Olympic Games Wallpaper, #12576

The Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event. The Modern Olympic Games were inaugurated in Athens in 1896, and are held at the beginning of every Olympiad. The Games were organized as a summer sports event through 1920. In 1924 the winter games began in Chamonix, France. Until 1992, they were both held in the same year. Since then, the summer games are held during the first year of an Olympiad, the winter games during the third year.The Games gradually declined in importance as the Romans gained power in Greece. After Emperor Theodosius I proclaimed Christianity the religion of the Empire in AD 393 and banned pagan rites, the Olympic Games were outlawed as a pagan festival. The Olympics were not seen again until their rebirth 1,500 years later.In 1850, an "Olympian Class" was begun at Much Wenlock in Shropshire, England. This was renamed "Wenlock Olympian Games" in 1859 and continues to this day as the Wenlock Olympian Society Annual Games. The Wenlock Olympian Society was founded in 1860. A national Olympic Games in Great Britain was organised by their founder, Dr William Penny Brookes, at Crystal Palace in London, in 1866. This national Olympic Games was the first games to actually resemble an Olympic Games to be held outside of Greece.By 2010, the Olympic Games will have been hosted by 41 cities in 22 countries. The upcoming 2008 Summer Olympics will be held in Beijing, and the 2010 Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver. The number in parentheses following the city/country denotes how many times that city/country had then hosted the games, with said exclusions.