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......Myths and Realities
The Site & Timing of the Games
One point that a modern historian of the games wanted to make with regard to the similarities between the ancient games and those of the modern era is that the games required significant preparations, both on the part of the community and individuals who hosted and also on the part of the athletes. (Hopley, 2004, p. 1)
Every four years, sacred heralds went throughout Greece announcing them. Athletes representing each city then spent ten months training in the gymnasium at Olympia. To reach the isolated site, they had to undertake arduous journeys, hiking through mountains or sailing around the coast. To enable the athletes and spectators to travel unmolested, the perennially warring city-states negotiated temporary truces. Despite constant enmity between the cities, these truces were rarely broken; breaches were severely punished. (Hopley, 2004, p. 1)
Another myth surrounding the timing of the events, ad possibly associated with the herald announcements of the event is the torch relay that takes place at the open of the modern event
It is interesting to note that nothing in ancient Greek practice involved the carrying and lighting of an Olympic torch or flameHarris (1964)

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