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For thousands of years in the making, what began as part of a religious festival honoring the Greek god Zeus in the rural Greek town of Olympia has today become the greatest show of sporting excellence on Earth.

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The inception date in 776 BC became the basis for the Greeks' earliest calendar, where time was marked in four-year increments called Olympiads.

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What could it be? Why, it's the Olympic Games, of course.

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Competition fosters excellence, or so thought the ancient Greeks.

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In addition to sporting events, contests were held for music, singing,

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and all yourself in classical literary works like Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid.

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Even mythical heroes appreciate a good contest every now and then, wouldn't you say?

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For the first 13 games, the ancient Greek Olympics featured just one event, the 200-yard dash.

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But over time, new exciting contests like boxing, chariot and mule racing,

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and even a foot race where the competitors wore a full suit of armor enticed many hopeful champions into the Olympic Stadium.

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the combined running jumping wrestling javelin throwing and hurling the discus event known as

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the pentathlon inspired world-class competition and the pancration a no-holds-barred fight where

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only biting and eye gouging were prohibited ensured the toughest men were victorious

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and victorious they were nobody tops the local baker coroibus who in 776 bc became the very

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first olympic champion and we'll never forget orsippus of megara the 720 bc olympic victor

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who tore away his loincloth so he could race unimpeded inaugurating the ancient greek tradition

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of competing in the nude.

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Now there's a winning streak if ever we've seen one.

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But all good things must end.

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In 391 A.D., the Christian Roman emperor Theodosius

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banned pagan practices,

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so the world soon bid a fond farewell to the Olympic Games.

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But just like those early Pankration athletes,

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you can't keep a good one down.

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And 1,500 years later, in 1896,

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the modern Olympic Games kicked off in Athens, Greece.

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Today, the Summer and Winter Olympics bring international

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world-class athletes together by the thousands,

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uniting fans by the billions for the world's foremost

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sporting competition.

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Citius, Altius, Fortius, three cheers for the Olympics.