The Olympic Games have been an incredibly large-scale sporting event since antiquity. Having originated in the 8th century BC, they existed until 394 AD, quite a bit short of the final fall of the Western Roman Empire, with which the ancient world as a whole perished. The ancient capital of the Olympic Games was located in the city of Olympia, from
which, in fact, they got their name. In the polis and in the Roman period, competitions were incredibly popular. So, the ancient stadium, excavated by archaeologists in the 19th century, could accommodate up to 45,000 spectators, despite the fact that the population of all Hellas numbered, according to various estimates, from one to three million inhabitants. Sports became so popular that they literally towered over even political and social issues that faded into the background during the games. Everyone knows the ancient tradition of a truce during these periods (which the Greeks themselves called ekerchia). Moreover, for diplomats from both sides, the capital of the Olympic Games was a place for meetings and negotiations. The cancellation of this sporting event was not associated with the crisis tendencies of the ancient empire in general, but morewith the formation of Christianity as a state ideology. The growing strength of religion, which claimed world domination, was disgusted by the Olympic traditions of sacrifice, the obvious pagan orientation, the cult of human strength and dexterity, and a beautifully built body. In 394, Emperor Theodosius imposed a ban, and the games did not live long before the fall of civilization itself under the onslaught of barbarians.
Revival of traditional competitions
At the end of the 19th century, when sport not only gained immense popularity in our world, but also became professional, the first competitions began to be created. Not surprisingly, their ancestor, Greece, was chosen to host the new games. And 1 capital of the Olympic Games of our time is the city of Athens. Although, as the first attempt, they had many shortcomings, being very different from modern ones, they aroused quite keen interest. Athens, the ancient city, the capital of the Olympic Games again, it gathered a lot of spectators and athletes from fourteen countries of the world. And once again the competition has become one of the highest incarnations
world sports, a symbol of the world. However, things were different. In 1936, the summer capital of the Olympic Games - Berlin - was also the capital of the aggressive Hitler regime, which in the same year sent its troops into the Rhine demilitarized zone and for several more years committed blatant violations of international treaties, which finally led to the Second world war and temporarysuspension of competitions from 1940 to 1944.
Russian reception
Among all other interesting differences between modern competitions and their ancient prototype is the inclusion of winter sports in them. Accordingly, today there is a winter and summer capital of the Olympic Games. So, the last summer events were hosted by London in 2012, and the winter ones by Vancouver in 2010. In 2014, the capital of the Olympic Games is Russian Sochi.
