How were the Olympics started

The Olympics started and originated in Greece. There are many Greek myths and legends that surround the idea of the Olympic games. Among them was the legend that it revolved around Hercules and his father, Zeus.In the legend, it said that Zeus held sporting events in honor of his defeat of Cronus, and his succession to the throne of heaven. Hercules, his oldest son, defeated his brothers in a running race and was crowned with a wreath of wild olive branches. It was Hercules who called the games the Olympics and established them to take place every four years. And then the legend branches off into several other versions at this point.One version said after Hercules completed his twelve labors, he went on to build the Olympics stadium in honor of Zeus. After finishing the stadium, he walked two hundred strides in a straight line and then called this distance a “stadion”, which also later became a unit of measurement.Another myth associates the first games with the ancient Greek concept of Olympic truce. And in 776 BC, the ancient Olympic games began.In modern times, though, the Olympic games were brought back in 1894 when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded in the initiative of a French nobleman, Pierre Fredy, Baron de Courbetin. He had a vision to bring together amateur athletes from around the world to compete in a variety of events. The IOC has become the governing body of the “Olympic Movement”. Every nation is represented in the games.It is a tradition to start an Olympic game by the lighting of the Olympic torch that would travel from Greece (the place where they first light it, seeing as Greece was the foundation of the Olympic games) and would be sent off to all over the world on foot and different modes of transportation, but mostly on foot, in honor of Hercules’ race with his brothers in which he won and was crowned with the wreath of wild olive branches.Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Games