", with the same meaning in East Anglian dialect, and "flonk" is probably a corruption of flong, an old past tense of fling.

There is also motorcycle scrambling, judo, piano smashing, and morris dancing. The British Olympic Association has recognised the Cotswold Olimpick Games as "the first stirrings of Britain's Olympic beginnings".

The Wenlock Olympian Games, at Much Wenlock in Shropshire, were founded by William Penny Brookes in 1850 as 'Wenlock Olympian Class' to provide “annual competitions in sports and the arts for people of every grade” . They were a mixture of athletics as well as traditional country sports such as quoits, football and cricket.   

The modern Olympics were the brainchild of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a Hellenophile French educator and historian with a strong belief in the power of sport to form character and to promote peace between nations; he was greatly inspired by the sporting theme in Thomas Hughes's 1857 novel Tom Brown's School Days, and by the Much Wenlock Games, which he visited in 1890. 

In 1892, de Coubertin proposed reviving the Olympics in Paris, initially with little success. But his efforts led to the formation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, and to the first modern Games, in Athens in 1896.

The Athens Games were small – 241 athletes from 14 countries competed – and somewhat chaotic. An Irishman named John Pius Boland won gold in the men's singles tennis having entered on an impulse while on holiday.

The next two Games, in Paris in 1900 and in St Louis in 1904, were also fairly minor events: effectively sideshows of, respectively, the World Exhibition and the World Fair. 

The 1908 London Games were the first in which the modern Olympics began recognisably to emerge. A large stadium was built at White City, and athletes joined an opening ceremony parade behind their national flags for the first time. Crowds of nearly 70,000 watched 110 events in 25 sporting disciplines.

In 1912 at Stockholm, gold medals were still awarded for literature and sculpture.

Gradually, the Games gathered pace, with innovations such as the photo finish (Stockholm, 1912) and the athletes' village (Paris, 1924). 

There were no Games during the First World War, but the 1920 Antwerp Olympics saw the rings logo, designed by Coubertin to reflect the five continents, used for the first time.

The first Winter Olympics were held at Chamonix in 1924. The Olympic flame first appeared in Amsterdam in 1928, and the podium four years later. But, arguably, the Berlin Olympics in 1936, with its display of Nazi pomp and grandeur, did much to give the Games the status they have today. The torch relay is a tradition invented for Berlin: it was welcomed by 29,000 members of the Hitler Youth, on a seven-mile avenue bedecked with giant swastikas and guarded by 40,000 stormtroopers. Berlin was a major propaganda success for Hitler, although his efforts to advertise the supremacy of the Aryan race were undermined by the African-American sprinter Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals. 

Paralympic history began in 1948 at a hospital for war veterans in Stoke Mandeville, 60 kilometres north of London. German neurologist Sir Ludwig Guttman was looking for a way to help his paraplegic patients, all World War II veterans, rehabilitate more quickly. His specialised unit was made up Royal Air Force pilots with spinal cord injuries, who all needed to use wheelchairs. Dr Guttman organised sporting events as the Olympic Games took place in London.

Sixteen veterans in wheelchairs faced off in archery and netball competitions, the latter sport already practised by American returning soldiers; by organising these competitions, Dr Guttman had unknowingly created a new sporting movement.

Until then, the problem was hopeless, because we had not only to save the life of these paraplegic or quadriplegic men, women and children but also give them back their dignity and make them happy and respected citizens.

1952, The first International Stoke Mandeville Games are held as a team of veterans from the Netherlands compete alongside British teams. From then on, the Games were held every year.

1954, the International Stoke Mandeville Games continued to develop, with 14 countries now involved. Most of the athletes, who are all paraplegic, came from hospitals or rehabilitation centres whose medical directors had followed Stoke Mandeville’s example by including sport in their physical therapy programmes.

1955, the fourth International Stoke Mandeville Games take place, with 18 countries and 200 athletes participating.

1960, The ninth International Stoke Mandeville Games, considered to be the first Paralympic Games, took place from 18 to 25 September in Rome, six days after the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games. Five thousand people attend the Opening Ceremony at the Acqua Acetosa Stadium. 23 nations took part, sending 400 athletes — all in wheelchairs — who competed in eight sports: Para athletics, wheelchair basketball, Para swimming, Para table tennis, Para archery, snooker, dartchery (a combination of darts and archery) and wheelchair fencing.

