Ancient Olympics: Let the Games Begin (2004)
• January 1st, 2004 • 0h 52min
Documentary, History
Overview
Come back with us to Ancient Greece, 2,500 Years ago to the original Olympic Games. The ancient Games, like our modern Olympics, included champions and cheaters, glory and scandals, bitter rivalries and contests of strength, speed and savage combat. Set in 448 BC when the pounding of horse's hooves and the brutal hand-to-hand combat could be heard and seen by the crowds that filled the Olympic stadium. This one-hour special event follows the glory and corruption of the arc of a single, five-day Olympiad. The competitions include chariot racing, running, jumping, discus, javelin and two man-to-man combat finals-boxing and pankration, a form of extreme fighting in which death was not uncommon. With the help of sports historians and great athletes such as George Chuvalo and Olympic medallists Donovan Bailey and Angela Schneider, viewers travel back to a very different life-in a very different world.
Make sure to check your pop-up blocker!!
Trailer
Similar Movies
Triumph: Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics
Released on: 2024-06-19
Documentary, History
Follows the 1936 Berlin Olympics when Black athlete Jesse Owens won 4 golds against the backdrop of ...
The Untold Story of the Vatican
Released on: 2020-12-12
Documentary, History
What started as a simple tomb became over a 2,000 years history the universal seat of Christendom an...
Spartacus
Released on: 1960-10-13
History, War, Drama, Adventure
The rebellious Thracian Spartacus, born and raised a slave, is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus. A...
The Man vs. The Machine
Released on: 2014-10-22
Documentary
On May 2,1997, Garry Kasparov, arguably the greatest human chess player ever, sat down in New York C...
Munich
Released on: 2005-12-23
Drama, Action, History, Thriller
During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, eleven Israeli athletes are taken hostage and murdered by a...
Egypt's Great Mummies: Unwrapped with Bettany Hughes
Released on: 2021-01-07
Documentary, History
Professor Bettany Hughes takes viewers on a journey of discovery as she investigates 10 of the great...
Sochi: 2014 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Dreams of Russia
Released on: 2014-02-07
Documentary
The opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics took place at the Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi, R...
Judging Jewell
Released on: 2014-01-29
Documentary
On Saturday, July 27, 1996, a terrorist’s bomb exploded in Centennial Olympic Park at the Atlanta Su...
The Price of Gold
Released on: 2014-01-16
Documentary
The world couldn't keep its eyes off two athletes at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer - Nancy Ke...
Candy: A Skater's Mind
Released on: 2022-04-21
Documentary
How far do you have to go physically and mentally as an Olympic skateboarder? In Candy: A Skater's M...
Oski
Released on: 2022-04-19
Documentary
'Oski' is an intimate portrait of a young prodigy and the culture that surrounds him. A film docum...
Der Olympia-Mord: München '72 - Die wahre Geschichte
Released on: 2006-08-15
Documentary, Drama, Crime
Marketing the Messiah
Released on: 2020-03-10
Documentary
Whether you are a Christian, atheist, or member of another faith, it's impossible to ignore the impa...
N!owa T'ama: The Melon Tossing Game
Released on: 1970-01-01
Documentary
Women from three separate Ju/'hoan bands have gathered at a mangetti grove at !O to play an intense ...
Ben-Hur
Released on: 1959-11-18
History, Drama, Adventure, Action
In 25 AD, Judah Ben-Hur, a Jew in ancient Judea, opposes the occupying Roman empire. Falsely accuse...
Olympia: Part One – Festival of the Nations
Released on: 1938-04-21
Documentary
Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefen...
Olympia: Part Two – Festival of Beauty
Released on: 1938-06-02
Documentary
Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefen...
China's Megatomb Revealed
Released on: 2016-10-16
Documentary
Albert Lin and National Geographic Channel unearth the terrible secrets that lie hidden in the tomb ...
Youth of the World
Released on: 1936-06-12
Documentary
This Nazi propaganda film covers the 1936 Winter Olympics that were held in Germany.