Relation of Ancient Olympics to Modern Olympics.
The idea of the modern Olympics came from the archeological discoveries at Olympia during the 19th century, but the Olympics in ancient times was more local. The idea was to have a sports event that would substitute for war. It did not work because the worst wars ever were in the 20th century. But the world likes the idea of the Olympics, so we still have it. The ancient Greeks had torch races, which may have given the idea of lighting the torch at the modern olympics. In ancient times the winner light the torch on an altar.
The marathon race is named after a famous run duning the Persian wars to announce the victory at Marathon in 490 BCE. This was 286 years after the start of the ancient Olympics. The first marathon race was run in 1894 at the first modern olympic games.
The modern marathon race is based on the fact that Pheidippides, a professional messenger, ran from Athens to Marathon to join the battle there, then he ran back to Athens with the words "Greetings, we win!" and then dropped dead.The length of the marathon is the distance he ran from Marathon to Athens. Just before the battle he is supposed to have run to Sparta and back to Marathon to request the help of the Spartan army. There was no marathon in the ancient Olympics.