The Beijing Winter Olympics are in full swing, and after watching some wonderful shots, the athletes in the arena flew over the wall, and the kind of "kung fu" was called. In particular, the snowboarding volleyed down in the air, which was dazzling. In the face of this "real kung fu", the so-called kung fu in those martial arts novels is really not worth mentioning.
Compared with the Summer Olympics, these athletes soaring in the ice and snow world seem to be a more perfect interpretation of the essence of the Olympic Games: faster, higher, stronger!
When it comes to the Olympic Games, we all know that the full name of the world's top event is called the Olympic Games, but how did this Games come about, why is it called the Olympic Games, and what is the relationship with words such as Olympia and Olympus that often appear?
The Olympic Games originated from ancient Greek mythology and ritual activities
Ancient Greece was a magical country, the birthplace of Western civilization and science, and a large number of top masters who led the world, such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Euclid, etc., left an indelible brilliance in philosophy, thought, science, poetry, architecture, literature, drama and many other aspects.
The history of ancient Greek civilization also contains a wealth of mythological culture, it can be said that ancient Greece is a mythical kingdom, many gods are from the first written literary work in the history of Western literature "Homer's Epic", the genealogy of the god king Zeus and its entanglements are in it. In myths and legends, Mount Olympus, the highest peak in ancient Greece, was the place where the sendis lived and lived, so Mount Olympus was the spiritual mountain of the ancient Greeks.
Ancient culture research believes that the late Neolithic to the early Bronze Age was the most exuberant period for altars or temples to worship gods in various cultural belts of the world, and it was also accompanied by the emergence of entertainment activities centered on sacrifice activities, and the earliest entertainment content was mainly based on the inherent nature of animals, and then developed into competition, and gradually standardized.
The man who followed this trend to create the ancient Olympic Games was named Ifitut, the king of the Greek border city-state of Elis. At that time, Greece was suffering from plagues and wars, and in order to fight the plague, pray for peace and boost people's hearts, Iphitus declared in 776 AD that he asked the gods and decided to hold a sports tournament in Olympia according to the will of the gods, once every four years.
The ancient Olympic Games developed in such a culture, the initial competitive activities are only athletics, in a 32 meters wide, 192.27 meters long sports field, can accommodate 20 players at a time. The first Games began in 776 AD, and the first olympic title in the 192.27-meter sprint was won by a Dorian named Cross.
Since 776 AD, the ancient Olympic Games have been adhered to for more than 1200 years, and 293 sessions have been held uninterruptedly, and the sports have gradually developed from the initial athletics to the pentathlons such as running, long jump, discus throwing, javelin, wrestling, boxing, horse racing, gladiatorial, as well as chariot races, armed races, etc., up to 23 events. The length of each Olympic Games began with only 1 day, and later increased to 5 days.
One of the most intense projects is the chariot racing competition, just like today's F1 racing car, rich aristocrats can participate, the thrill of the wind makes people addicted, but there are often car crashes and deaths, although dangerous, but thrills attract more Guan Zong, so it has become an important event of the ancient Olympics.
With the intensification of war and social contradictions, the ancient Olympic Games turned from prosperity to decline, and in the second century BC, Rome ruled Greece, Emperor Theodosius I declared Christianity the state religion, and the ancient Olympic Games with the sacrifice of Zeus became a pagan activity, so in 394, Theodosius ordered the termination of the ancient Olympic Games that had insisted on 1169 uninterrupted years, and from then on, the Olympic Games disappeared.
The origin of the Olympics
It seems that as much as I said before, I still haven't explained how the Olympics came about. Because in the previous introduction, there are both Mount Olympus and Olympia Town, is this Olympic games related to "Pease" or "Pia"? Let me be clear now: it is actually a matter of translation into Greek.
Mount Olympus is the highest peak in Greece, a sacred mountain in the minds of the Greeks, who believe that Greece is the center of the world, and Mount Olympus is the center of the center. In fact, Mount Olympus itself is not high, let alone the center of the world.
The highest point of Mount Olympus is 2917 meters above sea level, this height is compared with several famous mountains in China, such as Taishan, Huashan, Huangshan, Songshan, Lushan, etc., or quite high, but it is far from the real peak, not to mention the 8848 meters of Everest Avenue, that is, the Tianshan Mountains, kunlun mountains, Tanggula Mountains, Hengduan Mountains, casually pull a few peaks out of the slip, but also more than six or seven kilometers.
