I was never one of those amateur gymnasts who had dreams of going to the Olympics. I was realistic enough to know that my continuous attempt at a roundoff back handspring was only going to send me to the ER, not the global competition.
But, I enjoyed watching the quadrennial event and seeing Mary Lou Retton and the rest of the gymnasts competing for the gold. The 1984 Summer Olympics were held in the US, and the combination of national pride and no DVR option resulted in pretty much everyone we knew actively keeping up with the event.
Times have changed, of course, and with the combination of cutting our cable cord and being constantly distracted by Legos or Pokemon or whatever it is the kids are into these days, we haven’t watched the Olympics in years. But now, with the young ones reaching elementary school age and having an attention span longer than 30 seconds, it seems like the right time to share the Olympics with them.
That brings me to the educational portion of this post. I don’t know about your kids, but mine ask a TON of questions, and it’s usually about things that I no longer have the answers to. I mean, I used to know what clouds were made of, but totally drew a blank when my oldest asked me. (Side note: I love Google. Oh, and clouds are composed of very tiny droplets of water or ice crystals that are light enough to float in the air. You’re welcome.) So, in preparation of all the Olympics questions I’ll be asked, I did a little research. Here’s what I learned:
The Olympics are held every four years as a nod to the original Olympic games that were also held every four years at Olympia.
The original Olympic games began about 3,000 years ago in approximately 776 BC.
No one knows why the Olympics began.
The original Olympics events included: running, boxing, wrestling, pankration (boxing mixed with wrestling), equestrianism and the pentathlon, which is a competition with five events.
The modern Olympics began in 1896 in Athens.
The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio will feature more than 35 different Olympic sports with 306 events.
Women first competed in the Olympics in 1900 in Paris.
The flame of the torch that is used to light the cauldron at the beginning of the Olympics is carried from Olympia, Greece via runners and occasionally other modes of transportation. The flame is lit in Olympia a few months before the games begin, and the transporting of the flaming torch symbolizes peace and harmony and broadcasts that the games are beginning.
