The Olympic Motto

The Olympic motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius, which is Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger". The motto was anounced by Pierre de Coubertin on the creation of the International Olympic Committee in 1894. De Coubertin borrowed it from his friend Henri Didon, a Dominican priest who, amongst other things, was an athletics enthusiast. The motto was introduced in 1924 at the Olympic Games in Paris. The motto was also the name of an Olympic history journal from 1992 to 1997, when it was renamed the Journal of Olympic History. A more informal but well known motto, also said by De Coubertin, is "The most important thing is not to win but to take part!". De Coubertin got this motto from a (sermon) by the Bishop of Pennsylvania, during the 1908 London Games.

Modern Olympics

After the initial success, the Olympics had trouble. The celebrations in Paris (1900) and St. Louis(1904) Intercalated Games were held in 1906 in Athens, as the first of an alternating series of Athens-held Olympics. Although originally the IOC recognised and supported these games, they are currently not recognised by the IOC as Olympic Games, which has given rise to the explanation that they were intended to mark the 10th anniversary of the modern Olympics. The 1906 Games again attracted a broad international field of participants—in 1904, 80% had been American—and great public interest, thereby marking the beginning of a rise in popularity and size of the Games.

Legendary origin

No one knows about the origins of the olympic games but several myths and legends have survived. One of these involved Pelops, king of Olympia and eponymous hero of the Peloponnesuss , to whom offerings were made during the games. The Christian Clement of Alexandria asserted, The Olympic games are nothing else than the funeral sacrifices of Pelops. That myth tells of how Pelops' overcame the King and won the hand of his daughter Hippodamia with the help of Poseidon, his old lover, a myth linked to the later fall of the house of Atreus and the sufferings of Oedipus.