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An Olympiad is a period of four years, associated with the Olympic Games
Ancient Olympic Games

The Ancient Olympic Games, originally referred to as simply the Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions held for representatives of various city-states of Ancient Greece....
 of Classical Greece
Classical Greece

Classical Greece was a culture that was highly advanced and which heavilly influenced the cultures of Ancient Rome and much of the Western World....
. In the Hellenistic period
Hellenistic period

The Hellenistic period describes the era which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great. During this time, Greek cultural influence and power was at its zenith in Europe and Asia....
, beginning with Ephorus
Ephorus

Ephorus or Ephoros , of Kyme in Aeolis, in Asia Minor, was an Ancient Greece historian. Information on his biography is limited; he was the father of Demophilus, who followed in his footsteps as a historian, and to Plutarch's claim that Ephorus declined Alexander the great's offer to join him on his Alexander the great#Period_of_conque...
, Olympiads were used as calendar epoch
Epoch (reference date)

In the fields of chronology and periodization, an epoch means an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular era. The "epoch" then serves as a reference point from which time is measured....
. In this reckoning, the first Olympiad lasted from the summer of 776 BC to that of 772 BC. By extrapolation, the |0 = 1st |1 = 2nd |2 = 3rd |3 = 4th }} year of the th Olympiad begins in summer .

Today, an Olympiad refers to a period beginning January 1 of a year in which the Summer Olympics are due to occur, and lasting four years.






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An Olympiad is a period of four years, associated with the Olympic Games
Ancient Olympic Games

The Ancient Olympic Games, originally referred to as simply the Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions held for representatives of various city-states of Ancient Greece....
 of Classical Greece
Classical Greece

Classical Greece was a culture that was highly advanced and which heavilly influenced the cultures of Ancient Rome and much of the Western World....
. In the Hellenistic period
Hellenistic period

The Hellenistic period describes the era which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great. During this time, Greek cultural influence and power was at its zenith in Europe and Asia....
, beginning with Ephorus
Ephorus

Ephorus or Ephoros , of Kyme in Aeolis, in Asia Minor, was an Ancient Greece historian. Information on his biography is limited; he was the father of Demophilus, who followed in his footsteps as a historian, and to Plutarch's claim that Ephorus declined Alexander the great's offer to join him on his Alexander the great#Period_of_conque...
, Olympiads were used as calendar epoch
Epoch (reference date)

In the fields of chronology and periodization, an epoch means an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular era. The "epoch" then serves as a reference point from which time is measured....
. In this reckoning, the first Olympiad lasted from the summer of 776 BC to that of 772 BC. By extrapolation, the |0 = 1st |1 = 2nd |2 = 3rd |3 = 4th }} year of the th Olympiad begins in summer .

Today, an Olympiad refers to a period beginning January 1 of a year in which the Summer Olympics are due to occur, and lasting four years. The first modern Olympiad began in 1896, the second began in 1900, and so on. The 29th began in 2008 (see the ).

Ancient Olympics

An Olympiad, especially in ancient literature, was a period of four years (Polybius
Polybius

Polybius was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his book called The Histories covering in detail the period of 220–146 BC....
, Example: OL 1 - Yr. 1 - 776/775, Yr. 2 - 775/774, Yr. 3 - 774/773, Yr. 4 - 773/772

Example for AUC: OL 6 - Yr. 1 - 756/755, Yr. 2 - 755/754, Yr. 3 - 754/753, Yr. 4 - 753/752

Historians

From 776 BC Olympic Games were presumably held without fail. Greek historians used the Olympiads as a way of reckoning time that did not depend on the time reckonings of one of the city-states. (See Attic calendar
Attic calendar

The Attic calendar is the calendar that was in use in ancient Attica, the ancestral territory of the ancient Athens polis. This article focuses on the 5th century BC and 4th century BC, the classical period that produced some of the most significant works of ancient Greek literature....
.) The first to do so consistently was Timaeus
Timaeus

Timaeus is a Greek name, meaning "Honour". It may refer to:*Timaeus , a Socratic dialogue by Plato*Timaeus of Locri, the 5th-century Pythagorean philosopher, appearing in Plato's dialogue...
 of Tauromenium. Nevertheless, since for events in the early history of the games the reckoning was used in retrospect, even though Greek historians gave them dates later, it is not clear which events occurred during which Olympiad. See Ancient Olympics.

Start of the Olympiad

An Olympiad started with the games, which were held at the beginning of the Olympic new year, which fell on the full moon
Full moon

Full moon is a lunar phase that occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. More precisely, a full moon occurs when the geocentric apparent longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180 degrees; the Moon is then in opposition with the Sun....
 closest to the summer solstice
Solstice

A solstice is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year, when the tilt of the Earth's Rotation is most inclined toward or away from the Sun, causing the Sun's apparent position in the sky to reach its north or south extreme....
. (After the introduction of the Metonic cycle
Metonic cycle

The Metonic cycle or Enneadecaeteris in astronomy and calendar studies is a particular approximate Least common multiple of the tropical year and the Month#Synodic month....
 about 432 BC, the start of the Olympic year was determined slightly differently).

