The Olympics start this week!?!

Who has been waiting for this day for the past 5 years!?  

And let’s be real, there are so many mixed emotions about the Olympics happening this year, 80% of the polled Japanese don’t want it to happen, and yet it’s plowing along anyway.  Japan’s covid isn’t looking good, it’s been hard for all the athletes from all over the world to get vaccinated, and some athletes had to drop out of training after years of dedication to this one date in the future.

If you want to hear more about this, check out our blog and podcast episode with Sammy Barlow, world class kayaker, who decided she couldn’t continue to dedicate her life to an olympics that maybe wouldn’t happen.  Listen to her tell her story here!

But also, I can’t even imagine the joy of all the athletes who’ve made it.  Who took on insurmountable odds of pushing forward, training their bodies to be the best in the world, and even overcame a global pandemic.

The Olympics always make me teary-eyed, just from looking at those athletes faces who made it.  Who worked so hard and their dreams came true.

Lina Taylor, two time Olympic Volleyball player chatted with us on our podcast about her road to the Olympics and how she qualified in just two months!  Check it out here!

Let’s talk about the history of these Games!

The first Olympic Games took place in the 8th century B.C. in Olympia, Greece. They were also held every four years for for 12 centuries. Then, in the 4th century CE., all pagan festivals were banned by Emperor Theodosius I and the Olympics finally puttered out.  But just think 12 centuries!!!  Our modern Olympics can’t hold a light on that!

And interestingly enough, the games actually lasted 5 to 6 months back then, and the men competed nude.

The modern Olympics that we know today was resurrected about 1500 years later: this athletic tradition of the Olympics were held in 1896 in Greece where the first marathon was run.

In 1900 women were allowed to start competing in the games, but it wasn’t until the 2012 London Games that all competing countries sent female athletes.

And the Olympics haven’t always just been about sports, between 1912 and 1948, artists actually participated in the games, sculptors, musicians, architects, and painters would win medals for being the best in their fields.

There are other eliminated sports including tug of war, rope climbing, hot air ballooning, dueling pistol, solo synchronized swimming, tandem bicycle and even LIVE PIGEON SHOOTING which happened only once in the 1900 Paris Olympics.

There’s so much history to this sporting event, I can’t wait to watch, especially all of the volleyball!  What’s your favorite sport?

About the author

Alice Cash is the Marketing Manager for Jubilance by day and an award winning Theatre Director by night.  Leading the podcast Weekly Woman, she loves her candid conversations with women from all over the world about how they live and the amazing things they are doing to make a difference. Alice is also the editor of the bi-monthly newsletter the Jubilee, a blog dedicated to the power of female wellness especially concerning menstruation.  She’s worked in France creating theatre pieces and taught drama and filmmaking to women and children in Haiti.  She graduated from Georgetown University and holds two master degrees from NYU and The New School.  Alice has traveled to  40+ countries, including Tibet.  She is a New Yorker and can often be found in Central Park, searching out the best bubble tea, or directing a play, you never know where she’ll show up. @alicesadventuresinwonderworld
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