Ancient Olympic Games Ancient Olympic Games The ancient Olympic Games were originally a festival, or celebration of and for Zeus; later, events such as a footrace, a javelin contest, and wrestling matches were added. The Olympic Games (, "Olympia", "the Olympics"; also , , "the Olympiad") were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and one of the Panhellenic Games of ancient Greece. They were held in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin. The first Olympics is traditionally dated to 776 BC. They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule, until the emperor
2010 Summer Youth Olympics torch relay Kuan Yew lit the cauldron at Marina Bay. However, the Youth Olympic flame was to last till the closing ceremony of the games. Although the IOC had scrapped any further international legs of the Olympic torch relay due to problems encountered during the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay, the Executive Board approved an exception for Singapore. The plan however was different from the traditional Olympics; the flame was to visit one city from each continent, where community celebrations would take place. The five cities, dubbed the "celebration cities", selected for the torch relay were Berlin, Germany; Dakar, Senegal; Mexico City,