Long, long ago — about 2,800 years before today — people in ancient Greece held the first Olympic Games in a place called Olympia.
In this lesson you will meet the first Olympic athletes — who they were, what they did, and what they won. There are games to play along the way. Ready? Let's go! 🏃
Tip: tap the pictures and buttons — most of them do something!
At the first Games in 776 BC, there was only one event: a running race called the stadion. It was about 192 metres — roughly the length of two football fields end to end.
Tap “Go!” to run the stadion. Then guess: who crossed the line first?
Who won the stadion?
📜 Did you know? The winner of that very first race was a cook named Coroebus of Elis. He is the first Olympic champion whose name we still remember!
They were not famous sports stars. They were ordinary Greek people — bakers, soldiers, shepherds, farmers, cooks — who trained hard in their own home towns.
In ancient Olympia the rules were strict. Tap a face to see the rule for that person.
📜 Athletes had to promise in front of a statue of Zeus that they had trained for ten months and would not cheat. Cheaters had to pay for a statue with their name on it — so everyone knew!
For the first 50 years there was only the stadion race. Then, slowly, the Greeks added more events — about one new event every few Games.
Watch how the Olympics changed from one race into a whole festival.
📜 Pentathlon means “five contests”: running, long jump, discus, javelin and wrestling. An athlete had to be good at everything, not just one thing.
The pentathlon athlete was seen as the all-round best. Can you pack the five real pentathlon events into the athlete's kit bag?
Tap an event to pick it up, then tap the kit bag to drop it in. (You can also drag on a computer.) Careful — two of these were not in the ancient pentathlon!
There were no gold, silver or bronze medals at the ancient Olympics. The winner received a crown of wild olive leaves, cut from a sacred tree at Olympia with a golden knife.
Leaves sound like a small prize — but the honour was huge. Back home, a champion might get:
Tap the prizes that an ancient Olympic champion would have received.
Ancient Greek writers wrote down the names of champions. Here are three of the most famous — tap a card to hear their story.
The Olympics stopped for about 1,500 years, then began again in 1896 in Athens. Some things changed a lot; one big idea stayed the same.
Read each statement and tap Ancient or Modern. You can try again if you like.
📜 Stayed the same: athletes from many places meet in peace, do their very best, and the world watches. 🌏
You now know the story of the first Olympic athletes. Here is everything you learned:
🎉 You raced, you packed a pentathlon bag, and you sorted 2,800 years of history. Amazing!
Next time you watch the Olympics, remember: it all started with one cook, one sandy track, and one short run.