Michelle Brogan

HTML <h2><strong>INTRODUCTION</strong></h2>

HTML <h2><strong>THE OLYMPIC GAMES</strong></h2>

HTML <h2><strong>CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS (Swifter, Higher, Stronger)</strong></h2>

HTML <p>According to legend the ancient Olympic Games were founded by Heracles (a Roman), a son of the god Zeus. The first recorded Olympic Games were held in 776BC but it is generally believed that the Games were regularly held before this date. The Olympic Games were held every four years for nearly 1200 years.</p>

HTML <p>In 393AD the Roman Emperor Theodosius (a Christian) abolished the Games as he believed they were too pagan.</p>

HTML <p>Approximately 1500 years later a young Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin began the revival of the Olympic Games. Coubertin put his idea to revive the Olympics to a meeting of the Union des Sports Athletiques in Paris in 1892.</p>

HTML <p>Two years later an International Organizing Committee (IOC) was formed to organize the first modern Olympic Games. The modern Olympics began in 1896 in Athens, Greece.</p>

HTML <h2><strong>THE OLYMPIC CREED</strong></h2>

HTML <p>The Olympic Creed reads: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well”.</p>

HTML <h2><strong>THE OLYMPIC FLAME</strong></h2>

HTML <p>In the ancient Olympic Games a flame was ignited at Olympia, Greece by the heat of the sun and then kept burning until the Games were closed.</p>

HTML <p>The Flame first appeared in the modern Olympics at the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Olympics.</p>

HTML <p>The Olympic Flame for the modern Olympics is lit at the ancient Olympia site by women wearing ancient style robes and using a curved mirror and the heat of the sun to create a flame.</p>

HTML <p>The Flame represents a number of things including purity and the endeavour for perfection.</p>

HTML <p>The Olympic Torch relay began at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics.</p>

HTML <p>The Olympic Torch has no specific design and each host city chooses its own style of torch.</p>

HTML <p>The Sydney 2000 Olympic Torch</p>

HTML <h2><strong>THE OLYMPIC FLAG</strong></h2>

HTML <p>Created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914 the Olympic Flag contains five interconnected rings on a white background. The five rings symbolize the five continents and are interconnected to symbolize the friendship to be gained from the Olympics. The five colours (blue, yellow, black, green and red) of the rings were chosen because at least one of the colours appears on the flag of every country in the world.</p>

HTML <p>The Olympic Flag was first flown during the 1920 Antwerp Summer Olympic Games.</p>

HTML <h2><strong>AUSTRALIA IN THE</strong><strong> OLYMPIC GAMES</strong></h2>

HTML <p>Edwin Flack paid his own way from England to compete at the first modern Olympic Games which were held in 1896 in Athens Greece the site of the ancient Olympics. The young Australian became our nation’s first Olympic participant and our first Gold Medallist when he won the 800 metres and 1500 metres track events. Flack was the only Australian to participate in the 1896 Olympics.</p>

HTML <p>Australia is to this day one of only two nations (the other is Greece) to have participated in every modern Olympic Games. (Britain claims to have attended every modern Games but their attendance in St. Louis is very dubious according to Australian sports historian Harry Gordon).</p>

HTML <p>The Stockholm Olympics of 1912 offered the first events for women. Australia was represented at the Games by swimmers Fanny Durack and Mina Wylie, with Durack winning Australia’s first Gold Medals (2) for women and Wylie winning a Silver Medal.</p>