1964,  the Paralympic Games took place in Tokyo from 3 to 12 November, 10 days after the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics, which are also held in the Japanese capital.

21 countries and 375 athletes are involved in the competition. Para powerlifting is introduced to the programme, as is wheelchair racing in the form of a 60m dash. Specialised sports wheelchairs do not yet exist, so athletes use everyday wheelchairs that weigh a minimum of 15kg instead. Sport-specific wheelchairs — although still homemade — do not arrive until the beginning of the 1980s. Modern wheelchairs used in Para athletics have a distinctive shape with a third wheel at the front and are made of aluminium with carbon wheels. They weigh around 7kg — half the weight of those first used for wheelchair racing.

1968,  For technical reasons the Paralympic Games are moved from Mexico City (where the Olympics are held) to Tel Aviv. They ran from 4 to 13 November, drawing 750 athletes from 29 nations. Women’s wheelchair basketball made its Paralympic debut, as well as a standout event of the Paralympic Games today: the 100m wheelchair race.

1972, The Paralympic Games are held from 3 to 11 August in Heidelberg, Germany, ahead of the Olympic Games in Munich. 984 athletes from 43 countries, all of whom are in wheelchairs, compete. Two significant milestones occur during the 1972 Paralympics: amputees campaign for the right to participate, and delegation heads and coaches meet to discuss the implementation of rules in each event. They decide to create subcommittees for each sport within the Stoke Mandeville Games Organising Committee. This decision gives each discipline greater independence to develop and opens the door to future classification systems of disabilities in each sport.

1976, The fifth Paralympic Games are held in Toronto, Canada from 3 to 11 August, just a few days after the end of the Olympic Games in Montreal. 1,657 athletes (including just 253 women) representing 40 countries are involved. In an historic first, amputees (261) and athletes with a visual impairment (187) competed at the Games. 18-year-old Canadian Arnie Boldt, an above the leg amputee, delivers a stunning performance in the men’s high jump, clearing 1.86 metres to win gold. He is honoured at the Closing Ceremony as the most outstanding athlete of the Games.

 Goalball, shooting and the new wheelchair racing distances of 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m are introduced to the Paralympic programme. These Games also marked considerable progress in terms of media coverage and were broadcast on Canadian television every day.

The first Winter Paralympic Games are also held in 1976 in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden.

1980. The Paralympic Games are held from 21 to 30 June in Arnhem, Netherlands. 1,973 athletes from 43 countries take part. Athletes (125) with cerebral palsy compete at the Games for the first time. Sitting volleyball, practised solely by amputees, makes its Paralympic debut.

1984. The Paralympic Games are held in two locations; in New York (from 17 to 30 June) for wheelchair and ambulatory athletes with cerebral palsy, amputees, and visually impaired athletes; and in Stoke Mandeville (from 22 July to 1 August) for wheelchair athletes with spinal cord injuries. 2,900 athletes representing 45 countries compete at the Games.

Amputee athletes (standing and in wheelchairs) are placed into nine classification categories, athletes with cerebral palsy are divided into eight, athletes with visual impairments into three and other disabilities into six.

1988, For the first time in history, the Paralympic Games are held at the same site as the Olympic Games in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The competition takes place two weeks after the Olympic Closing Ceremony (15-24 October) with 3,057 athletes from 60 countries participating. Several Olympic officials are recruited and specially trained in Paralympic competitions to carry out their roles at both Games.

French Paralympian Mustapha Badid steals the headlines after winning gold in the men’s 200m, 1500m, 5000m, and marathon wheelchair racing events, as well as finishing first in the 1500m demonstration event featured at the Olympic Games. Dennis Oehler (USA) makes Paralympic history in Seoul by becoming the first leg amputee to run 100m in under 12 seconds; the American claimed gold with a time of 11.73 seconds.

The International Paralympic Committee is founded in 22 September 1989.

1992, In March and April, the towns of Tignes and Albertville in France host the fifth Winter Paralympic Games which take place at the same site as the Winter Olympic Games — a historic first.

