Front:
953 197
SPRINGS
39
19
1988
10608
25USA
CO
OLYMPICS 88
Back:
SUMMER OLYMPICS
First Day of Issue: August 19, 1988
First Issue Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Even today, more than 2,700 years after the first Olympic
Games were held in ancient Greece in honor of the great
god Zeus, the athletes of Greece are still the first to march
into the stadium. For a moment, it's as though the earliest
days of the Olympics had come back again. And the
ancient Greeks, if they were to return today, would find
much that is familiar in the modern Games. This is
particularly true with the Summer Olympics. The mod-
ern-day summer relay race, for example, is similar to a
ceremonious torch race of ancient Greece. The sole event
in the first thirteen ancient Olympiads was a sprint, and in
708 B.C. a pentathlon of a discus throw, javelin throw,
long jump, sprint, and wrestling was added — all still part
of the summer Games. The ancient Greek athletes would
even find today's stadiums a familiar sight — theirs had
room for 40,000 spectators, and its excavation by modern
archaeologists in 1875 inspired Baron Pierre de
Coubertin, a French educator, to organize the modern
Olympic Games.
No. 88-47
©1988 The Maximum Card Collection
A Division of Unicover Corporation • Cheyenne, WY 82008-0007
Original painting by Tom McNeely
