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Anolympiad (Greek:Ὀλυμπιάς,Olympiás) is a period of four years, particularly those associated with theancient andmodern Olympic Games.
Although the ancient Olympics were established duringGreece's Archaic Era, it was not untilHippias that a consistent list was established and not untilEphorus in theHellenistic period that the first recorded Olympic contest was used as acalendar epoch. Ancient authors agreed that other Olympics had been held before the race won byCoroebus but disagreed on how many; the convention was established to place Coroebus's victory at a time equivalent to the summer of776 BC in the Proleptic Julian calendar, and to treat it as Year 1 of Olympiad 1. Olympiad 2 began with the next games in the summer of 772 BC.
Thus, for N less than 195, Olympiad N is reckoned as having started in the year BC and ended four years later. For N greater than or equal to 195, Olympiad N began in AD and ended four years later. By extrapolation, the 1st year of the 701th Olympiad begins roughly around 2 August 2025.
In reference to the modern Olympics, their Olympiads are four year periods beginning on January 1 of the year of theSummer Games. Thus, the modern Olympiad I began 1 January 1896, Olympiad II began 1 January 1900, and so on. Olympiad XXXIII began 1 January 2024.[1] Because theJulian andGregorian calendars go directly from 1 BC to AD 1, the cycle of modern Olympiads is ahead of the ancient cycle by one year.
Each olympiad started with the holding of the games, which originally began on the first or secondfull moon after thesummer solstice. After the introduction of theMetonic cycle about 432 BC, the start of the games was determined slightly differently. Within each olympiad, time was reckoned by referring to its 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year. Ancient writers sometimes describe their Olympiads as lasting five years but do so bycounting inclusively; in fact each comprised a four year period. For example, the first year of Olympiad 140 began in the summer of 220 BC and lasted until the middle of 219 BC. After the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years of Olympiad 140, the games in the summer of 216 BC would begin the first year of Olympiad 141.
ThesophistHippias was the first writer to compile a comprehensive list of the Olympic victors (ολυμπιονίκες,olympioníkes). Although hisOlympic Record (Ὀλυμπιονικῶν Ἀναγραφή,Olympionikō̂n Anagraphḗ) is now entirely lost, it apparently formed the basis of all later Olympic dating.[2] The numbering of Olympiads was introduced byEratosthenes orTimaeus; the first on the list occurred in 776 BC.[3] The panhellenic nature of the games, their regular schedule, and the improvedvictor list allowed Greek historians from Eratosthenes onwards to use the Olympiads as a way of reckoning time that did not depend on the various calendars of thecity-states.[4] The first to do so consistently wasTimaeus ofTauromenium in the third century BC. Nevertheless, since for events of the early history of the games the reckoning was used in retrospect, some of the dates given by later historian for events before the 5th century BC are very unreliable.[5] Because the Olympics occurred in mid-summer, the years reckoned by the Olympiad system aligned with theAttic calendar (which names years by the names ofarchons, not numbers) ofAncient Athens, but not withRoman consular years (which began on January 1) orAncient Macedonian calendar years (which began in the autumn).[4]
In the2nd century,Phlegon of Tralles summarized the events of each Olympiad in a book calledOlympiads; fragments survive in the work of theByzantine writerPhotius.[6] Christian chroniclers continued to use this Greek system of dating as a way of synchronizingbiblical events with Greek and Roman history. In the3rd century,Sextus Julius Africanus compiled a list of Olympic victors up to 217 BC, and this list has been preserved in theChronicle ofEusebius.[7]
Though the games were held without interruption, on more than one occasion they were held by others than theEleians. The Eleians declared such gamesAnolympiads (non-Olympics), but it is assumed the winners were nevertheless recorded.
During the3rd century, records of the games are so scanty that historians are not certain whether after 261 they were still held every four years. Some winners were recorded though, until the 293rd and last Olympiad of AD 393. In 394,Roman EmperorTheodosius I outlawed the games at Olympia as pagan. Though it would have been possible to continue the reckoning by just counting four-year periods, by the middle of the5th century reckoning by Olympiads had ceased.
TheSummer Olympics are more correctly referred to as the Games of the Olympiad. The firstposter to announce the games using this term was the one for the1932 Summer Olympics, in Los Angeles, using the phrase:Call to the games of the Xth Olympiad.
The modern Olympiad is a period of four years: the first Olympiad started on 1 January 1896, and an Olympiad starts on 1 January of the years evenly divisible by four.[13]
This means that the count of the Olympiads continues, even if Olympic Games are cancelled: For instance, the regular intervals would have meant (summer) Olympic Games should have occurred in 1940 and 1944, but both were cancelled due toWorld War II.