The Summer Paralympic Games are held in Barcelona from 3 to 14 September, drawing 2,999 athletes from 83 countries. 15 sports are contested, including wheelchair tennis — a new addition to the Paralympic programme. 1.5 million people tune in to watch the Games on television. Notably, almost half of the athletes involved compete in the athletics and swimming events. 279 world records are set, including Heinz Frei (SUI) completing the marathon in just 1 hour and 30 minutes. Nigerian amputee Ajibola Adeoye wins the 100m sprint in 10.72 seconds and the 200m in 21.83 seconds. Tanni Grey-Thompson (GBR) claims four golds in the 100m, 200m, 400m, and 800m wheelchair racing events.

1996, Atlanta plays host to the 10th Summer Paralympic Games from 16 to 25 August, with 3,259 athletes from 104 countries competing. An important milestone in Paralympic history takes place as 56 athletes with intellectual impairments compete alongside those with physical and visual impairments in the athletic and swimming events.

2000, The 11th Summer Paralympic Games are held in Sydney from 18 to 29 October. 3,879 athletes from 123 countries compete at the Games. The Olympic and Paralympic Organising Committees share resources, so site managers and other officials are in charge of both Games. The programme includes 18 sports: Para archery, Para athletics, boccia, Para cycling, Para equestrian, goalball, Para judo, Para powerlifting, sailing, football 7 a-side (for athletes with motor disabilities), shooting Para sport, sitting volleyball, Para swimming, Para table-tennis, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair fencing, wheelchair rugby, and wheelchair tennis. Women take part in the Para powerlifting competitions for the first time, and wheelchair rugby makes its Paralympic debut as the USA win gold after beating Australia 32-31 in a thrilling final.

300 million viewers across more than 100 countries watch the broadcast of the Games, while 1.2 million tickets are sold for the event. Spain was stripped of their intellectual disability basketball gold medal shortly after the Games closed after it emerged players had pretended to be intellectually disabled when they were not. As a result, athletes with intellectual impairments were then excluded from the programme of future Games, as the system for assessing their disabilities required reform.

19th June 2001, the IOC and IPC sign an agreement guaranteeing and protecting the organisation of the Paralympic Games and ensuring that, from the Beijing 2008 Games onwards, the Paralympic Games would always be held shortly after the Olympic Games and use the same sporting venues, facilities and Athletes’ Village, and that entry fees and travel costs would be covered to the same extent. Every future host city will therefore organise both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

2004, The 12th Summer Paralympic Games take place in Athens from 17 to 28 September; 3,808 athletes from 135 countries — 17 of which are making their Paralympic debuts — are involved in the proceedings.

This is the first year in which the Olympic and Paralympic Games have a shared Organising Committee. 50 international channels and 1,103 media outlets cover the spectacle — a new record. At the Closing Ceremony the Agitos, the symbol of the Paralympic movement, are revealed in their current form.

Brazil wins the first Paralympic blind football tournament, while the handcycling event also makes its debut. Women’s competitions in Para judo and sitting volleyball are held for the first time.

2008, The Beijing Paralympic Games are held from 6 to 17 September, with 146 countries and 3,951 athletes participating. Para rowing is added to the official programme, bringing the number of sports to 20. Media coverage continues to increase, with 5,800 accredited journalists covering the Games, which are broadcast in 80 countries to 3.8 billion television viewers.

2012, The London Paralympic Games ran from 29 August to 9 September, with 164 countries competing. Spectators fill stadiums to see the Paralympics come home to Britain, and 2.7 million tickets are sold - a new record

The event inspired unprecedented excitement from the public and enjoyed greater media coverage than ever before. The mascot of the Paralympic Games was given the name ‘Mandeville’ as a tribute to the original Games. The 4,000-athlete milestone is finally reached, with 4,237 men and women competing. Events for athletes with intellectual impairments are reintroduced.

In his closing speech, IPC President Sir Philip Craven describes the London Paralympic Games as the “greatest Paralympic Games ever”, adding they had “truly come home and found their pathway to the future here in London”.

British broadcaster Channel 4, which held the broadcasting rights at the time, shows over 150 hours of live footage, achieving a record audience of 39.9 million people — 69% of the population of Great Britain.

2016, The Paralympic Games land in South America for the first time for their 15th edition, which run in Rio from 7 to 18 September. 4,328 athletes from 160 countries participate in the events, which include two new sports (Para canoeing (straight line course) and para triathlon), bringing the Paralympic total to 22. These Games were the most heavily broadcast in history with television, radio, and online coverage in 154 countries.