Era

Though Olympic games were held before Coroebus, his is the first Olympiad recorded. Therefore the reckoning in Olympiads starts in 776 BC. In the third century AD the games had dwindled to the point where historians are not certain whether after 261 they were still held every four years. During the early years of the Olympiad, any physical benefit coming out of a sport was banned. Some winners were recorded though, until the last Olympiad in 393. In 394, Roman
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 Emperor Theodosius I
Theodosius I

Flavius Theodosius , also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great , was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Reuniting the eastern and western portions of the empire, Theodosius was the last emperor of both the Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire....
 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 the fifth century AD reckoning in Olympiads had fallen into disuse.

Examples

  • 776/775 (BC) First year of the First Olympiad.
  • 775/774 Second year of the First Olympiad.
  • 774/773 Third year of the First Olympiad.
  • 773/772 Fourth year of the First Olympiad.
  • 772/771 First year of the Second Olympiad.
  • 771/770 Second year of the Second Olympiad.
...
  • 2/1 (BC) Third year of the 194th Olympiad.
  • 1/1 (1 BC - 1 AD) Fourth year of the 194th Olympiad.
  • 1/2 (AD) 1st year of the 195th Olympiad.
  • 2/3 2nd year of the 195th Olympiad.
...
  • 393/394 1st year of the 293rd Olympiad.
  • 394/395 2nd year of the 293rd Olympiad.


By extrapolation:
  • 1893 1st year of the 668th Olympiad.
  • 1894 2nd year of the 668th Olympiad.
  • 1895 3rd year of the 668th Olympiad.
  • 1896 4th year of the 668th Olympiad / First year of the First Olympiad of the Modern Era
    1896 Summer Olympics

    The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to April 15, 1896....
    .


Anolympiad

Though the games were held without interruption, on more than one occasion they were celebrated by others than the Eleiäns. The Eleiäns declared such games Anolympiads (non-Olympics), but it is assumed the winners nevertheless were recorded.

Modern Olympics

For the modern Olympics the term was long used to indicate the games themselves, but the IOC now uses it to indicate a period of four years.

Start and end

The modern Olympiad starts with the celebration of the Olympiad. These are the Summer Olympics, more correctly indicated as the Games of the Olympiad. The first poster
Poster

A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both typography and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly textual....
 to announce the games using this term was the one for the 1932 Summer Olympics
1932 Summer Olympics

The 1932 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the X Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States....
, in Los Angeles, using the phrase: Call to the games of the Xth Olympiad

An Olympiad normally ends with the opening of the games of the next Olympiad, which may be slightly less or slightly more than four years. If for some reason the next Olympiad is not celebrated, the olympiad expires exactly four years after its beginning, after which the new Olympiad commences.

Quadrennium

The U.S. Olympic Committee often uses the term quadrennium, which it claims refers to the same four-year period. However, it indicates these quadrennia in calendar years, starting with the first year after the Summer Olympics end ending with the year the next Olympics are held. This would suggest a more precise period of four years, but the 2001–2004 Quadrennium would then not be the exact same period as the XXVIIth Olympiad
2000 Summer Olympics

The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 13 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
.

Cultural Olympiad

A celebration known as the Cultural Olympiad was established to include all cultural events of the Olympic Movement. This Olympiad is a period most recently held in Athens from 2001–2004, where artists from around the world came and exhibited their art.

Other uses

Outside the IOC the term is still often used to indicate the games themselves, a usage that is strictly erroneous (as an Olympiad is the time period between games) but widely accepted nevertheless. It is also used to indicate international competitions in fields other than physical sport
Sport

Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of regulation of sport or traditions and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome , but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports and motor...
s. This includes international science olympiads, such as the International Mathematical Olympiad
International Mathematical Olympiad

The International Mathematical Olympiad is an annual six-problem, 42-point mathematical olympiad for pre-college students and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads....
 and the International Olympiad in Informatics
International Olympiad in Informatics

The International Olympiad in Informatics is an annual Computer science International Science Olympiad for secondary school students. The first IOI was held in 1989 in Pravetz, Bulgaria....
 and their associated national qualifying exams (e.g, the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad
United States of America Mathematical Olympiad

The United States of America Mathematical Olympiad is a prestigious high school mathematics competition held annually in the United States. Since its debut in 1972, it has served as the final round of the American Mathematics Competitions series of contests....
 or the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad
North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad

The North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad is a linguistics competition for high school students in the United States and Canada that has been held since 2007....
), and also events in mindsports, such as the Science Olympiad
Science Olympiad

Science Olympiad is a primarily United States elementary school, middle school, or high school team competition that requires knowledge of various science topics and engineering ability....
, Mindsport Olympiad, Chess Olympiad
Chess Olympiad

The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation....
 and Computer Olympiad
Computer Olympiad

The Computer Olympiads are a multi-games event taking place every year in which computer programs compete against each other. The majority of the games are board games but other games such as Contract bridge take place as well....
. In these cases Olympiad is used to indicate a regular event of international competition; it does not necessarily indicate a four-year period.

The Olympiad (L'Olimpiade
L'Olimpiade

L'Olimpiade is an opera libretto in three acts by Metastasio, that was originally written for Antonio Caldara's 1733 opera. Following Caldara's success, more than 60 baroque music and Classical music era composers used the libretto for their own renditions....
) is also the name of some 60 opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
s, of which the plot is set in Ancient Greece.

External links

  • Valerie Vaughan, (2002) on OneReed.com, an astrologically
    Astrology

    Astrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of astronomical object and related details can provide useful information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters....
    -oriented site.