Olympic Games reward: Olive branch to fame, fortune

(First of two parts)

It is said that many people the world over go to sleep and wish to dream they are in heaven. In the amateur sports world, athletes go to sleep and wish to dream they are participants in the Olympic Games.

It’s Olympic season once again, with the 28th edition of the Games’ modern version about to unfold in Athens, Greece.

To the "superboys" and supergirls", the golds will come by handily. To the lesser mortals belong the silvers and bronzes.

Most of the Games participants, Filipino athletes included, are resigned to the fact that they cannot bring home the medals, although deep inside them "hope springs eternal." But their selection as their country’s representatives in the Games, or to use a diplomat’s phrase "ambassadors of goodwill," is consolation enough.

As the Greeks of long ago said: "The true measure of the Olympics is not in the winning, but in discovering the best in all of us."

In recent times, however, there is more to winning a medal in the Olympic Games. With those plums come instant fame and fortune (Read: Millions of dollars in rewards and later fees for products endorsements).

The wealth that goes the way of successful Olympians in this consumeristic and materialistic world of today becomes mind-boggling when one considers that in the olden times, only a crown made from an olive branch was all that the winner received.

But the crown was supposed to be a gift from the most important Greek god, Zeus, and the receiver was believed to be favored by him for the rest of his life. Thus, the importance accorded to it by an Olympic champion, who rose to the level of a national hero for his feat.

And did you know that the first recorded Olympic champion was a cook? He was Coroebus from the Greek City-state of Elis, who won the sprint in 776 BC.

Historical accounts have it that the first Games were held in 776 BC, but it was generally accepted that these probably began five centuries earlier.

One legend has it that the Games were founded by Heracles, son of Alcheme, as an intrinsic part of a religious festival at Olympia Valley in Elis. The Games were held every four years at Olympia, a vale where two rivers met, in honor of Zeus.

The first Game’s site was a track 27 meters wide and 183 m long (one stade or about 600 feet). Later, the word stadion was used to describe the dromos (a race one length of the track) and the arena itself.

For years, there was only one event (dromos) in the Games.

It was not until 724 BC that the diaulos (roughly similar to the 400-m race of today) was added. Four years later came dolichos (a long-distance race comparable to today’s 1,500-m or 5,000-m event).

In 108 BC, wrestling and pentathlon (discus throw, javelin throw, long jump, wrestling, and foot-race) were included.

Other events added in succeeding Olympic Games were boxing, chariot race (Emperor Nero participated in this event), and pancratium ( a no-holds-barred wrestling where kicking and hitting were allowed; prohibited only were biting and gouging).

Then followed contests for fully armed soldiers, trumpeteers, and heralds.

For 304 years (until the 77th Olympiad in 472 BC), all the contests were held in a day. The Games subsequently were spread over four days, with a fifth devoted to the closing ceremony presentation of prizes and a banquet for the champions. (Today’s Summer Olympic Games must not exceed 15 days; the Winter Games, 10 days).

Women were not allowed to compete or, except for the priestess of Demeter, to see the Games.

In the Games’ first two centuries, the champions came from Greek cities, mostly Athens and Sparta. In the next three centuries, the athletes were drawn from about 100 cities in the Greek empire.

The Olympic Games’ march to temporary oblivion began when Greece lost its independence to Rome in the middle of the second century BC.

This can be attributed partly to the fact that, to a Roman, stripping naked and contending in public were degrading. The Romans actually were more interested in the "fighting" events–boxing, wrestling, and the pancratium.

The Games were finally abolished by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I in AD 394, only to be revived 15 centuries later.

(To be concluded)