2021 The Paralympic Games are held in Tokyo from 24 August to 5 September. Two new sports are introduced to the official programme: Para badminton and Para taekwondo.

The term “Paralympic Games” was only officially used and approved by the IOC from the Games in 1984. From 1960 to 1980, they were officially known as the “International Stoke Mandeville Games”.

In theory, no: the Olympics' unofficial mantra is "politics and sport don't mix". But, in practice, they often do. In Mexico City in 1968, ten days before the opening ceremony, hundreds of left-wing protesters were killed by the army. The same year, two African-American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gave a Black Power salute on the podium. At Munich in 1972, West Germany's attempts to show a new face to the world ended in tragedy, when 11 Israeli athletes were taken hostage and killed by Palestinian terrorists.

The Olympics were a forum for Cold War rivalries. From the 1960s until 1989, East Germany ran a huge doping operation, designed to establish communism's superiority. In 1980, the US led more than 60 countries in a boycott of the Moscow Games in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Four years later, the USSR led 12 other eastern bloc states (and Cuba) in a boycott of the Los Angeles Games. 

The arrival of TV in the 1960s heralded a new era of corporate sponsorship; and since the 1980s, professional athletes have been allowed to compete – a departure from de Coubertin's vision of the Games as an amateur affair. At times, commercialisation has threatened their integrity: the huge role of Coca-Cola at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics raised eyebrows. Today, money remains a vexed issue. TV rights are worth some $3bn, and sponsorship over $1bn. Host cities, though, pay a high price.

The number of sports and athletes represented has ballooned: the Tokyo 2020 Games brought 11,479 sportspeople from 206 countries, competing in 50 disciplines, from the 100 metres to surfing to softball and golf. The Olympics have always provided electrifying spectacles, from Bob Beamon's long jump in 1968, to gymnast Nadia Comaneci's perfect ten at Montreal in 1976, to Usain Bolt's record-breaking sprints at Beijing 2008, to Mo Farah's triumphs at London 2012. Whatever criticisms they attract, the Olympics always capture the world's imagination.

Hosting the Games is eye-wateringly expensive. The London Olympics in 2012 cost $17bn, the Rio Games in 2016 $20bn (and led to 60,000 people being displaced from their homes). The main costs are the creation or upgrading of stadiums, and facilities for sports such as cycling and swimming, as well as extra housing and transport infrastructure. The legacy is often a series of white elephants. Sydney's stadium costs $30m a year to maintain. The $3bn costs of Athens 2004 contributed to the country's debt crisis; almost all the facilities built for it are now derelict.

These problems – known as the "winner's curse" – have a long history. Debts from the 1976 Montreal Olympics were only paid off in 2006. Revenues do not cover spending: Tokyo made $5.8bn in 2020, but spent $13bn. The IOC keeps most TV and sponsorship money (it spends 90% of that supporting athletes, the Games and the "Olympic movement"). The idea is that the Games provide a long-term lift to the economy, tourism and jobs – and to participation in sport. The evidence says otherwise, with the exception of Barcelona in 1992. The IOC has tried to drive down costs; Paris's budget is relatively small: $8bn. Critics say they should come down further, or that the Games should be held in one city in perpetuity. Preferably – in the minds of many - in Greece.

P.S. In case on the TV you saw these around Paris

They are the mascots of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Game. Instead of  the animal mascots of  previous  Games, they do not represent animals, but Phrygian caps! 

These two red mascots - called the Phryges - symbolise freedom and revolution and will accompany the public to the Paris 2024 Games. The two Phryges, one Olympic and the other Paralympic, with different but complementary characters, have a common mission: to encourage and embody sport in a French and inclusive spirit. 

With the Phryges of Paris 2024, the revolution through sport is underway!

The Phrygian or liberty cap is a soft conical cap with the apex bent over, associated in antiquity with several peoples in Eastern Europe, Anatolia and Asia, including the Persians, the Medes and the Scythians, as well as in the Balkans, Dacia, Thrace and in Phrygia, where the name originated.

The oldest depiction of the Phrygian cap is from Persepolis in Iran. Although Phrygian caps did not originally function as liberty caps, they came to signify freedom and the pursuit of liberty first in the American Revolution and then in the French Revolution, particularly as a symbol of Jacobinism (in which context it has been also called a Jacobin cap).