Pindar, the Greek poet wrote in the 5th century BC:"As in the daytime there is no star in the sky warmer and brighter than the sun, likewise there is no competition greater than the Olympic Games.
According to historic records, the first ancient Olympic Games can be traced back to 776 BC. They were dedicated to the Olympian Gods and were staged on the ancient plains of Olympia. Initially they had a religious character and combined a number of ancient sporting events, many of which were based on ancient Greek myths.
The ancient Games actually occupied an important position in the life of the Greek ancestors. An Olympiad was a time unit, measuring the four-year interval between two Games. Participants came to compete from every corner of the Greek world aiming at the ultimate prize: an olive wreath and a "heroic" return to their city-states. But apart from the glorious victory, it was the Olympic values themselves which accorded special meaning to the Games: noble competition and the effort to combine body, will, and mind in a balanced whole.
As the Games developed, so did a set of procedures such as a standardized schedule of events and the practice of the Olympic Truce. They continued for nearly 12 centuries, until Emperor Theodosius decreed, in 393 AD, that all such 'pagan cults' be banned. He asserted that the Games placed an excessive public focus on athletic and spiritual affairs. The games was abolished until the 19th Century. Intellectuals such as Evangelos Zappas and Demetrios Vikelas who believed in the spirit of noble contests and the Olympic ideals, lent their voices and efforts to the revival of the Olympic Games.
However, it was French Baron Pierre de Coubertin who orchestrated the re-establishment of the Games, by advocating the marriage of sports and Greek classicism, leading the way to the first Modern Olympic Games in 1896.
The Greek public embraced the revival, and joined the efforts to organize the Games. Any financial difficulties faced by the Greek state at the time, were met through the mobilization of people and benefactors alike. The marble renovation of the ancient Panathinaikon Stadium that hosted the first modern Games was financed by George Averoff, a Greek benefactor from Northern Greece.
With the revival of the Olympic Games, a number of symbolic Olympic Traditions were also developed and established (i.e. the Olympic Anthem, the Olympic Creed, the Olympic Flag, the Olympic Flame and Torch).
Over the years, the Olympic Games traveled to different countries and continents, and now finally in 2004, they returned to the country of their birth and the city of their revival for the hosting of the XXVIII Modern Olympic Games.