Where the word ‘Olympics’ comes from : NPR

Adeliia Petrosian of the Individual Neutral Athletes group competes in the women’s figure skating short program at the Milan Winter Olympics on February 17.

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Ashley Landis/AP

Nearly 3,000 athletes took on the icy rinks and snowy ramps of Italy at the Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina.

The Olympic Games are the scene of rare athleticism and national pride. So before we say goodbye to the Games in just a few days, let’s commemorate the “Olympics” for this iteration of NPR’s Word of the Week.

Where does the word come from?

The word “Olympics” has its origins in ancient Greece.

In Greek mythology, the gods came down from Mount Olympus to the city of Olympia to gather and socialize with humans, according to Matthew Llewellyn, co-director of the Center for Sociocultural Sport and Olympic Research at California State University, Fullerton.

“Olympia itself was somewhat of a sacred space,” he said. “It was a sanctuary.”

Mount Olympus seen from the port of Thessaloniki in Greece on April 2, 2015.

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The first ancient Olympic Games began around 776 BCE, Llewellyn said. Back then, athletes competed naked, track stars received corporal punishment for false starts, and there were no gold medals — only silver and bronze, according to the International Olympic Committee website.

But after about 1,000 years of these games, the competition, along with the word, was lost during the Dark Ages, or in the aftermath of the fall of the Roman Empire.

However, much like the flame of the Olympic flame, interest in ancient Greece and the Olympic Games was reignited during the era of the European Renaissance. People had started reading about the ancient Olympics and conducting archaeological digs at Olympia, Llewellyn said.

“Around this time, the late 1500s and early 1600s, we see a number of sporting competitions called the ‘Olympic Games,’” Llewellyn said. “And it would be Olympic with a ‘c’, sometimes Olympick with a ‘k’.”

For example, the Cotswold Olympics in England have been held since 1612 and are still running successfully, with events like tug of war and shin kicks. The Zappas Olympics were held several times in Greece in the late 1800s, sponsored by businessman Evangelis Zappas.

How we arrived at the modern Olympic Games is controversial.

“Academics are in the middle of a discussion about this,” Llewellyn said.

Some historians claim that Zappas petitioned King Otto of Greece for the resumption of the games in 1856 and offered to pay for them. Other historians, as well as the International Olympic Committee, credit French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin with proposing this renaissance in 1894. The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896.

A monument honoring Pierre de Coubertin, widely credited with founding the modern Olympic Games, stands outside the new national stadium in Tokyo, January 21, 2020.

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There are also debates over who gets the legal rights to the word, Llewellyn said.

In 2021, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee sued Puma, claiming the company was infringing on the committee’s trademarks by registering the trademarks “PUMA TOKYO 2021” and “PUMA PARIS 2024”. In 2024, the committee sued Prime Hydration, influencer Logan Paul’s energy drink company, claiming it illegally used Olympic trademarks in advertisements. Both lawsuits were dismissed.

“It’s a gross overreach, I think, because I don’t think you can own a word,” Llewellyn said. “And you certainly can’t own a word that was first used thousands of years ago by the Greeks.”

NPR reached out to the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee for comment on the lawsuits but did not receive a response.

What the “Olympics” Mean to an Olympian

When four-time Olympian Ashley McKenzie was 11, he fought for a Pokémon card.

During this particular fight, McKenzie’s opponent caught him off guard by throwing him in a certain way. It was a judo movement, he was going to learn. McKenzie went to the nearest judo studio to find the child and collect his card.

Ashley McKenzie of Great Britain poses for a photo to mark the official announcement of the judo team selected as Team GB for the Tokyo Olympics, July 5, 2021.

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The coach wanted McKenzie to try judo on his own. Hearing “Olympic Games” shocked him.

“The word ‘Olympics’ opened my eyes to new doors and new things,” McKenzie told NPR. “When I first heard it, it gave me hope.”

Ten years after this meeting, he represented Great Britain on the Olympic stage at the London Games in 2012.

“When I got there, my appearance didn’t matter,” he said. “It didn’t matter what I did or how I acted. Everyone, the whole country, was behind me, and that’s when I knew it felt so good to be an Olympian.”