Nonetheless, the count of the Olympiads continued: The 1936 Games were those of the XI Olympiad, while the next Summer Games were those of 1948, which were the Games of the XIV Olympiad. The current Olympiad is the XXXIII of the modern era, which began on 1 January 2024.
Note, however, that the official numbering of theWinter Olympics does not count Olympiads, it counts only the Games themselves.
For example, the first Winter Games, in1924, are not designated asWinter Games of the VII Olympiad, but as theI Winter Olympic Games. (The first Winter Games were termed as "Olympic" in a later year.)
The1936 Summer Games were theGames of the XI Olympiad. After the1940 and1944 Summer Games were canceled due toWorld War II, the Games resumed in1948 as theGames of the XIV Olympiad. However, the1936 Winter Games were theIV Winter Olympic Games, and on the resumption of the Winter Games in1948, the event was designated theV Winter Olympic Games.[14]
The2020 Summer Games were theGames of the XXXII Olympiad. On 24 March 2020, due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, it was postponed to 2021 rather than cancelled, and thus becoming the first postponement in the 124-year history of the Olympics.[12]
Some media people have from time to time referred to a particular (e.g., thenth) Winter Olympics as "the Games of thenth Winter Olympiad", perhaps believing it to be the correct formal name for the Winter Games by analogy with that of the Summer Games. Indeed, at least one IOC-published article has applied this nomenclature as well.[15] This analogy is sometimes extended further by media references to "Summer Olympiads".
However, the IOC does not seem to make an official distinction between Olympiads for the summer and winter games, and such usage, particularly for the Winter Olympics, is inconsistent with the numbering discussed above.
Some Olympic Committees often use the termquadrennium, which they claim refers to the same four-year period. However, it indicates these quadrennia in calendar years, starting with the first year after the Summer Olympics and ending with the year the next Olympics are held. This would suggest a more precise period of four years, but, for example, the 2001–2004 Quadrennium would then not be exactly the same period as theXXVII Olympiad, which was 2000–2003.[16]
Pierre de Coubertin, who founded the modern Olympic Games, proposed including the arts in the Olympics, returning to the ancient tradition[17] in Olympia, where both cultural events and physical feats were celebrated.[18] At a 1906 conference in Paris, a project was launched to establish five arts competitions as part of the Olympic Games: in architecture, sculpture, painting, literature, and music, theOlympic art competitions.[17][19] The first official programme was presented during the1912 Games inStockholm,[17] with the last held in 1948.[19]
In 1952 theOrganising Committee of the Olympic Games (OCOG) of theHelsinki games decided to drop the arts programme. However From 1954 to 1990, the IOC asked each OCOG to organise a programme of arts events that showcased the best of the host country's culture as well as encouraging international understanding.[17] From theBarcelona Olympics in 1992, a "Cultural Olympiad" started being held to accompany the Olympic Games, organised by the OCOG during the preceding four years to each Games as well as a series of major events to coincide with the sports events.[17] The term "Cultural Olympiad" has been largely replaced by "Cultural Programme", which starts about four years before the Games. Around two months before the Games, the "Culture Festival" is launched, lasting until the end of theParalympic Games. In 2020, a new strategy was announced as part ofOlympic Agenda 2020, via Recommendation 26, which aims to "further strengthen the alliance of sport and culture at the Olympic Games and between their different editions". TheOlympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage reinforced its own cultural policy as part of this new strategy.[17]
The English term is still often used popularly to indicate the games themselves, a usage that is uncommon in ancient Greek (as an Olympiad is most often the time periodbetween and including sets of games).[20] It is also used to indicate international competitions other than physical sports. This includesinternational science olympiads, such as theInternational Geography Olympiad,International Mathematical Olympiad, International Forensics Olympiad, and theInternational Linguistics Olympiad and their associated national qualifying tests (e.g., theUnited States of America Mathematical Olympiad, the USA Forensics Olympiad or theUnited Kingdom Linguistics Olympiad), and also events in mind-sports, such as theScience Olympiad,Mindsport Olympiad,Chess Olympiad,International History Olympiad andComputer Olympiad. In these casesOlympiad is used to indicate a regular event of international competition for top achieving participants; it does not necessarily indicate a four-year period.[citation needed]
In some languages, likeCzech andSlovak, Olympiad (Czech:olympiáda) is the correct term for the games.[citation needed]
The Olympiad (L'Olimpiade) is also the name of some 60operas set in Ancient Greece.[citation needed]
The XXI Winter Olympiad was to be the first 'social media Games'.
