What was the perilous pig chase? Which sport includes the 'naked strangle'? Get in shape for London 2012 with this fiery Olympics guide!

The History of Olympics can be traced all the way back into the ancient Greek times while they honored Zeus with many days of celebration, praise and the sporting events of the times. Back then only men from Greece could participate and there were no woman allowed. Heracles, a son of Zeus was said to have started the first Olympics and the History of Olympics and events that were held started evolving from there. There were many running events along with events in chariot racing and various games to see who could hurl a javelin the farthest and the same things was done with a heavy metal discus. These ancient Olympics are thought to have started out in or around the year 776 B.C. and continued for around twelve centuries when they were banned for being sacrilegious and offending to Christianity.

In August 2016 the world will be spellbound by the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro as 10,500 athletes from 206 countries compete in 306 events. Tracing their origins back to the Greeks in 776 BC, the history of the Olympics is a glorious one but it has had its darker moments.During the First World War no fewer than 135 Olympians perished. Many had won Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. They came not just from the UK, Germany, France, USA but from all over the globe.Wyndham Halswelle, killed in action on 31 March 1915, won a Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in both field and track events. The Frenchman Leon Flameng, the fastest cyclist ever, died on 2 January 1917, having won Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in the 1896 Olympics. The German Fritz Bartholomae, killed in action 12 September 1915, won a Bronze in the rowing eights during the 1912 Olympics. The list of these heroes goes on and on. Each Olympian, who made the supreme sacrifice, is honoured in this magnificent book by a summary of their life, sporting achievement and manner of their death.

Back in 775 BC, athletes from all over Ancient Greece came together to compete in various games. The contests were held every four years and winning athletes brought honor and respect to their homelands. The tradition of the Olympic Games faded over time until 1896, when they were brought back to life. The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, with over two hundred athletes from fourteen countries. Today, nearly three thousand years after the first Games, the Summer Olympics attract one hundred thousand top athletes from over two hundred countries. Billions of fans around the world cheer on their national teams to bring back the gold.

This book examines the London 2012 opening and closing ceremonies and the handover to Rio 2016 as articulations of national and cosmopolitan belonging. The ceremonial performances supported imaginative travel and created a tornadóros: an ideal form of 'human' that manipulates audiovisual narratives of culture and identity for global audiences.

Since the Games, the same political impetus and agreed deadlines no longer exist and many aspects of legacy are in danger of faltering, whilst some have fallen by the wayside. There is confusion on the timeframes and targets involved in delivery and a lack of clear ownership of legacy as a whole. The committee recommends that a minister be given overall responsibility for the Olympic legacy, enabling greater co-ordination across Whitehall departments. It also believes the Mayor of London should be given control over further development of east London and the Olympic Park in Stratford. There is also a warning over the geographic disparity in the economic benefits stemming from the Games. While London and the south-east of England benefited with nearly 15,000 additional jobs, just seven were created in the North East. London 2012 may have promised to "inspire a generation" but the committee says it found "little evidence [of a] step change" in sports participation levels across the UK. UK Sport, the body that invests approximately £100m in high-performance athletes and teams each year and decides funding levels for Olympic and Paralympic sports, is also criticised. The committee believes not enough is being done by UK Sport to help both team and emerging sports. The 'no compromise' approach of UK Sport has delivered medals for Team GB and has clearly improved top-end importance. This approach, however, has an inherent bias against team sports, and fails to help emerging sports, some of which, such as handball and volleyball, generated real enthusiasm at London 2012.