23 March 2012 Posted by GE for CEE

CEE@Olympics – Faster, Stronger, Higher

Greece, Greece, Greece has been the headline lately. Let’s see the other side of the coin and take a look at what the world learned from the Greeks. From ancient times to modern days, people have always honored and praised the victorious athletes in the Olympic Games for their courage to compete, their determination to be the best and their constant strive to achieve great results. Then and now – part one of our series about the CEE region and the London Games of which GE is one of the 11 Olympic Worldwide Partners.

How it all began

Originally, the Olympic Games were a series of competitions held every four years between representatives of several city-states in Ancient Greece. Mystery surrounds the beginnings of the Olympics and according to one legend, the god Heracles was the first to call the Games “Olympic,” establishing the custom of holding them every four years. He supposedly built the Olympic stadium as an honor to his father Zeus, the supreme God in mythology. He also walked in a straight line for 200 steps, calling this distance a “stadion.”

The Ancient Games included competitions in jumping, discus and javelin throwing, a foot race, wrestling, boxing, and equestrian events. In 776 BC Coroebus, a cook from the city of Elis, was the first Olympic champion of which we still have written records.

The Olympic Games gradually declined in importance as the Romans rose to power in Greece. In 393 AD, the Roman emperor Theodosius I declared that all pagan cults and practices had to be eliminated, which also ended the Olympics.

Modern Olympic Games

The first Olympic Games in the modern era were the 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as The Games of the I Olympiad. They were held in Athens, Greece, which was unanimously chosen as the host city during a congress in Paris on June 23, 1894 organized by Pierre de Coubertin, a French historian. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was also established at this congress.

Currently, the Olympic movement is a worldwide phenomenon with 204 participating National Olympic Committees. Due to the development of communication technologies, athletes are watched by billions of people and have achieved the status of international superstars. This year, we will be watching the athletes compete in London in the 30^th edition of the Olympic Games.

CEE highlights

On the last five Summer and Winter Games, between 1992-2012, CEE countries received more than 500 medals all together.

CEE Olympic results in 14 countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia) (Source: www.olympic.org)

The last five editions of the Summer Olympic Games were very successful for athletes from each CEE countries, but especially from Hungary, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. These 5 countries won 350 medals on the last five Summer Games, rewards for years of training and dedication to their sports.