5/28: Olympic Ruins Exploration

• Today was one of the most interesting and meaningful days of the trip. Today, we took a 15-minute bus ride to the Olympic ruins of Olympia. Which houses some of the oldest ruins that give us an idea of what the Ancient Olympic Games used to look like. Filled with temples of different gods as well as training centers for the athletes, this area of Olympia used to be the center of the ancient Olympic Games. People from all the different city-states in Greece as well as some outsiders from other countries came to compete in the other games that the Greeks put on. If you were victorious in the games you would receive a headband made out of olive branches from the original Athena's olive tree which was seen as a great honor to many Greeks during that time. They would also name the years after you to help keep track of time. For example, if I had won the ancient Olympics three years in a row the years would have been named Josh 1, 2, and 3. Everything about this trip to Olympia was very eye-opening as I did not know much about the ancient Olympic Games until then. To try and channel our own Ancient Olympic spirit we took to the same race track the ancient Olympians used to try and see who would win the games. I did not take part in the run as I did not want to hurt myself but my friends had a great time battling it out. I also learned about the sexism that took place during the games as women were not able to watch the games and if they were caught they were sentenced to death. Because of this rule, women did not take much interest in the Olympics as they wanted to preserve their lives so the cities of Greece created something called the Hera games, which was a similar type of games to the Olympics but with fewer games and an emphasis on more feminine sports. Even though there were some women who stayed far away from the Olympics there were some who resisted and actually ended up winning the Ancient Olympic Games. This entire trip to the Ancient Olympic ruins was very interesting and enlightening to me on how the Olympics we know and love today got to where it is today. It was not always perfect and did not have the same values as we do today but everything has to start somewhere. After our long and academic trip to the ancient Olympic ruins, we traveled to the center of town and had a great Greek lunch filled with classic Greek dishes such as gyros.