Cultural: Eternal Olympic Games

What if emperor Theodosius I did not suppress the Olympic Games? What if he transformed them into a christian sport event that survived the centuries?
 
I see the Olympic Games lasting as long as the Byzantine Empire is around. Most likely would end with muslim conquest.
 
Yeah, they will not survive the mulslim conquest...

It all depend finally that the religious making up of the area change, i fear.
 
They would if they are an event not only limited to inhabitants of the Byzantine Empire. If all christians east and west perform than they will survive the fall of Constantinople.
 
If muslims are allowed to compete in the Games prior to the fall of Constantinople, they might survive as well. The ancient Olympic Games after all had a lot of military elements among its contests.
 
If muslims are allowed to compete in the Games prior to the fall of Constantinople, they might survive as well. The ancient Olympic Games after all had a lot of military elements among its contests.

It would be hard to think that the Byzantines would allowed muslims to compete in the Games.
 
If indeed we posit that Theodosius I transforms the Olympics into a Christian event sometime in the latter 4th century AD, then it's plausible at least that his successors in the Western Roman Empire might try to do something similar (perhaps as a means to better integrate the various nationalities flowing into the Western Roman Empire). Though the "Western" Olympic Games won't be nearly as continuous as the ones held in Greece, they stand a good chance of surviving the fall of Byzantium.

Perhaps the Western Olympic Games become the realm of the Papacy, held in order to maintain good relations within Christendom...Rival Eastern/Western Olympic Games probably persist until the fall of the Byzantine Empire. With the Fall of the Byzantine Empire, the Eastern Olympic Games fall dormant (though the western ones continue) until the Ottoman Empire sees the utility in such games. Under Ottoman rule, the Eastern Olympic Games are transformed into a multi-faith event intended to integrate the various disparate parts of the Ottoman Empire.

Following the Protestant Reformation, Protestant athletes, unable to participate in the Catholic Western Olympic Games, in a shocking move, opt to participate in the Ottoman Olympic Games instead, deliberately thumbing their noses at the Papacy. Over the course of the next few centuries the Western Olympic Games continue to lose legitimacy as fewer and fewer athletes attend.
 
Top