The Olympic Marathon

Sports is full of wonderful moments, but perhaps nothing is as exciting as the finish of the marathon. It is the longest and the hardest race of all. The name "marathon" comes from a village in Greece. There was a famous war in that city in the year 490 BC. When the Greeks won the war, a soldier ran all the way from Marathon to Athens(more than 4 km.) to tell the people the good news. These organizers of the first modern Olimpic Games in 1896 decided to include the marathon in the games so that this event would not be forgotten. The marathon has been a race since then.

At first, the Olimpic Games were a part of a festival. The Greeks had this festivalonce in every four years in Olimpia. Athletes from Greece, Cyprus and Sicily went there to take part in the games. These games were very important to the Greeks. They even stopped theirs wars for them.

The modern Oliympic Games were started again in 1896 in Athens. However, only 300 athletes from 13 countries went there to take part in the games. Since then, of course, the games have become much more popular. Only male athletes took part in the early Olympic Games. In the 1923 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, an important change happened. Female athletes took part in the games for the first time.

We all know that only amateur athletes can take part in th Olympic Games. An amateur is someone who does not earn any money from sport. But today, it is difficult to say who is an amateur and who is not. It is true that Olympic athletes never earn as much money as professional sportsmen but they are often students or teachers of a sport and have to spend a lot of time training, travel and pocket money, because they want them to win. Some people think that this situation changes the meaning of the Olympic Games. They feel that the games are now a political marathon.

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