History Of The Summer Olympics

With its occurrence every four years, the history of the summer Olympics never grows old. A new spin on familiar information allows the enthusiasm to continue. In 2012 London will host the summer Olympics and the tradition will continue.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica the modern day summer Olympic games began in 1896 in Athens Greece. In 1900, Paris France had the privilege of being the first Olympic host nation. Jumping to 2000, Sydney Australia hosted the games and most recently in 2008, Beijing China took over the honors. Thus is the history of the summer Olympics in our modern era.

Pre-modern games began 776 BC. Unlike the modern games, pre-modern games were dedicated to the Olympian gods and were played on the ancient plains of Olympia. The games themselves were quite different from the events held today. Still enough familiar threads persisted so that the history of the summer Olympics remained in tact.

The spiritual nature of the early games turned more patriotic and nationalistic in nature. Interestingly the early games were actually banned in 393 A.D. as being part of "pagan cults". Of course that ban did not continue and with a few exceptions the games have been held successfully since that time.

Memorable Moments

Some of the memorable moments which make up the history of the summer Olympics could be classified as athletic and some could be characterized as political. In 1968, the Associated Press photograph of the 200 meter winners giving the "Black Power Salute" as the national anthem for the USA played, made the Mexico City games a standout.

During the 1972 games in Munich, Germany a memorial service was held for members of the Israeli team killed by Palestinian terrorists. The 1972 games were also the games were swimmer Mark Spitz won a record seven gold medals. It was also the debut of Olga Korbut the Soviet gymnast. The history of the summer Olympics had many reasons to remain memorable down to this day.

Michael Phelps may never be forgotten for his swimming brilliance. Know one knows if he will be able to duplicate or match his prior Olympic performance. He has built up much anticipation for what the history of the summer Olympics will say about his swimming career.