Olympic Stadia

Theatres of Dreams

Geraint John, Dave Parker

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781315518039
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architettura
• Subtopic: Architettura generale

Olympic Stadia provides a comprehensive account of the development of stadia including but not limited to: developments in running tracks, the introduction of lighting, improvements in spectator viewing standards and the introduction of roofs.

Written by a world-renowned expert on sports architecture, the book:

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• Systematically analyses every stadium from Athens 1896 to Tokyo 2020
• Provides drawings, plans, elevations, photographs and illustrations in full colour
• Considers the fundamental changes wrought by the incorporation of the Paralympic Games
• Looks at the impact on host cities and their urban infrastructure, and considers the long-term legacies and massive investments that Olympic stadia require
• Explores the effects of the demands of the world's TV broadcasters.

An invaluable and beautiful resource for practical insight and inspiration, this book makes essential reading for anyone interested in Olympic stadia.

CHAPTER 1
IN THE BEGINNING

 

 

Abstract

By the year 200 BCE most of the major cities in Greece held their own Games, combinations of religious ceremonies and athletic events. The most prestigious of these were the Olympic Games, held every four years in southern Greece. Inter-city warfare was common, but a truce was almost always agreed to allow the Games to take place.

For the first 13 Olympiads only one athletic event took place, a simple foot race over 192m. Over the centuries, however, the Games expanded to include up to 20 competitions, for which the prizes were no more than olive wreaths. Winners, however, could expect to be showered with gifts, money, and even political advancement when they returned to their own cities.

After the Roman conquest of Greece in 148 BCE the Games gradually declined over several centuries. Gladiatorial contests and wild animal hunts catered to Roman tastes. Floods, earthquakes and barbarian invasions battered the Olympic complex. Finally, in AD 394, the Christian Emperor of Rome banned all Games throughout the Greek world as they were considered to be pagan festivals.

 

 

BY THE YEAR 200 BCE the ancient Olympic Games had reached their classical apogee. Every four years a truce was agreed between the frequently warring Greek city states, a truce largely observed, and hundreds of athletes from all over the Greek world made the difficult, uncomfortable and expensive journey to the city of Elis on the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece. Nearby was a complex of marble temples and monuments, and a dedicated athletics stadium. This was ancient Olympia, a name that had no direct connection to Mount Olympus, far to the north.

Up to 20 competitions were held over seven days, usually including around six or seven equestrian events such as chariot racing. The prizes for the winners would be no more than olive leaf wreaths – although those who were crowned with the olives could expect to be rewarded with money, gifts and even political advancement when they returned to their home cities.

There were other Games in Greece at the time; in fact most major cities held their own Games, but the most prestigious were the Panhellenic Games. These were held at Olympia, Delphi, Nemea and Isthmia, with the Olympics being the longest established and most revered.

An early artist’s impression of ancient Olympia, not confirmed by subsequent archaeological investigations.

SOURCE: PUBLIC DOMAIN

In practice this meant that at least one of these four Games was held every year. Together they were also known as the Stephanitic Games, meaning that the victors received only a wreath, as opposed to the Panathenaic Games, for example, where winners could expect large quantities of olive oil as prizes.

All four Games were as much religious festivals as sporting events. Each of the Games honoured a different Greek god: Zeus in the case of the Olympics, whose prestige had much to do with a giant 13m high gold and ivory statue of Zeus that was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. For the first 13 Olympiads only one event took place, the stadion, a simple foot race over 192m, and this was seen as a relatively minor feature of the elaborate religious ceremonies.

Indeed, the first recorded race at the Olympics, in 775 BCE, was a stadion for women, to decide who would be priestess for the goddess Hera. Later the Heraean Games for women were held from around 600 BCE. Women competed, in men’s clothing, in a variety of foot races.

As male competitors were nude, it was and is widely believed that women were banned from watching the Games on pain of being thrown off a nearby cliff. It now seems, however, that this ban only applied to married women.

Women also competed in their own Games, wearing male clothing.

SOURCE: PUBLIC DOMAIN

Competitions for youths were first recorded at the 37th Olympiad in 632 BCE. Many of the 23 events that took place when the Games were at their height have never been revived. These included mule-cart racing, the virtually rule-free combat sport pankration and the final event at each Games, the hoplitodromos, where competitors raced in full military armour.

However, boxing, wrestling and a range of foot races have survived. The long jump, the javelin and the discus, along with wrestling and a foot race, formed the first pentathlon.

A classic image of ancient Greek athletes.

SOURCE: CREATIVE COMMONS – CREDIT MARIE-LAN NGUYEN

After the Roman conquest of Greece in 148 BCE the Games continued for several centuries. A gradual decline led to gladiatorial combats and wild animal hunts being added to pander to the more robust Roman taste. Earthquakes and barbarian invasions, plundering by the Romans and frequent flooding all took their toll on the Olympic complex. The death knell was sounded in AD 394, when Theodosius, the Christian Emperor of Rome, banned all Games throughout the Greek world as being no more than pagan festivals.

Remarkably, memories of the Olympics lingered on over the centuries, never quite fading away. In the 19th century there were serious attempts to revive the Olympic spirit (see Chapter 2), culminating in the first Olympiad of the modern era (see Chapter 5).

Further reading

Swaddling, Judith 2004. The Ancient Olympic Games. The British Museum Press, ISBN 978-0-7141-2250-2.

The original Olympic stadium, set in its natural amphitheatre.

CREDIT: PUBIC DOMAIN

CHAPTER 2
FIRST STIRRINGS

Abstract

Somehow the Olympic dream never died over the centuries that followed the Roman suppression of the original. Festivals continued to be held, one of the best known being the Cotswold Olimpicks, held at Chipping Camden in south-west England. From 1612 until 1852 events ranging from traditional athletics to dancing competitions were held in a natural amphitheatre.

In 1850, not far to the north, local doctor William Penny Brookes launched the first Much Wenlock Olympian Games. Later came the first Shropshire Olympic Games, the Liverpool Olympics, and the first National Olympian Games in London in 1865.

Greece was also trying to revive the Games, with the Zappas Olympics beginning in 1859. Brookes attempted to internationalize the Olympic revival movement by communication with the Greek government, but without success. However, the Much Wenlock Games were an inspiration to French Olympic revival campaigner Baron Pierre de Coubertin. He visited Brookes in 1890, and learned a great deal from him, not least the advantages of an opening pageant and the importance of amateurism.

Brookes is now seen as the real inspiration for the modern Olympic Games, a role acknowledged by the IOC in 1994.

IMPERIAL ROME may have first corrupted and finally crushed the Ancient Greek Games (see Chapter 1), but the Olympic Flame never quite flickered and died. For millennia human beings have congregated, celebrated and competed. Religious festivals, funeral ceremonies and solstices have provided many opportunities, and even when the doctrinal heirs of the Christian Roman emperors tried to suppress such “pagan” events, they never completely succeeded.

As Rome’s amphitheatres and arenas decayed and largely disappeared, such events as were held often returned to their ancient roots in natural arenas. A prime example is located on Dover’s Hill, on the outskirts of Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds, an area in the south-west of England. In the early 17th century the area had grown rich from the wool trade, but political and religious strife was convulsing the country. A local Cambridge-educated solicitor by the name of Robert Dover took on the task of unifying local residents, if only for a day or two.

Whitsuntide, the week following Whit Sunday, itself seven days after Easter, was a traditional holiday period and the time for fairs, processions and parades. Dover proposed a series of competitions that would attract competitors and spectators from all social classes, an event that was soon to be christened the Cotswold Olimpicks.

It was held in a natural amp...