Overview

In the area of Olympia, just off the west coast of the Peloponese, about 135 km south of Patras.

Competitive sports permeated life in Ancient Greece, as much as they do today. Athletics and wrestling were a big part of children's education and games were held regularly as part of religious celebrations.

Athens had its Panathinaia, Corinth the Isthmia, Delphi held games, Epidaurus had a stadium, and an obscure little religious site in western Peloponese called Olympia, in an olive grove by the Alpheios river, started holding track events in 776 BC, as part of religious celebrations.

As years went by, more and more cities from the area started participating in the games held in Olympia, then Sparta joined, and then Corinth. By the end of the 8th century BC the games had become a panhellenic event, and had acquired their full stature and character. They had become the Olympic Games.

To get a feel for how important the Olympic Games were, ancient Greeks marked time by it; every four year-period between the Games was called an "olympiad" and time was measured as years of the n-th olympiad. For example, 431 BC, the year the Peloponesian war started, was quoted as the first year of the 86th olympiad. The birth of Jesus Christ was on the year of the 194 olympiad, and so on.