Olympic Games “ante portas” Rio

On Friday August 5, 2016, the Games of the 31st Olympiad open its doors in Rio, Brasil. A record number of countries are participating in a record number of sports. More than 10,500 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees, including first time entrants Kosovo and South Sudan, are scheduled to take part. With 306 sets of medals, the games will feature 28 Olympic sports — including rugby sevens and golf, added by the International Olympic Committee in 2009.
The Olympic Games, a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states, they were held in honor of Zeus. The first Olympics are traditionally dated to 776 BC. They continued to be celebrated, until Emperor Theodosius I suppressed them in 393 AD as part of the campaign to impose Christianity as the State religion of Rome. The games were held every four years, or olympiad, which became a unit of time in historical chronologies.
A total of 97 Greek athletes have qualified so far for the Rio Olympics. Greek sailing champion Sofia Bekatorou was named Greece’s flag bearer for the upcoming 2016 Games. Bekatorou, won the gold medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics and the bronze medal in the 2008 Beijing Games.
Joseph Polossifakis will compete for Canada in fencing at the Olympics in Rio this August. Polossifakis is the 1st Greek-Montrealer graduate of the HCGM school “Socrates-Démosthène” to qualify for the Olympics. He starts the games on the 10th of August.
During inauguration ceremonies, because of its historical status as the progenitor of the Olympics, the Greek flag traditionally enters first, while the host nation marches last.
The Olympic Hymn, also known informally as the Olympic Anthem, is a choral cantata by opera composer Spyridon Samaras with lyrics by Greek poet Kostis Palamas. Both poet and composer were the choice of the Greek Demetrius Vikelas, who was the first President of the International Olympic Committee.

“Στο όνομα όλων των αθλητών, υπόσχομαι να πάρω μέρος σ’ αυτούς τους Ολυμπιακούς Αγώνες, σεβόμενος τους κανονισμούς που τους διέπουν, σύμφωνα με το αληθινό πνεύμα της ευγενούς άμιλλας για τη δόξα του αθλητισμού και την τιμή των ομάδων μας”.
“In the name of all competitors I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, committing ourselves to a sport without doping and without drugs, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our teams”.

We wish that all the participating athletes will compete in true Olympic spirit.