We have heard about the Olympic games and most of us have even witnessed this event either in the country where it is held in that particular year, or at home via the television. But has one ever wondered how the Olympics came about? How was it carried out in the past?

Once every four years, Athenians and other Greeks took part in the Olympic Games, held at Olympia in the northwest Peloponnesus, in honour of the god Zeus. Here the Greeks turned their physical exercise into competitive sport. Thus, they were the first people in the world to play organized games. The Olympic Games were first recorded in the year 776 B.C., so by the Classical Period, they were well established, with participants and spectators -- all male -- coming from all over the Greek world. Women were excluded from watching.

During the period in which the games were held, a truce was called. All civil wars stopped long enough for the athletes and the audience to attend the games and get back home before fighting resumed. Games included chariot races, boxing, wrestling, foot racing, discus and javelin throwing, and long jumping. The all-around athletes usually entered the pentathlon -- a contest of five different track and field events.

The prizes were simple crowns of wild olive leaves. However, once the winner got home, he was a star. He was invited to luxurious parties, gazed at in public, sometimes even freed from paying taxes or given a pension. Poems were sung in his honour. Not only did the individual winners benefit from the Olympic games, but sometimes the city-states did as well. For, if athletes from a particular city-state won several victories, competitors might well assume that the other men from that city-state were equally powerful fighters. Thus, the games could be used as a type of military propaganda.

Today, there are two sets of Olympic games: the Winter Games and the Summer Games. Summer sports consist of archery, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, equestrian events (horseback riding), fencing, field hockey, gymnastics, handball, judo, rowing, shooting, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball, water polo, weight lifting, wrestling, and yachting. Winter events include skating, skiing, bobsledding, luge, tobogganing, ice hockey, and the biathlon (skiing-shooting).

The Summer and Winter Games were carried out separately and not within the same calendar year. For instance, the Winter Games started in 1994 and every four years thereafter, while the Summer Games began in 1996, and every four years thereafter. Countries take turn to host the Olympic Games. For instance, the Summer Olympics would be held at Sidney, Australia this year.

Athletes all over the world, both male and female alike, are allowed to take part in these international competitions, unlike in the past where only the males were allowed to. The prizes that the winners receive today seem to be far better than in the past - winners take home gold, silver or bronze medals and huge sums of money. In addition, they bring honour and pride to their countries. So, what are the purposes of the Olympic games? They are to bring forth the idea that it is to develop a "sound mind in a sound body" and also to foster ties among nations. Why are they are widely enjoyed by people all over the globe? What's so interesting and meaningful about the Olympics?

The Games was a competition of mental and physical prowness.

The Olympic games was truly a magnificent event and wars were even stopped to allow the athletes to participate in the Games!