A festival can be defined in various ways, however, ‘a time of celebration’ fits well with this year’s GSF. The Olympic Games is a world-known festival that began over 2,700 years ago in Olympia, South-West Greece. Athletes in the ancient games only competed in one event: a foot race. Over the years more events were added, including chariot racing, boxing, wrestling and the pentathlon. Originally, there were no gold, silver or bronze medals as athletes competed for the glory of their city with the winners being seen as touched by the Gods.

The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece on April 6, 1896 with representatives from 14 countries. Since then, it has become the world’s largest sporting event with it being estimated that 3.6 billion people watched the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics. There were over 10,000 athletes from 207 countries that took part in 28 different sports.