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Hippias, a fifth century B.C. sophist from Elia, was the first to compile a catalogue of Olympic victors’ names from the first Games held in Olympia, Greece in 776 B.C. To revive this tradition of the inscription of the Olympic winners names in ancient Olympia we envision the idea of creating an international monument in Olympia the birthplace of the body, spirit and soul of the Olympic Games, an everlasting tribute to the efforts of every Olympic Victor – a lighthouse to the world of the Olympic ideas.
This Monument of the Immortals will embody the nexus of human strength, exalting every Olympic victor in history and giving them an eternal home in Olympia.
As the Hippias of our times, the Monument of the Immortals Foundation will commemorate the world’s premier athletes – human symbol of excellence and peace who personify the Olympic ideas of ethos, friendship, participation, and fair play. The monument will inscribe and wishes (with IOC approval) to broadcast worldwide the names of the victors of the 2008 games and all future games, it will provide a meeting place for all the world’s athletes at the home of the Games, it will receive the Olympic Feast at the premises of the Monument and lastly but not least it will promote the Olympic Truce movement.
The idea of the Monument of the Immortals was conceived by the co founders, at the S.A.E. Youth conference, in Hollywood, California, which was promoting, the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
The idea was born in contrast to the Athens 2004 promo clip that promoted Athens as a modern Olympic city, at the expense of the ancient city of Olympia where the actual ancient games were held. The idea was endorsed immediately by co founder Takis Antonakopoulos, a member of the Greek Parliament attending the conference on behalf of the Greek Parliament. The two co-founders then carried the idea to the S.A.E meeting in Thessaloniki where it was endorsed by the General assembly of S.A.E.
Since then the Monument has established two non-profit foundations in USA and Cyprus. It has also created its own logo, brochures and presentations.
Monument of the ImmortalsThe foundation identified a property for the erection of the Monument, one mile away from the ancient ruins.
It has contacted an international architectural design competition and it has assembled an international jury panel of professionals from USA, Bolivia, Israel, Greece and Cyprus in ancient Olympia, were according to Olympic tradition the three finalists were selected. The German team proposition won the Gold, the Canadian team won silver and the team from Netherlands won the bronze awards.
On August 22, 2004 the foundation revived the ancient inscription by creating a glass plaque with the names of the victors of the shotput event that took place in ancient Olympia. Thus joining the two Olympic eras.
On August 15, 2004 the foundation revived the ancient prose by creating the Olympia Immortals Album and had Olympians from Athens 2004 and other Games dedicate in it.
The foundation proceeded to create samples of the glass inscriptive for the Olympians names.
In November 2005,the foundation created the pictograms for the Olympia Immortals Album for the Winter 2006 games in Turin.
The foundation is presently fundraising with its Land Patrons program to purchase the land for the monument in Ancient Olympia,Greece.