The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; French: Jeux olympiques)[a][1] are the world's leading international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost sports competition, with more than 200 teams, representing sovereign states and territories, participating. By default, the Games generally substitute for any world championships during the year in which they take place (however, each class usually maintains its own records).[2] The Olympics are staged every four years. Since 1994, they have alternated between the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years during the four-year Olympiad.[3][4] respectively.
The Games have grown to the point that nearly every nation is now represented; colonies and overseas territories are often allowed to field their own teams. This growth has created numerous challenges and controversies, including boycotts, doping, match fixing, bribery, and terrorism. Every two years, the Olympics and its media exposure provide athletes with the chance to attain national and international fame. The Games also provide an opportunity for the host city and country to showcase themselves to the world.
The Olympic Games have become a significant global event, fostering international cooperation and cultural exchange.[6] At the same time, hosting the Olympic Games can also bring significant economic benefits and challenges to the host city, affecting infrastructure, tourism and local communities.[7] next Olympiad was named after the winner, e.g. "the third year of the eighteenth Olympiad when Ladas of Argos won the stadion."[10]: p. 145 The Ancient Games varied over time, but they came to feature running events, a pentathlon (consisting of a jumping event, discus and javelin throws, a foot race, and wrestling), boxing, wrestling, pankration, and equestrian events.[20][21] Tradition has it that Coroebus, a cook from the city of Elis, was the first Olympic champion,[22] which indicates that the competition was not limited to the aristocracy.[10]: pp. 50–51
The Olympics were of fundamental religious importance, and the sporting events, which were held alongside ritual sacrifices honouring both Zeus (whose famous statue by Phidias stood in his temple at Olympia) and Pelops (divine hero and mythical king of Olympia), did not start until the festival's second day.[9]: p. 15 (Pelops was famous for his chariot race with King Oenomaus of Pisatis.[23]) The winners of the events were admired and immortalised in poems and statues.[24] Although a wreath made from the sacred olive tree in the precinct of Zeus was the only official prize at the Olympic Games, winners' fame brought them economic wealth, too, in the form of subsidies from their hometowns and wealthy sponsors. See, e.g., Finley and Pleket,[9]: pp. 24, 76–82 and Perrottet[10]: pp. 13–14 The Games were held every four years, and this period, known as an Olympiad, was used by Greeks as one of their units of time measurement. The Games were part of a cycle known as the Panhellenic Games, which included the Pythian Games, the Nemean Games, and the Isthmian Games.[25]
The Olympic Games reached the height of their success in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, but then gradually declined in importance as the Romans gained power and influence in Greece. While there is no scholarly consensus as to when the Games officially ended, the most commonly held date is 393 AD, when the emperor Theodosius I decreed that all pagan cults and practices be eliminated.[b] Another date commonly cited is 426 AD, when his successor, Theodosius II, ordered the destruction of all Greek temples.[26]