Ancient site to host shot put event

The Olympics return to their ancient home after 1,600 years, with the shot put competition in the valley of pine and laurel, where the great boxer Diagoras of Rhodes leveled his opponents.

The Olympics return to their ancient home after 1,600 years, with the shot put competition in the valley of pine and laurel, where the great boxer Diagoras of Rhodes and the huge wrestler Milo of Kroton once leveled their opponents. In one aspect, however, Wednesday's shot put event in Ancient Olympia will break with tradition: In those days, women did not formally compete at the games' birthplace. Now, women will compete alongside men.

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The shot put was not part of the ancient games, but it was selected this time because it needs limited space and it can be completed in a single day before dusk.

The games were first held in 776 B.C. at the site, whose name comes from Mount Olympus, the legendary home of the gods 386 kilometres to the north. The games were abolished in 393 AD by Roman Emperor Theodosius, who had adopted Christianity and considered the Olympics pagan. His decree ended an uninterrupted 1,169-year Olympic tradition.

In their infancy, the games took place in just one day, expanding later to a five-day Olympic festival. Modern Olympics began in Athens in 1896 and have now grown into a 16-day spectacle. Ancient Olympia is an archaeological site and only 15,000 spectators will sit on the knolls around the stadium as they did in ancient times.

No permanent structures were built for the shot put. The scoreboard will be operated by hand.

Before the sun sets on Ancient Olympia, the scoreboard could be showing a lot of "USA."

The Americans lead the world in the shot put this year _ but the top putter will not be there.

Christian Cantwell, who has the top four performances in the world, did not make the American team after finishing fourth at the US trials.

Instead, the American trio is made up of Adam Nelson, the silver medallist in 2000 in Sydney who won the US trials, Reese Hoffa and John Godina, who is making his third trip to the Olympics after winning the bronze in 2000 and the silver in 1996 in Atlanta. While Cantwell's world leading is 22.54 meters, the three men who qualified are close together. Godina has 21.71, Nelson 21.68 and Hoffa 21.67.

The four Americans have among them 17 top performance sin the world this year. The next best is Janus Robberts of South Africa (21.24).

Godina was thrilled by the prospect of competing in Ancient Olympia.

"Everybody else has to go to that big, shiny stadium in Athens. We get to do it where it all started," Godina said after qualifying July 11.

"I took a lot of classic classes in college," Godina said. "I've learned a lot about the whole Olympic movement in ancient Greece. I realize it's been 1,500 years since anybody has gotten to compete in this stadium. I'm definitely excited about it because nobody else is going to get to do it but the men's and women's shot put."

While the Americans have dominated the men's side, the women's shot put has been in the control of the Russians nearly as convincingly.

Irina Korzhanenko and world champion Svetlana Krivelyova share the top five performances. Korzhanenko has thrown 20.79 and Krivelyova 20.69. The next best is world championship silver medalist Nadezhda Ostapchuk of Belarus at 20.16.