Thought of posting something about Words with Friends phenomenon (Ellen is an enthusiast) but phone rang and seems I need to liaise with some colleagues and see if we can effect some progress regards the need to task an internal group with incenting more people to concretize the strategies for monetizing in house technology in light of our latest rightsizing of the production processes that was actioned in order to better leverage what remains following the reductioning of overall budgetizing. 

These are the pictograms for the London Olympics events.  I assume this is inclusive and covers them all.  Can't figure out the one fourth row down from top, third from the right (between Karate and Shooting).  Looks like a guy running away from a diving board, but that can't be right... since then I would qualify to compete in London right now. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/opinion/no-medal-for-the-international-olympic-committee.html 

 The history of the International Olympic Committe (IOC) is a juicy one sprinkled with a few dramatic moments filled with more  Machiavellian melodrama than an entire season of The Borgias. But it's all pretty predictable stuff and nothing we haven't seen before from those involved in anything this big with this much money and political influence at stake.  And the Olympics has been really really big money since the Francophile (as in Generalissimo Franco) Juan Antonio Samaranch took control of them in 1980.  That's him (third heiler from the right) displaying his sympathies proudly during a 1974 memorial event honoring Hitler and the fallen Third Reich. Yes, 1974.  Yes, I did say honoring Hitler.  Yes, he went on to become president of the IOC.  His life and times is a dark and depressing tale, made no less disturbing for all the secret deals and power plays that make one of his predecessors--the racist, anti-semite and master-mind behind the (American Jew Free) 1936 Berlin Games, Avery Brundage --look like the Chimney Sweep in Mary Poppins.  And as I dug further and further back into the history of the games, I eventually found myself all the way back to where it all began in...



776 BC.  It began with the stadion race (a foot race equivalent to a 190-m or 208-yard dash). The winner was a humble baker from the Greek city state of Elis named Coroebus (also spelled Koroibos). For the first 13 games, the stadion race was the only competition. At the 14th Ancient Olympic Games, a double race was added.

While the competitors were naked during the games, it is possible that some wore a kynodesme: a thin leather strip tied tightly around the part of the foreskin that extended beyond the glans (to prevent the glans from showing). It was then tied around the waist to expose the scrotum, or to the base of the penis making it appear to curl upwards. 


  Pictured is an athlete wearing such an apparatus attributed to Triptolemos (480 BC).

The hoplitodromos – in which competitors would run 400 or 800 yards in full armor with shields and a helmet or greaves (leg armor). This was introduced in 520 BC. Runners would often trip over each other or stumble on shields dropped by other competitors. In the image here you can see athletes competing in the hoplitodromos – in far more an orderly fashion than was likely.

Ancient Greek boxing was violent, but it was a knitting circle compared to... PANKRATION, the ancient form of mixed martial arts.  These were the rules: no eye gouging and no biting (the referees carried sticks to beat those who violated the rules). Everything else - including choke holds, breaking fingers and neck - was legit. There was no weight division or time limits: the fight continued until a combatant surrendered, lost consciousness, or died.

In 564 BC, Arrhachion of Philgaleia was crowned the pankration victor ... even after he had died:

Arrhachion's opponent, having already a grip around his waist, thought to kill him and put an arm around his neck to choke off his breath. At the same time he slipped his legs through Arrhachion's groin and wound his feet inside Arrhachion's knees, pulling back until the sleep of death began to creep over Arrhachion's senses. But Arrhachion was not done yet, for as his opponent began to relax the pressure of his legs, Arrhachion kicked away his own right foot and fell heavily to the left, holding his opponent at the groin with his left knee still holding his opponent's foot firmly. So violent was the fall that the opponent's left ankle was wrenched from his socket. The man strangling Arrhachion ... signaled with his hand that he gave up. Thus Arrhachion became a three-time Olympic victor at the moment of his death. His corpse ... received the victory crown.*

Lastly, just to prove that they're bad asses, the ancient Greeks then decided to start a pankration event for the paides or youth (boys aged 12 to 17) Olympic games!

*Source: Ancient Greek Athletics  By Stephen G. Miller

I thought this was pretty cool...

Stone of the weight lifter Bybon with inscription "Bybon son of Phola (?), has lifted me over [his] head with one hand." 316 lbs., sandstone. Early 6th century BC.
Photograph by Maria Daniels, courtesy of the Archaeological Museum of Olympia and the Greek Ministry of Culture.

The Romans, who conquered Greece, viewed the Olympics as a pagan festival.

So, in AD 393, Roman Emperor Theodosius I banned the Ancient Olympics in part to institute Christianity as a state religion. 

The Olympics was no more ... until it was revived 1,500 years later in 1896.

And much changed during the interim.  Where the ancients competed naked, the modern athlete was now donning...

Marathoner Albert Corey and an unidentified runner race towards the finish line of a 100-mile race from Milwaukee to Chicago!  In those clothes!  In those shoes!   

I Think the old school approach looks like more fun for participant and spectator as in this re-enactment below-- and could make a strong comeback as part of a new reality show.