People Involved in the Ancient Olympics:
The Olympics were believed to have been created in 776 B.C.E., but some believe that they were created earlier by the gods. The Olympics continued on for years with men still being the only ones allowed to compete. Women weren't even allowed to watch the Olympics if they were married, but if they were not married they could watch. Eventually there was the first woman victor named Kyniska of Sparta. All free men were allowed to compete. The Olympics were mostly made to worship the gods. Especially Zeus. They made prayers and made sacrifices. Before the events the athletes had to prepare at least for ten months
The Olympics were believed to have been created in 776 B.C.E., but some believe that they were created earlier by the gods. The Olympics continued on for years with men still being the only ones allowed to compete. Women weren't even allowed to watch the Olympics if they were married, but if they were not married they could watch. Eventually there was the first woman victor named Kyniska of Sparta. All free men were allowed to compete. The Olympics were mostly made to worship the gods. Especially Zeus. They made prayers and made sacrifices. Before the events the athletes had to prepare at least for ten months
before the events. They had personal trainers and in Greece the physical strength of the body and health was as important as knowledge. Greeks were trained in school and trained everywhere. When the athletes are trained they are sometimes trained with a flute or music because it helped with balance and timing. Trainers used long sticks to keep their athlete in the right position. Trainers gave their athletes diets and kept them fit.
When the athletes cleaned themselves after training they used a strigil, which is an instrument that cleans off dirt and all that other gross stuff. When athletes won they got prizes like woollen ribbons, a palm branch, and wore olive branches around their heads. The olives branches were the most sacred prize because they were cut out of the sacred olive tree. They got money, they received fame, they got offered positions in the government, received free food for life, and they got to put up a statue of themselves.
There were also judges. Judges all came from Elis, which was a place of fairness. Eleans were known for their fairness. When judges caught people cheating they fined the athlete. Judges varied from any number. There could be 5, 10, or more than 10. It depended on the event and athletes. Judges wore purple cloaks and had special seats in the stadium. Click here for more info. Click here for more info on how the athletes prepared for the games. Go to http://www.ancient.eu/Olympic_Games/ for more info.