what year did the olympics start

The Olympic Games have a long history that goes back around 3,000 years to the Peloponnese in Ancient Greece. The first known Olympics were held in the summer of 776 B.C. at Olympia, a site in southern Greece where people went to worship their gods. The Olympics were created in honor of ancient Greece’s most famous god: Zeus, king of the gods. Athletes prayed to Zeus for victory and left gifts to thank him for their successes. Although the ancient Games were staged in Olympia, Greece, from 776 BC through 393 AD, it took 1503 years for the Olympics to return. The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. The man responsible for its rebirth was a Frenchman named Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who presented the idea in 1894. The first Games held under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was hosted in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens in 1896. Therefore, the Olympics started in Ancient Greece in 776 B.C. and the modern Olympics started in Athens, Greece, in 1896.