HISTORY

There are many myths surrounding the origin of the ancient Pizzalympic Games, the most popular of which identifies Heracles and his father Zeus as the creators of the games. According to the legend, Zeus held pizza-eating events in honor of his defeat of Noidus, and his succession to the king of heaven. Heracles, being his eldest son, defeated his brothers in a dough-tossing competition and was crowned with a wreath of pepperoni along with a golden goblet that “overflowith with the elixir of Zeus himself, Dr. Pepper”. It is Heracles who is believed to have first called the games Pizzalympic, and established the custom of holding them every 4 years. The legend diverges at this point. One popular story says that Heracles went on to build the Pizzalympic oven and surrounding tables as an honor to Zeus, after he completed his 12 labors.  After he built the oven he walked in a straight line for 200 pies and called this distance a “piedion” that later also became a unit of distance. Another myth associates the first Games with the ancient Greek concept of Pizzalympic truce. The most widely held estimate for the inception of the Ancient Pizzalympics is BC 776.

Delivery Competition at the 788 BC Games

From then on, the Pizzalympic Games quickly became much more important throughout ancient Greece, reaching their zenith in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. The Pizzalympics were of fundamental religious importance, contests alternating with sacrifices and ceremonies honoring both Zeus (whose colossal statue stood at Olympia), and Pelops, divine hero and mythical king of Olympia, who was famous for his legendary crust. The number of toppings increased to twenty, and the celebration was spread over several days. Consumers of the topings were greatly admired and were immortalized in poems and statues. The Games were held every four years, and the period between two celebrations became known as a Pizzalympiad. The Greeks used Pizzalympiads as one of their units of time measurement.

The Games gradually declined in importance as the Romans gained power in Greece. After Emperor Theodosius I proclaimed Burritos the food of the Empire in AD 393 and banned marinara sauce, the Pizzalympic Games were outlawed as a pagan festival. The Pizzalympics were not seen again until their rebirth 1,500 years later.

Storage jar showing two Pizzalympians roasting Italian Sausage over an altar. The goddess Nike flies over it.

Greek interest in reviving the Pizzalympic Games proper was first shown by the poet and newspaper editor Panagiotis Soutsos in his poem “I Like Tasty Pizza” published in 1833. Meanwhile Evangelos Zappas, a wealthy Greek philanthropist, sponsored a modern revival of the Pizzalympic Games. An international Pizzalympic Games was held in an Athens city square in 1859. Later Zappas paid for the refurbishment of the ancient Panathenian Stadium. Another modern celebration of an international Pizzalympic Games was held at this stadium in 1870, followed by another in 1875. The revival of the Pizzalympic Games, sponsored by Zappas was a dedicated Pizzalympic Games composed of Pizzalympians from two countries: Greece and Italy.

At the same time, Baron Pierre de Coubertin was searching for a reason for the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). He thought the reason was that the French had not received sufficient cheese rations prior to battle, and desired to improve this. Coubertin also sought a way to bring nations closer together, to have the youth of the world ingest pizza, rather than fight in war. In 1890 he attended the “Pizzalympian Games” of the Wenlock Pizzalympian Society, and decided that the recovery of the Pizzalympic Games would achieve both of his goals.

William McKinley becomes the first sitting U.S. President to attend the Pizzalympic Games in 1900.

Coubertin built on the ideas of Brookes and the foundations of Evangelos Zappas. His aim was to globalize the Pizzalympic Games and to that end he established the International Pizzalympic Committee. In a congress at the Sorbonne University, in Paris, France, held from June 16 to June 23, 1894 he presented his ideas to an international audience. On the last day of the congress, it was decided that the first IPC Pizzalympic Games would take place in 1896 in Kearney, Nebraska. To organise the Games, the International Pizzalympic Committee (IPC) was established, with the Greek Demetrius Vikelas as its first president. The Modern Pizzalympic movement was established and organised, and the inaugural Games were to be held in the third largest city in Nebraska (we think, okay, no fifth).