This is an international sports festival which originated in the city of Olympia, and the ancient city of Greece, situated in the West Peloponnesus.
Ancient Olympics:
The games were held at Mount Olympus in Greece in honor of Zeus from 776 BC and continued till 394 AD. Originally these games lasted only five days and generally began on the first new moon day after the summer solstice, around mid-July. There was a ceremony of the sacrifice of an animal, whose meat was traditionally offered as a prize to the winners. From 394 AD these games started degenerating and by AD 580 they altogether vanished. They were banned by the Roman Emperor Theodosius as Pagan Manifestations.
Modern Olympics:
It was the French nobleman Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who (nearly over 1500 years after the last ancient Olympics) revived these games in 1894, During a conference at Sorbonne held on June 23, 1894, where 13 countries participated, a resolution was passed to revive these games and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was formed at Paris with its H.Q. at Mon Repose, Lausanne (Switzerland). The IOC originally had a membership of only 15 in 1894 representing 12 nations. It has a membership of about 171 nations. The modern series of the Olympic Games started in 1896 in Athens and since then are held every four years.
Presidents List of International Olympic Committee (IOC):
| Duration | Name | Country |
| 1894-1896 | Demetrios Vikelas | Greece |
| 1896-1925 | Baron Pierre de Coubertin | France |
| 1925-1942 | Count Henri de Baillet-Latour | Belgium |
| 1942-1952 | Sigfrid Edstrom | Sweden |
| 1952-1972 | Avery Brundage | USA |
| 1972-1980 | Lord Killanin | Ireland |
| 1980-2001 | Juan Antonio Samaranch | Spain |
| (2001–2013) | Jacques Count Rogge | Belgium |
| (2013–present) | Thomas Bach | Germany |