Jessica Ennis

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Jessica Ennis was born 28 January 1986 in Sheffield she is a British athlete specialising in multi-eventing disciplines and 100m hurdles. A member of the City of Sheffield Athletic Club, she is the current World and European heptathlon champion and world indoor pentathlon champion. Jessica Ennis admits that the battle for Olympic gold in London next year will be won as much in her head as on the track. At 2012 Jessica Ennis is looking forward to winning a medal for heptathlon and her strengths are hurdles and javelin.

Benjamin Pipes

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Benjamen Pipes has spoken of his passion to see his Olympic dream come to London 2012. The 22-year-old is the Great Britain volleyball captain and because a host nation gets a place in every event at an Olympic Games, Pipes and his team-mates are guaranteed of their place at the biggest sporting arena of them all.

There has never been a British team represented in a volleyball competition at an Olympics since it was first introduced to the programme in 1964. Until recently no GB team existed in the sport, with England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all operating as separate teams.

Pipes, who started playing volleyball at the age of 14, competed for England at cadet, junior and senior level during his quick rise up the ranks – which saw him become captain of the main team at just 20. However, despite a burning ambition to play at the best level, England have until recently been unable to compete on a par with many of the teams at the highest level.

In mainland Europe, volleyball has a massive popularity and professionals can make a good living out of the sport, which is why Pipes made the decision to move to Spain at the age of 18. Stints playing in the club scene in Belgium, Holland and Sweden followed before returning to Spain with Tenerife last season.

But similar success on the international stage has always been just out of reach, with GB having to go through many qualifying rounds to make the major tournaments. However, the decision in 2007 to award the Olympics to London opened a door to Pipes and his GB colleagues and provides an opportunity which the 6ft 7in star is eager to grab with both hands. he quotes “IT WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE”.

 

Modern athletes and their diets

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Athletes need a very carefully planned out diet. They need lots of carbohydrates and this is an average day for the athletes, food wise. They would have 75% of their calories in just carbohydrates per day. A pre-game meal three to four hours before the event allows for optimal digestion and energy supply. Most authorities recommend small pre-game meals that provide 500 to 1,000 calories.

The meal should be high in starch, which breaks down more easily than protein and fats. The starch should be in the form of complex carbohydrates (breads, cold cereal, pasta, fruits and vegetables). They are digested at a rate that provides consistent energy to the body and are emptied from the stomach in two to three hours.

Ancient Exercise

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The Olympic festival lasted about 5 days but the preparation took the whole of the preceding year.

During the period of the Olympics, villagers would all exercise but only a few would take part in the events compared with  today. The first Olympic event was the running race.

The athletes trained and performed naked because they liked showing off their bodies and they also found it easier to compete.

Ancient Olympics: Training

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The preparations for the Olympics in Ancient times started 10 months before the actual event and the also the Athletes had to swear an oath that they would be strict with their training; this rule would seem odd to a modern Olympian because 10 months of hared training would not make them stronger; it would just exhaust them.

With one month to go to the Olympics; Olympians would be required to reside at Ellis and be under the strict supervision of a group of people called the hellanodikai; at Ellis the market place was stripped and used as a practice track. This means the market place was an MPMP (a Multi-Purpose Market Place). With two days to go the Olympians made their way to Olympia for the Games and maybe a victor and lots of money or a goat.

Note: In Ancient times they didn’t have performance drugs so the world was a lot fairer except for the fact that the taxes were high and people were killed if they weren’t paid and the fact that the king or ruler was a blood thirsty tyrant most of the time.

Chris Hoy

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‘Mourning routine is very important’ – He gets up at 7:45 and makes coffee, he loves it and grinds the beans himself. Vitamins are vital in his diet and so he makes fresh juice as well. The fruit and veg is often organic. He eats cereal with semi-skinned milk and adds some banana and honey :).

He has decided to live near where he trains this makes everything easier. He’s allergic to cats and dogs and can just about handle a gold fish.

He always says how grateful it is for the support he got in Beijing and how organised everyone was. When he goes to training in the mourning’s he often cycle as this is a good warm up he says. ‘Warming up is vital as you cannot expect to go further without taking the little steps first’  Chris said this at Beijing two days before his race.

