奥林匹克英文演讲.docxVIP

The Olympic GamesPart 1 The origin of ancient Olympic GamesThere are many myths surrounding the origin of the ancient Olympic Games, the most popular of which identifies Heracles and his father Zeus as the creator of the Olympic Games. According to the legend, Zeus held games in honor of his defeat of Cronus, and his succession to the king of heaven. Heracles, being his eldest son, defeated his brothers in a running race and was crowned with a wreath of wild olive branches. It is Heracles who is believed to have first called the games Olympic, and established the custom of holding them every 4 years. The legend diverges at this point. One popular story says that Heracles went on to build the Olympic stadium and surrounding buildings as an honor to Zeus, after completing his 12 labors. After he built the stadium he walked in a straight line for 400 strides and called this distance a stadion (Greek: στ?διον, Latin: stadium, stage) that later also became a unit of distance. This is also why a modern stadium track is 400 meters in circumference — the distance a runner travels in one lap (1 stadium = 400 m). Another myth associates the first Games with the ancient Greek concept of ?κεχειρ?α (ekecheiria), Olympic truce. The date of the Games creation was based on a four year cycle. The most widely held estimate for the inception of the Ancient Olympics is 776 BC[.From then on, the Olympic Games quickly became much more important throughout ancient Greece, reaching their zenith in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. The Olympics were of fundamental religious importance, contests alternating with sacrifices and ceremonies honouring both Zeus (whose colossal statue stood at Olympia), and Pelops, divine hero and mythical king of Olympia, who was famous for his legendary chariot races with King Oenomaus of Pisatis. The number of events increased to twenty, and the celebration was spread over several days. Winners of the events were greatly admired and were immortalised in poems and