The ancient Olympic began in Greece in 776 B.C.E. and were held every four years until 393 C.E. It wasn't until about 1,500 years later, in the mid-1800s, that the games were revived in Greece. But the Olympics didn't become the event we know today until 1894, when a French historian named Pierre de Coubertin had the idea of making the games international, and founded the International Olympic Committee.