An Athlete’s Preparation for the Ancient Olympics

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The whole of the Olympic festival lasted 5 days. Apparently, the sport facilities at Olympia weren’t used during the time in between the festivals. Any undergrowth which had appeared was cut and the courses had to be dug and levelled.

The Hellanodikai, (the most important officials at the Games) ordered preparations ten months in advance of the Games. There were about 10 altogether, one was the supervisor over everything while the rest of them were divided into 3 groups, each in charge of a particular event. The first group was in charge of the equestrian events, the second group had the pentathlon and the third group had the remaining events.

The athletes had to have strict training in their home towns during this time and had to swear an oath to ensure that they would. This was meant to help them prepare for the upcoming events even though 10 months of serious training would probably tire them out a lot.

With one month to go, all the competitors in the Games had to return to Elis and train under very strict supervision of the Hellanodikai.

There were 3 gymnasia at Elis as well as the market place which was taken over and cleared for a track for the contestants who were competing in the horse races. They were very strict about fitness at Elis because if you were thought not to be fit were disqualified and to ensure that wouldn’t happen the athletes had a strict diet and obey whatever the Hellanodikai said.

With two days to go everybody in Elis set out for Olympia which was about 58 kilometres away. They took a path called the Sacred Way along the coast while stopping along the way to sacrifice a pig perform other rites at the fountain of Piera. They rested at Letrini for the night but then set off again towards the Altis.

The scene is set…

While the athletes were walking to Olympia, other people had set off as well for example; princes, tyrants and ambassadors. When the spectators did finally get there, most found a spot for their belongings and sleep during the night. On the day of the Games, there would be no space to watch it because of the size of the crowd.

Ancient Olympics – Origins

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The Olympic Games were founded in Greece in Olympia. The ancient Greeks had chosen the most quiet, peaceful and as well as the beautiful landscape. The Olympic Games were the most important celebrations of all those celebrated by the Greeks.

In the plain of Olympia there is one of the most sacred places in the ancient times, the grove of Olympia, that was called Altis. In the enclosure of Altis were built temples and other buildings. The most important of all was the temple of Zeus.

Other buildings wre the sanctuary of Pelops, the temple of Hera, the Mitroon (temple of Mother of Gods), the parliament, the altar of Zeus, the twelve Treasuries.

There were much more edifices and a great number of statues that decorated Olympia, but many times had been pillaged and the temples had been burnt by barbarous nations. Then big and destructive earthquakes and floods, of the near rivers Alfeios and Kladeos, destroyed everything !!

The games started when Pelops won the chariot races from the king of Pisa, Oinomaus. So, he took for a prize his kingdom and got married to his daughter Hippodameia. The games were done every fourth year .The Spondophoroi (bearers of the sacred truce), that were always from a noble race, were starting with their followings to visit the Greek towns just to proclaim truce, and to invite the spectators, the athletes, and the officials that represented their towns to Olympia, for the games.

Jessica Ennis

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“I am so happy and excited. What a fantastic end to a great year and way to start a new one. I do, however, have the 2012 Games to focus on first – then my wedding plans!”

Ennis, 24, opens her season at the Aviva International in Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall on Jan 29 where she is due to compete in the 60 metres, 60m hurdles and high jump.

Ennis went on to take the world indoor pentathlon title in Doha in runaway style and she hopes to return to the top of the podium when she competes at the European Indoor Championships in Paris in March.
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She has pencilled in the World Combined Events Challenge meeting in Gotzis, Austria, in May as her first outdoor heptathlon of the season before she begins the defence of her world crown in Daegu, South Korea.

She is a British hopeful for 2012

An Explanation of the Origins

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The ancient Games were held in honour of the Greek gods.

Our modern Olympiad is a period of four years which is associated with the Olympic games of classical Greece. The first Olympiad lasted from the summer of 776 BC to that of 772 BC. The games started in Olympia, in a sanctuary near the town of Elis.

During the 1000 years after those first official games in 776 BC, Greece came under the Roman rule. After the 293rd Olympics in 393 AD, the Roman emperor, Theodosius II declared that the games could no longer be held, and the Olympics ended.

It took 1,503 years for the Olympics to return. A Frenchman called Baron Pierre de Coubertin had an idea to bring the games back. He felt the international competition between amateur athletes would help nice, friendly relationships between people from other the countries.