It is reasonable' to think that athletic contests were first organized some 3,500 years ago in Greece. However ancient in origin at least four of the Greek sporting festivals had achieved major importance. They were the Olympic Games, held in Olympia. There are records of the champions of Olympia from 766 B.C.3 to A.D.217. The first Olympic champion listed in the records was one Coroebus of Flis, a cook, who won the sprint race in 776 B.C. The Games were abolished in A.D. 393 by the Roman emperor5 Theodosius. Baron Pierre de Cubertin conceived the idea of reviving the Olympic Games, and in 1896 the first modern Olympic Games took place in Athens. 13 nations sent nearly 300 representatives to take part in 42 events and 10 different sports. Since then Olympic Games took place every four years, except the years of world wars. In 1996 the 26th Olympic Games took place in Atlanta [ət'læntə], the USA. 197 nations sent more than 11,000 athletes to those Games. For the first time in the history of Olympic Games, the Ukrainian team took part in those Games and won 22 medals there. Nine of them were golden ones.
