During the 14th Olympiad, a second race of two lengths of the stadium was added. In the 15th Olympiad, an endurance event was added in which the athletes went 12 times around the stadium, about 4 1/2 kilometres. The athletes competed in groups of four, which were determined by drawing lots with the winners meeting the other winners until a final race was run. The track was composed of shifting sand which gave way under the athletes' feet.

The games in 776 BC were the first games held after they were organized into festivals held every four years as a result of a peace agreement between the city-states of Elis and Pisa. The Eleans traced the founding of the Olympic games to their King Iphitos, who was told by the Delphic Oracle to plant the olive tree from which the victors' wreaths were cut.

Gradually the Games grew into religious festivals observed by an entire community and celebrated near the shrine of the god in whose
honor they were instituted. The idea then developed that the gods themselves were present but invisible and delighted in the services and the contests. 

The Olympic Games were a constant in ancient Greece. The games were even held in 480 BC during the Persian Wars, and they
coincided with the Battle of Thermopylae. Although the Olympic games were never suspended, the games of 364 BC were not
considered Olympic games because the Arkadians had captured the sanctuary and reorganised the games.

After the Battle of Chaironeia in 338 BC, Philip of Makedon and his son Alexander gained control over the Greek city-states. They erected the Philippeion (a family memorial) in the sanctuary, and held political meetings at Olympia during each Olympiad. In 146 BC, the Romans gained control of Greece and, therefore, of the Olympic games. In 85 BC, the Roman general Sulla plundered the sanctuary to finance his campaign against Mithridates. Sulla also moved the 175th Olympiad (80 BC) to Rome.

The games were held every four years from 776 BC to 393 AD, when they were abolished by the Christian Byzantine Emperor
Theodosius I. 

The ancient Greeks were highly competitive and believed strongly in the concept of agon, or "competition," "contest." The ultimate Greek goal was to be the best. All aspects of life, especially athletics, were centered around this concept. It was therefore considered one of the greatest honors to win a victory at Olympia. The fact that the only prize given at Olympia was an olive wreath illustrates this point. The athletes competed for honor, not for material goods.

Athletics were of prime importance to the Greeks. The education of boys concentrated on athletics and music as well as academic
subjects such as philosophy. Education took place in the gymnasion and the palaistra as well as the academy.

Games were held as part of religious ceremonies in honor of deceased heroes, a concept displayed in the funeral games for Patroklos in Book 23 of Homer's epic poem, The Iliad. Games were also held in the context of many ancient fertility festivals. The games at Olympia were connected with both the funeral games of Oinomaos, established by Pelops, and a fertility cult involving any number of gods and goddesses who were worshipped at the site. The Olympic games began to be usurped by the prominent cult of Zeus, and eventually lost much of their religious character. 

From the beginning, the games at Olympia served to strengthen the Greek sense of national unity. During the Hellenistic period, Greeks who came to live in foreign surroundings such as Syria, Asia, and Egypt, strove to hold on to their culture. One of the ways they did this was to build athletic facilities and continue their athletic traditions. They organized competitions, and sent competitors from their towns to compete in the Panhellenic games.

The Modern Olympics:
The man who was responsible for the revival of the Olympic Games in modern times was Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who was born in Paris, Jan. 1, 1863 and who died at Geneva, Sept. 2, 1937. 

When he was just 17, he began to think about the weaknesses of his people who were trying to recover hope and self-respect following the
Franco-Prussian War. He believed the solution was helping to  develop character in each individual.

Baron de Coubertin was rich enough to travel. He visited England and America where he studied organised athletics competitions conducted by the students. He saw that competing for a place on an athletic team developed qualities of character which was the opposit of what the  French schools believed - they thought that games destroyed study. He was convinced that he should devote his entire time and energy to changing these ideas in France. He decided to start at the bottom because, as he expressed it, "the foundation of real human morality lies in mutual respect-and to respect one another it is necessary to know one another."

Coubertin was not an athlete but he chose athletics as his field. The first major sport with which he associated himself was rowing, but when he attempted to bring the British oarsmen to France or send the French
oarsmen to compete at Henley, he found the British and French ideas of amateur sports were not the same. This gave him the idea of
bringing together educators, diplomats, and sports leader for the purpose of developing a universal understanding of amateurism so that the athletes of all nations might meet on an equal basis.

Coubertin realized that to capture the attention of disinterested persons, he would have to originate something spectacular. He began to dream of a revival of the Olympic Games. At a meeting of the Athletic Sports Union at Sorbonne in Paris, Nov. 25, 1892, he first publicly announced the Olympic Games idea. 

However, his proposal to revive the Olympic Games came to nothing as his auditors failed to grasp the significance of the idea.

His next opportunity came in the spring of 1894 at an international congress which be had assembled for the purpose of studying the
questions of amateurism. At this meeting, official delegates from France, England, the United States, Greece, Russia, Sweden, Belgium, Italy, and Spain, were in attendance. Hungary, Germany, Bohemia, Holland and
Australia sent proxies or letters.

Seven questions concerning the problem of amateurism were on the agenda and Coubertin took of added an eighth, "Regarding the possibility of the revival of the Olympic Games." Coubertin was so enthusiastic that it was agreed by all at the meeting, on June 23, 1894 to revive the Games and an International Committee was formed to look after their development and well-being. 

Two years later, in 1896, Greece celebrated in the rebuilt stadium of Athens, the first Olympic Games of the present cycle and from this beginning, the world's greatest athletic spectacle was established. Only the ceaseless labour, the tenacity and the perseverance of Baron de Coubertin accomplished and perfected this great work. Its main organisation benefited from his methodical and precise mind and from
his wide understanding of the goals and needs of youth. In fact, Coubertin was the sole director of the Games as regards their form and character; the Olympic Charter and Protocol and the athlete's oath were
his creation, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games. In addition, until 1925, he personally presided over the IOC, assuming single-handed all the administrative and financial duties. The
work of Baron de Coubertin was, above all, a work of peace but there is one basic fact, almost universally misunderstood - Peace is not the major aim of the Olympic Games.

"Peace," de Coubertin hoped and believed, "would be furthered by the Olympic Games . . but peace could be the product only of a better world; a better world could be brought about only by better individuals; and better individuals could be developed only by the give and take, the buffeting and battering, the stress and strain of fierce competition."