Great Olympic Moments

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Greatest Olympic Moments

The Olympics is event that has moved and changed the world, specially in hard times, like the World Wars and in racial discrimination. The modern olympics are based on the Greek games that were held every four years, the word Olympiad means 4 years. The Olympics started in 776 BC until 393 AD, it went on through 12 centuries, when emperor Theodosius decided to ban all the pagan cults. The Olympics were dedicated to the olympian gods, "they owed their purity and importance to religion" (olympic.org). Olympia, site of the olympic games, is part of the Peloponnese, the island of Pelops. Pelops was the founder of the olympic games and we owe him a great deal. Olympia wasn't only a place for sports its also a place for worship, religious, and political practices.

The Olympics are held every four years, the modern olympics started in 1896 Athens, Greece. "The summer olympics have 38 sports in total"(Great Olympic Moments pg. 4). After 28 years they decided to create the winter olympics, the first winter olympic was held in Chamonix, France in 1924. Then after 24 more years in 1948 the Paralympics were created, where disabled people were able to compete. In this event the world would gather for 2 weeks and watch their paisanos compete.

There have been impressive competitions through out history, which leave you thinking to yourself if these people are truly human. Like Usain Bolt he broke the 100m running record plus he took the gold. Steve Redgrave won a gold medal in 5 consecutive olympics from 1984-2000, thats very impressive. Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals in 8 events, he won this medals in the 2008 Beijing olympics and "has one more gold medals than anybody in history"(Great Olympic Moments). A ...

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...thens. The final and most recent great moment in olympic history was in Beijing 2008 when Phelps broke a record that will never be broken but it can be tied. He won 8 gold medals out of his 8 events. He broke Mark Spitz's 36 year old record.

This moments are the one's we cherish even if they have to do with terrorist, boycotts, discrimination, and political movements. The olympics is an event where every 4 years the world unites to compete and show that the human race is equal for everyone.

Bibliography

O'Connell, Caitlin, and Shirley Li. "13 Olympic Moments That Changed History." Reader's Digest. Reader's Digest, n.d. Web. 7 May 2014.

"Ancient Olympic Games." Olympic.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 May 2014. .

Hurley, Michael. Great Olympic Moments. Chicago, IL: Heinemann Library, 2012. Print.

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