To respect the ancient origins of the Games. At that time, sports competitions were organised in Olympia and were named after their location, i.e. Olympic Games. These Games were held at the same place every four years. This four-year period acquired the name Olympiad, and was used as a date system: time was counted in Olympiads, rather than years.

In 1894, Pierre de Coubertin launched his project to restore the Olympic Games, and in 1896 the first modern Olympic Games took place in Athens.

• The Ancient Olympic Games
• Education factsheet
• Athens 1896