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Click on the links below to read the official schedule for the 130th Olympic Games.

To learn about the cultural events scheduled during the Games, click here.


The five-day Olympic Games feature the world’s most exciting athletic competitions. The newest addition to the program is chariot racing for teams of two colts,introduced at the 128th Olympic Games.

Schedule of Events

 

 

DAY 1

 
Olympic Games Athletes will swear publicly that they have trained the required 10 months and that they will observe the rules of the competition. The 10 Hellanodikai will swear to judge the games fairly and impartially.

Trumpeter and
Herald Contests
Trumpeters and heralds will compete for the honor of signaling the start of athletic events and announcing the winners.

Youth Contests Running, wrestling, and boxing competitions for boys from about 12 to 18 years old.

DAY 2

 
Procession

Horses, riders, and chariots will enter the Hippodrome.

Horse races
Eight races, including two- or four-horse chariot races and races for riders on adult horses, mares, and colts. Race lengths will vary.

Pentathlon A competition with five events:

Reminder: Spectators who arrive late to the pentathlon run the risk of missing the action, for if the same athlete wins the first three events, the remaining two will be canceled.

DAY 3

 
Sacrifice to Zeus

The central religious ceremony of the Olympics, the sacrifice to Zeus, will take place in the morning. The Hellanodikai, attired in purple robes, will lead a procession of athletes and official representatives from the various Hellene city-states around the Altis to the altar at the Temple of Zeus. Upon this altar, 100 oxen donated by the people of Elis will be sacrificed to Zeus. Parts of the sacrificed oxen will be burned upon the altar as an offering to the gods.

Foot races

The afternoon’s running competitions will include:

  • The Stade
  • The original Olympic game, the Stade is also the most coveted victory of the entire competition. The man who sprints to the end of the 1-stade-long stadium track first will be honored by having the entire 130th Olympic Games bear his name.

  • The Dolikohs
  • At roughly 20 times the length of one stade, this grueling contest is the longest of the three Olympic races.

  • The Dialous
  • Twice around the stadium track will complete the program of Olympic races.

Banquet

The menu for this lavish public feast will include meat from the oxen sacrificed to Zeus that morning. It will take place, as always, under a full moon, courtesy of careful scheduling by the planners of the games.

DAY 4

 
 

The morning will be dedicated to one-on-one games, including:

Wrestling — Men of many different sizes and weights will compete until one suffers three falls, leaving his opponent the victor.

Boxing — Fists protected only by oxeis himantes, leather gloves with reinforced knuckles, will fly in these bouts, which will continue without pause until one of the fighters is knocked unconscious or acknowledges defeat.

Pankration — Kicking, slapping, legholds, strangleholds — everything except gouging and biting — is fair in this intense close-contact competition.

Losers will signal their defeat by raising a finger toward the judges or by tapping lightly on the body of the victorious competitor.

Hoplitodromos — The final competition of the 130th Olympic Games will take place in the afternoon. Twenty-five contestants wearing helmets and carrying shields of the same weight will run two lengths of the stadium. This event more than any other reminds spectators that one of the purposes of the Olympic Games is to prepare the men of Hellas for war.

DAY 5

 

Victory Ceremony

The athletes will be honored for their great achievements at a public banquet and private dinners. Then they will embark for their homes, where they will be

  • accorded a hero’s welcome
  • feted at dinners
  • given gifts of money
  • awarded first-row seats at all local stage shows and public festivals
  • be immortalized with a statue at Olympia, if their fellow citizens and admirers can afford it.

 

Cultural Events

When not watching the athletic competitions, thousands of spectators will enjoy a wide range of cultural events and religious ceremonies. The audience consists mainly of men and boys taking advantage of the slow period between planting and harvesting crops. Highlights of the Olympic Games’s cultural events are:

  • the international premiere of poems immortalizing the victors of the games by some of the finest poets in Hellaschariot image
  • musical performances and contests featuring world-famous kithara and flute players
  • philosophical discussions showcasing some of Hellas’s greatest thinkers

 

Smooth and Rough AD View from Today

To read about the organizers and judges of the Games, click here.

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2002 World Book copyright