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Old and modern ideas
In ancient Greece, the Olympic Games were about fame and glory – but also about wealth and money. The ancient Greeks trained so hard they were really professionals. So the modern games, with its ideas of ‘amateurs’ competing just for honour and not for money, would have seemed very strange to the ancient Greeks. The idea of the amateur developed only in the 19th century AD.
The Greeks used Olympiads as one of their methods to count years.
The most famous Olympic athlete, the sixth century BC wrestler Milo of Croton is the only athlete in history to win a victory in six Olympics.
Fierce competition
The Olympics were of religious importance, and sporting contests alternated with sacrifices and ceremonies honouring both Zeus (whose colossal statue stood at Olympia) (pictures 1 and 2), and Pelops, divine hero and famous for a legendary chariot race, in whose honour the games were held.
G 2 The most important gods lived on the highest mountain in central Greece, called Mount Olympus (2,917 m). So
the most important sanctuary for Zeus came to be named Olympia, after the mountain of the gods, although it was in the south of the country, far away from the mountain. The main temple was dominated by a huge statue of Zeus.
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