The Olympic Games originated in 776 B.C. in Olympia,a small town in Greece. Participants in the first Olympiad are said to have run a 200-yard race,but as the Games were held every four years,they expanded in scope.(1) ______________________________________________.
The event became a religious, patriotic,and athletic occasion where winners were honored with wreaths and special privileges.(2) _______________________________________________.They were banned in 394 A.D. by Emperor Theodosius,after they became professional circuses and carnivals.The modern Olympic Games began in Athens in 1896 as a result of the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin,a French educator whose desire was to
promote international understanding through athletics.Nine nations participated in the first Games;over 100 nations currently compete.The taint of politics and racial controversy,however, is the block for the Olympic Games in our epoch.In 1936 Hilter, whose country hosted the Games,affronted Jesse Owens, a black American runner,by refusing to congratulate Owens for the feat of having won four gold medals.(3) _____________________________________.The next Olympic Games in Montreal
were boycotted by African nations;in addition, Taiwan withdrew.In 1980, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan,sixty-two nations caused great dismay to their athletes by refusing to participate in the Games.The consensus among those nations was that their refusal would warn the Soviets.