The Greek word for Mount Olympus is Όλυμπος, also translated as Mount Olympos or Mount Olympus, and has nothing to do with the name of the Olympic Games. The origin of the name of the real Olympic Games lies in the name of the town of Olympia, where the ancient Greek Olympic Games were held.
Olympia belongs to the ancient Greek region of Elins, and its ruins are in the territory of the Ilya region, about 190 km west of the capital Athens, with coordinates of 37° 63' 79" N and 21° 63' 00" E, located in the foothills of a wooded and grassy mountain in Kronos. In ancient times, it was considered to be the residence of the gods, so there were many temples, and the surrounding states came here to worship Zeus, so it gradually developed from a sacrificial competition to an ancient Olympic Games.
The Greek of Olympia is Ολυμπία, which translates to English is Olympia; since the suffix changes when the noun is changed into an adjective in Greek, the Greek of the Olympia Games is Ολυμπιακοί Αγώώνες, which translates to Olympic Games, so that the English Olympia becomes Olympic, and the transliteration of the Chinese is changed from Olympia to Olympic, becoming the synonym of the Olympic Games.
The name of the modern Olympic Games, the Greek is Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες; the French is Jeux olympiques; the English is Olympic Games; the Chinese is based on English transliteration and transliteration, called the Olympic Games, referred to as "Olympic Games".
This is the origin of the Olympic Games, the greek of Olympia, the earliest birthplace of the Olympic Games, from a place name to an adjective, translated into English Chinese transliteration, and has nothing to do with Mount Olympus.
The modern Olympic Games are reborn
The modern Olympic Games were initiated by the French educator Pierre de Coubertin 1500 years after the suspension of the ancient Olympic Games. On November 25, 1892, Coubertin gave a wonderful speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the French Athletics Federation, in which he called on people to "unremittingly pursue and achieve a great and beneficial cause based on modern living conditions".
Coubertin's historic speech came to be known as the Olympic Declaration. In 1894, coubertin discussed with 79 delegates from 12 countries and decided to establish the International Olympic Committee to carry forward the spirit of the ancient Olympic Games and create the modern Olympic Games. It was a great feat, but it was ridiculed and ridiculed by many at the time.
Amid the controversy, the first Olympic Games of modern significance were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. Since then, the Olympic Games, which are held every four years, have never been broken, and the dead Olympic spirit has been revived! Since then, the Olympic Games have become the world's greatest competitive sports event, which not only carries forward people's physical fitness, but also highlights the strong and unremitting spirit of mankind.
100 years later, Coubertin has been revered as the "Father of the Olympic Games". In 1998, the world-famous "Life" magazine hailed Coubertin's feat of reviving the Olympic Games as one of the millennium events and selected Coubertin as one of the 1,000 people who have influenced the world in the millennium.
Coubertin died of a heart attack in 1937, and when he was alive, he borrowed the words "faster, higher, stronger" that his good friend, didon, abbot of the Abbey of Aquière in Paris, said in a speech, and made his own understanding:
"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well." ("The most important thing about the Olympics is not victory, but participation; just as the most important thing in life is not success, but struggle; but the most essential thing is not conquest, but hard work.") ”）
As a result, the Olympic Games have long been more than just a games, but a symbol that inspires all mankind to move forward with indomitable courage.
Modern Olympic events and medals
Hosted by the International Olympic Committee, the Modern Olympic Games are the world's most influential and largest multi-sport games, which are held every four years for no more than 16 days. Since 1994, the Olympic Games have been divided into the Summer Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games, both held every four years, but held separately.
At the same time, the Summer Paralympic Games, the Winter Paralympic Games, the Summer Youth Olympic Games, the Winter Youth Olympic Games, the World Summer Special Olympics, the World Winter Special Olympics, the Summer Deaf Olympic Games, the Winter Deaf Olympic Games, etc., are also separated to give more opportunities to various groups of people.
There are 206 countries and regions that are members of the Olympic Committee, and there are more than one hundred or even more than two hundred countries and regions participating in each Olympic Games, and tens of thousands of athletes, all of whom are leaders in certain competitive fields in various countries, and participate in dozens of major events and hundreds of small events. For example, the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games was 28 major events and 302 minor events, while the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics were 33 major events and 339 minor events.
The Summer Olympic Games include: athletics, swimming (including diving, water polo, synchronized swimming), shooting, weightlifting, cycling, archery, basketball, volleyball, football, handball, hockey, gymnastics (including rhythmic gymnastics), fencing, international wrestling (freestyle and classical), boxing, judo, rowing, kayaking and rowing, sailing (including windsurfing), equestrianism, modern pentathlon, table tennis, badminton, tennis, baseball and so on.
