雅典卫城的帕特农神庙，希腊 The Parthenon temple in the Acropolis of Athens, Greece (© Lucky-photographer/Shutterstock)

雅典卫城的帕特农神庙，希腊 The Parthenon temple in the Acropolis of Athens, Greece (© Lucky-photographer/Shutterstock)

On the rebirth of the Olympic Games

Today marks the 125th anniversary of the first modern Olympic games, held in Athens in 1896—1,500 years after they were banned by the Roman Emperor. (The original games were held at least as far back as 776 BCE and probably earlier.) The 1896 games were held in the Panathenaic Stadium, in the shadow of the Acropolis of Athens, shown here. Those newly revived games of 1896 included athletes from 14 countries, with the largest delegations from Greece, Germany, France, and Great Britain. The 43 events included a marathon, tennis, cycling, fencing, shooting, Greco-Roman wrestling, and swimming. And while some things haven't changed over the years, some were pretty different back then. Swimmers were taken out to sea by boat for the longer races and had to swim back to shore. Winners were given a silver medal (copper for second place), as well as an olive branch and a diploma.

This is a unique time for the Olympics. We can look forward to the postponed 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo (now scheduled to start in July 2021) as well as the Winter Games in Beijing in 2022. The Beijing games will feature a mascot panda named Bing Dwen Dwen. 'Bing' means ice and symbolizes purity and strength, and 'Dwen Dwen' represents children. After the postponement of 2020, we can't wait to hear, 'Let the games begin!'

论奥运会的重生

今天是第一届现代奥林匹克运动会125周年纪念日，1896-1500年雅典奥运会被罗马皇帝禁止举办。（最初的奥运会至少在公元前776年举行，可能更早）1896年的奥运会在雅典卫城阴影下的泛雅典体育场举行，如图所示。新恢复的1896年奥运会包括14个国家的运动员，其中最大的代表团来自希腊、德国、法国和英国。这43个项目包括马拉松、网球、自行车、击剑、射击、古典式摔跤和游泳。虽然有些事情多年来没有改变，但有些事情在那时候却大不相同。游泳者被划船带出海参加更长时间的比赛，不得不游回岸边。获胜者获得银牌（铜牌获得第二名），以及橄榄枝和文凭。

这是一个独特的时间为奥运会。我们可以期待推迟的2020年东京奥运会和残奥会（现在计划于2021年7月开始）以及2022年北京冬奥会。北京奥运会将有一只名叫宾·德温的吉祥物熊猫“冰”的意思是冰，象征纯洁和力量，“德文德文”代表儿童。在2020年推迟之后，我们迫不及待地想听到，‘让奥运会开始吧！’