an ancient Greek festival consisting of contests in athletics, poetry, and music, held every four years at Olympia to honor Zeus

a modern international athletic competition that is generally held every four years in a different location, consisting of summer events, as track and field, swimming, and volleyball, and, in a different city and month, winter events, as skiing, ice skating, and ice hockey: until 1992 all the events were held in the same year but since 1994 the winter eventsand summer events have been separated by a two-year interval