Probably the greatest honor that could come to an athlete is to win the gold medal at the Olympic Games. But did you know that the idea of having Olympic Games is more than 2,500 years old?

According to Greek legend, the Olympic Games were started by Hercules, son of Zeus. The first records we have are of gamer held in 776 B.C. on the plain of Olympia. They were held every four years for more than 1,000 years, until the Romans abolished them in 394 A.D.

The ancient Greeks considered the games so important that they measured time by the interval between them. The four years were called an Olympiad. The games were an example of the Greek ideal that the body, as well as the mind and spirit, should be developed. Nothing was allowed to interfere with holding the games; if a war happened to be going on, the war was stopped!

Fifteen hundred years later a Frenchman named Baron Pierre de Coubertin had the idea of reviving the Olympic Games. In 1894, following his suggestion, an International Congress of fifteen nations was held in Paris. This Congress unanimously agreed to revive the games and to hold them every four years. Two years later, in the rebuilt stadium at Athens, Greece, the first of the modern Olympic Games was held.

The games today include many sports that didn’t even exist in ancient times, such as basketball, water polo, soccer, cycling, shooting, and field hockey.

The modern Olympics are governed by an International Olympic Committee, and each nation has its own National Olympic Committee which is responsible for its country’s participation in the Olympics.