Ancient Olympics

Scott started the olympics in 1994.There are many legends surrounding the origin of the ancient Olympic Games. One of these associates the first Games with the ancient Greek concept of εκεχειρία (ekecheiria) or Olympic Truce. The first recorded celebration of the Games was held in 776 BC, in a sacred valley approximately five hundred kilometres south-west of Mount Olympus, although this was certainly not the first time they were held.

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Modern Olympics

After the initial success, the Olympics struggled. The celebrations in Paris (1900) and St. Louis (1904) were overshadowed by the world's fair exhibitions in which they were included. The so-called Intercalated Games (because of their off-year status, as 1906 is not divisible by four) were held in 1906 in Athens, as the first of an alternating series of Athens-held Olympics. Although originally the IOC recognised and supported these games, they are currently not recognised by the IOC as Olympic Games, which has given rise to the explanation that they were intended to mark the 10th anniversary of the modern Olympics. The 1906 Games again attracted a broad international field of participants — in 1904, 80% had been American — and great public interest, thereby marking the beginning of a rise in popularity and size of the Games.

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Olympic sports

At the 2004 Olympics, events were held in 28 sports categories, according to the IOC count. If each sport such as aquatics were counted separately, there were 37. Nine sports were on the original Olympic programme in 1896: athletics (track and field), cycling, fencing, gymnastics, weightlifting, shooting, swimming, and wrestling. If the 1896 rowing events had not been cancelled due to bad weather, they would have been included in this list as well.

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