The modern Olympics have shared positive and negative aspects with their ancient Greek models since the legendary founding of the games at Olympia in 776 B.C.

During the ancient Olympics, athletes, their fathers and trainers made oaths not to “sin against the games.” But some didn’t take this oath as seriously as others.

The setting for the earliest Olympic Games some 3,000 years ago was both a sanctuary of soaring marble temples and a foul, drunken shantytown plagued by water shortages, campfire smoke and sewage. The ...

In Ancient Olympia, home of the ancient Olympics for more than 1,000 years, a flame was thought to burn perpetually on a shrine, symbolizing the eternal spirit of the Games: the enduring pursuit ...

The truth is that while the ancient Olympics originated in Greece, its modern incarnation is very much a French affair. The Games were revived in the 1890s by a French nobleman, Baron Pierre de ...

In this respect, the Olympics have advanced greatly since ancient times, when only male Greek citizens could watch and compete. But Romano urges caution in comparing the ancient and modern games.