Generally, each small event must be decided to have a gold, silver, bronze medal, representing the first, second and third place, that is, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd place, sometimes there is a tie, there will be more medals, there are many people to participate in the collective project, how many people to participate, how many medals to give. In this way, the gold, silver and bronze medals issued at each Olympic Games need three or four hundred each.
Regarding the production of medals, there were no specific provisions before the constitution of the 1978 Olympic Games, and it was always changing. After the establishment of the regulations, it is stipulated that the diameter of the Olympic medals shall not be less than 60 mm, the thickness shall not be less than 3 mm, the gold and silver medals must be made of 92.5% silver, the gold medal must be wrapped in at least 6 grams of pure gold, and the bronze medal must be made of 95% copper and 5% zinc.
Olympic medals have both material and craft value, but also the spiritual value of the Games and athletes that are integrated into it, and the value of the latter cannot be measured.
Up to now, the modern Olympic Games have been held a total of 32 times, of which China has hosted a summer Olympic Games and a winter Olympic Games, participated in 11 Olympic Games, and won a total of 254 gold medals, 191 silver medals and 171 bronze medals, ranking fourth in the world medal table.
The Olympic flame
In ancient times, the Olympic Games held in Olympia would gather people in front of the temple of Zeus in accordance with religious regulations, hold a solemn ritual sacrifice, light the torch with the fire of the altar, and then be held high by the torchbearers, shouting as they ran: Stop all wars, participate in the Games!
The torch is like a holy will, with supreme authority, wherever it is lifted, the flames of war will stop, bringing peace to the city-states that are fighting. The holy truce began, and people forgot about war and hatred and rushed to Olympia for the Games.
It can be seen that in ancient Times, the Olympic flame can make the hateful people temporarily put aside their hatred, stay away from the breath of death, and integrate into the joyful and peaceful atmosphere, bringing people beauty, hope and passion.
But light does not always triumph over darkness, and the Olympic flame was once extinguished, and after a long 1500 years, sir Coubertin was born, it was rekindled. The modern Olympic Games, which were first held every four years since 1896, have persisted to this day, but the flame first appeared at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.
In fact, as early as 1912, Coubertin proposed to light the Olympic flame, but because the First World War was not yet over, it was delayed until 1928 to restore this ancient tradition.
In 1934, the International Olympic Committee confirmed the ceremony of lighting the flame and held a ceremony to make fires in Olympia for the Berlin Olympic Games on July 20, 1936. The collection of the sacred flame of the modern Olympic Games still follows the ancient Greek tradition and is held in front of the Temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece.
The process of gathering the flame was attended by only 11 priestesses (played by actors), without crowds watching, and the chief priestess recited a hymn to the sun god in front of the Temple of Hera in Olympia, and then gathered the sun's rays through the concave mirror and lit the flame with the high temperature at the focal point. The whole process is solemn.
After the flame is lit, the flame is placed in an ancient brazier, brought by the chief priestess to the altar of the ancient Olympic stadium, to show the flame to the people waiting there, and to light the torch held by the first torch, and then begin the journey to the host city, no matter how far away, the flame must remain unquenchable.
This has become the only classic way to collect the Olympic flame.
Every country and city that hosts the Olympic Games attaches great importance to the transmission of the holy flame, and it is a high honor to be able to become the torchbearer who transmits the flame, because they not only transmit a fire, but also symbolize the immortal spirit of mankind since ancient times.
The way of transmission includes ancient human activities, such as running with relays in hand, riding horses, or taking modern means of transportation, airplanes and ships, crossing the ocean, and finally passing to the main venue of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, where athletes finally relay a few sticks and send them to the main torch platform to be lit.
The modern Olympic Games pay more and more attention to the shape and lighting of the main torch, more and more novel and mysterious, until the final ignition will be revealed, each ignition is magnificent and exciting.
However, at the Beijing Winter Olympics, which opened on February 4 this year, the torch was lit with a different meaning. The final main torch is the one handed over by the athletes, which is placed in a huge snowflake with crystal clear, this large snowflake is composed of small snowflakes marked with the names of the 92 countries and regions participating in the Games, the torch did not ignite a raging fire, only a small fire, highlighting the concept of low-carbon environmental protection.
But whether the sacred flame is a raging fire or a spark of stars, the core of it is the spirit of mankind that will never be extinguished, symbolizing light, unity, friendship, peace and justice.
Hopefully, this spirit will always shine on humanity. What do you think? Welcome to the discussion, thanks for reading.
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