The ENTIRE History of the Olympics

It begins in a dusty river valley in southern Greece in 776 BC, with a handful of runners, a strip of packed earth and a crown of olive leaves for the winner. Today that race has grown into the biggest show on Earth, with athletes from more than 200 nations. This film asks how a footrace became the greatest sporting event in history, how games that vanished for fifteen centuries came back to life, and why they can never escape politics, money and scandal. The story runs from Koroibos, the sacred truce, the cheats of Olympia and the ban of Theodosius in 393 AD to Pierre de Coubertin and the first modern games in Athens in 1896. It follows Spyridon Louis, the strange marathons of 1904 and 1908, and Jim Thorpe's stolen and restored medals. It ends with the first woman to lead the IOC, Kirsty Coventry, the road to Los Angeles in 2028, and the flame lit by a mirror in the quiet valley where everything started.