The Olympics originated as a
competition between several city-states in ancient
Greece in 776 BC. According to legend the ancient
Greek hero Heracles performed twelve labours set for
him and built the first Olympic stadium to honour the
God Zeus. He called the games the “Olympics” and established the tradition of holding it every four years.
This four-year period between Olympics was called the
Olympiad, and was a unit of time measurement used by
the Greeks. When the modern Olympic games were established in 1896, this four year tradition was adopted
and thus the Olympics today are held every four years.
