[originaltext] The Olympic Games originated in 776 B.C. in Olympia, a small

The Olympic Games originated in 776 B.C. in Olympia, a small town in Greece. Participants in the first Olympiad are said to have run a 200-yard race, but as the Games were held every four years, they expanded in scope. Only Greek amateurs were allowed to participate in this festival in honor of the god Zeus. The event became a religious, patriotic, and athletic occasion where winners were honored with wreaths and special privileges. There was a pro found change in the nature of the Games under the Roman emperors. They were banned in 394 A.D. by Emperor Theodosius, after they became professional circuses and carnivals.
    The modern Olympic Games began in Athens in 1896 as a result of the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French educator whose desire was to promote international understanding through athletics. Nine nations participated in the first Games; over 100 nations currently compete.
    The taint of politics and racial controversy, however, is the block for the Olympic Games in our epoch. In 1936 Hilter, whose country hosted the Games, affronted Jesse Owens, a black American runner, by refusing to congratulate Owens for the feat of having won four gold medals.  In the 1972 Munich Games, the world was appalled by the murder of eleven Israeli athletes by Arab terrorists. The next Olympic Games in Montreal were boycotted by African nations; in addition, Taiwan withdrew. In 1980, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan sixty-two nations caused great dismay to their athletes by refusing to participate in the Games. The consensus among those nations was that their refusal would warn the Soviets.