In which country did the Olympic Games originate?

Greece, at Olympia, where a religious festival for Zeus ran from around 776 BC for over a thousand years until a Christian emperor abolished it as a pagan rite in the fourth century AD. It was a sanctuary rather than a stadium town, and the games were one part of a much larger act of worship.

The ancient version differs from the modern one in most respects. Competitors were men, largely naked; there were no team sports and no second place worth recording; and the prize was a wreath of wild olive, though home cities then rewarded winners with pensions, tax exemptions and statues. Married women were barred from attending, on pain of being thrown from a cliff.

The truce is the part usually misdescribed. The ekecheiria did not stop wars - it guaranteed safe passage for athletes and spectators travelling to and from Olympia, which is a narrower and more practical thing. Sparta was once fined for breaching it and refused to pay. The modern revival in 1896 borrowed the name and the location and invented most of the rest, including the marathon and, in 1936, the torch relay, which was staged for the Berlin games and filmed by Leni Riefenstahl.