Olympics Historical Documentary: The First

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Historical Documentary: The First Olympics

The First Olympics

In just a few months London will host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, following a tradition that stretches back to ancient Greece. It is estimated that the 2012 Summer Games will cost roughly $4 billion, demonstrating that in the modern world the Olympic Games are as much about economics as they are about sports. ("Gamesbid") This is a far cry from the original Olympic Games which, according to most historians, took place every four years from 776 BC to 395 AD. (Swaddling, 7) One documentary that, from a historical perspective, examines the first Olympic games and provides a good comparison with the modern games is the History Channel's 2004 release The First Olympics: Blood, Honor, and Glory. ("The First Olympics") This documentary provides the viewer with a description of the games as they were held during the Classical period, as well as a good historical perspective of the games.

This documentary shocks the audience by beginning with a confession that the original Olympic Games "were not polite and gentlemanly contests, exercises in amateur sportsmanship, and a modern day Olympic ideal…." ("The First Olympics," 01:00) Instead, for the athletes of the original Olympic games, winning was everything and losers "went back to their mothers without delight, creeping through narrow alleys." ("The First Olympics," 01:35) On the other hand, winning was the only way for these athletes to achieve immortality, as they were remembered long after their death.

In terms of information, The First Olympics is very good at giving a description of the actual games, including the "Peace of Zeus," which was a three-month period in which conflicts between Greek City-States were suspended. The order of the ceremonies and events, as well as the rules were examined and the viewer gets an idea of how the games were presented. It also recalls the tales of those who attempted to cheat by describing a row of prominent statues, called the "Zanes" located in Olympia which depicted those who attempted to win through non-honorable ways. The ancient Greeks wanted to see honest sporting contests, called "agons," in which athletes struggled against each other. Unlike the modern Olympics, they did not keep records as the immediate "agon," the present contest, was the important thing, not a set of records. This is very different from today's games which emphasize records as much as other athletes as the measure of the contest.

While it is generally accepted that the Olympics ended in 395 AD, The First Olympics reveals that the games actually continued "unofficially" for another 120 years. ("The First Olympics," 40:00) But the ancient Olympics did end, and for centuries were nothing more than a memory, until the late 19th century. The Olympics were resurrected in 1896 when "311 athletes from just 14 countries attended the first modern Olympic Games in Athens…." (Toohey, 27) Since then the Olympic Games have gradually grown in international, political, as well as economic significance. The documentary does a good job of comparing the ancient games to the modern games. Since the ancient games had a restricted number of events, the comparisons are made between similar events, and modern events are not mentioned. But the different ways the games were operated are discussed, for instance the discus used in the past was as much as three times the weight of the modern discus. Ancient athletes also were allowed to use weights when performing the long jump, allowing for jumps that were as much as 20 feet longer than the modern record. ("The First Olympics," 20:00-23:00) And the ancient games were performed in the nude, which the documentary explains in detail in order to remove the modern "shock value" of such a discussion.