Olympiad

An olympiad (Greek: Ὀλυμπιάς, Olympiás) is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games.

Ancient authors agreed that other Olympics had been held before the race won by Coroebus but disagreed on how many; the convention was established to place Coroebus's victory at a time equivalent to the summer of 776 BC in the Proleptic Julian calendar, and to treat it as Year 1 of Olympiad 1.

Each olympiad started with the holding of the games, which originally began on the first or second full moon after the summer solstice.

After the introduction of the Metonic cycle about 432 BC, the start of the games was determined slightly differently.

The sophist Hippias was the first writer to compile a comprehensive list of the Olympic victors (ολυμπιονίκες, olympioníkes).

[2] By the time of Eratosthenes, his dating of Coroebus's victory to 776 BC had been generally accepted.

[3] The panhellenic nature of the games, their regular schedule, and the improved victor list allowed Greek historians to use the Olympiads as a way of reckoning time that did not depend on the various calendars of the city-states.

The Eleians declared such games Anolympiads (non-Olympics), but it is assumed the winners were nevertheless recorded.

[12] This means that the count of the Olympiads continues, even if Olympic Games are cancelled: For instance, the regular intervals would have meant (summer) Olympic Games should have occurred in 1940 and 1944, but both were cancelled due to World War II.

Some Olympic Committees often use the term quadrennium, which they claim refers to the same four-year period.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin established the principle of Olympic Art Competitions at a special congress in Paris in 1906, and the first official programme was presented during the 1912 Games in Stockholm.

These competitions were also named the "Pentathlon of the Muses", as their purpose was to bring artists to present their work and compete for "art" medals across five categories: architecture, music, literature, sculpture and painting.

[17] The 2016 games' Cultural Olympiad was scaled back due to Brazil's recession; there was no published programme, with director Carla Camurati promising "secret" and "spontaneous" events such as flash mobs.

[18] Cultural events in time for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were planned[19] before being canceled due to pandemic restrictions in Japan.

In these cases Olympiad is used to indicate a regular event of international competition for top achieving participants; it does not necessarily indicate a four-year period.