"In ancient days nations stopped wars to compete in the Games. Nowadays we stop the Olympics to continue our wars." 

Avery Brundage, IOC President (1952-1972)

Not even wars stopped the running of the ancient Olympics.

If city-states in Ancient Greece were fighting, a truce was called so all athletes could travel to and compete in the Games safely.

The end of the ancient Olympics came about in the fourth century, when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. Until this time, the Games had been an instrument of worship for Greeks and Romans in honouring their gods.

Emperor Theodosius I (346-395) abolished the Olympics because they were a pagan ritual and didn't recognise the new religion that worshipped one God.

The rise of another empire in the 1800s prompted people to consider the Olympiad as an international competition.

Britain was spreading its empire through colonisation and introducing new, organised sport into the cultures they came to rule over.

However, it was a Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who believed in the power of sport as a positive force on the international stage. And by 1894, the planning was under way for the first modern Olympiad in Athens.

The goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practised without discrimination of any kind, in a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.

Since 1896, when the Olympics started up again, international forces have upset the Games in one way or another.
And as the popularity and organisation of the Games increased in the early years, governments realised they could use the international publicity for political gain.

Germany thought it would have its chance in 1916, with the proposal to hold the Olympics in Berlin. However, in 1914 it went to war instead and the Games were cancelled.

In 1936, Germany regained the international spotlight, holding the Olympics in Berlin.

Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler saw these Games as a propaganda tool to showcase the supremacy of the Arian German race.
But his white-supremacist policy prompted a call from Jewish communities outside Germany to boycott the Games.

This peaceful protest against political policy was abandoned when Hitler assured the world that the ideals of Olympic competition would be upheld.

Perhaps a more fitting protest came in the form of gold medals - with black American Jessie Owens winnning four.

World War II forced the cancellation of the Olympiads in 1940 and 1944.

Since then, violence has featured in other Games, but has not threatened to cancel them.

At the Munich Olympics in 1972, Palestinian terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes, using them as pawns in a political protest. The terrorists demanded the release of 200 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

During the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Games, a bomb exploded in the Olympic Park, killing two spectators and injuring more than 100.

Boycotts have been a more popular and peaceful form of protest.
Olympiads in 1956, 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1984 were affected by actual and threatened boycotts, and bans for various international issues.

The strongest international force has been racial inequality and New Zealand has had its fair share of controversy.

In the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada, 30 countries were either banned from competing at the Games or boycotted them by staying away.

Some, like Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa were banned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) because of their white-supremacy and apartheid policies.

Twenty-one African nations refused to attend – all because of New Zealand.

In the same year as the Games, the All Blacks visited South Africa, and the boycotting nations saw this rugby tour as condoning the apartheid regime of the home team's country.

So what of the 2004 Olympiad in Athens, and the ancient home of the Games? 

The War on Terror has not infiltrated the world with enough fear to stop the Olympics, but bombs are high on the list of threats that could affect the smooth-running of the Games.

So will it be beliefs, boycotts, or bombs?

In 2004's international climate perhaps the world could expect a combination of all three.

But hope for none…