Jonathan Edwards discovers that an athlete’s sporting victory was also a political victory for the city he came from.

Victorious athletes were regarded as national heroes, and cities were so proud of them that they would often provide athletes with free meals for life and give them the best seats at athletic contests.

One city, called Kroton, became so famous for its Olympic athletes that it put an Olympic symbol on its coins.

The Games came to an end in 435 AD. They had run for more than 1200 years. In 1896, a French nobleman Baron Pierre de Coubertin, held the first modern Olympics in Athens.

Listen
	The Politics