The ancient stadium at Olympia has no tiers of seats, no stone grandstands, and no marble finishing. The athletes ran on dirt and the 45,000 spectators watched from grassy embankments on either side. This stripped-down simplicity is part of what makes it so affecting — you can walk through the stone vaulted entrance tunnel exactly as athletes did for centuries, step onto the track, and stand at the starting line.
The current stadium dates from the 5th century BC but the Games had been held on this ground for centuries before that. Running, wrestling, and the pentathlon were the original events; the chariot race took place in the separate hippodrome (now lost under flood deposits). Women were forbidden from even watching under pain of death, with one famous exception: Kallipateira of Rhodes, who was forgiven because her father, brother, and son had all been Olympic champions.