ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Aug 18: The Olympics came home on Wednesday to its birthplace and some of the spectators who turned out to sit on a grass field under a burning hot sun in a 4th century BC stadium swore that here was an event to please the Gods of ancient Greece.

If the Gods were not pleased, they must be a surly bunch. Everybody else was cheering, clapping and in the case of the shot-putting athletes, yelping and screaming. One elderly Greek doctor quietly wiped away tears of joy.

"I feel the spirit of the ancient Greeks here," said student Maria Majoura, who came down with her family from northern Greece to watch more than 80 athletes compete in the shot put eliminations and finals - an event that let women compete for the first time in the home of the ancient Olympics.

Not much is left standing on the 40-acre grounds of Olympia but excavations have produced tons of fragments and pieces from toppled columns and the like that lie quietly and quite spectacularly on the ground. The venue is surrounded by pine-clad hills that lent a soft, mystical feel to Wednesday's proceedings.

An announcer on a loudspeaker assured the audience, "even though this is a sacred place, it is okay to applaud and cheer the athletes". The crowd of about 4,000 were confined to the stadium which had only a few artefacts of the past, including remnants of a marble track for sprinters.

The crowd sat on a hillside of burned out grass to watch the shot putters do their Herculean spins from a series of circles while officials in straw hats, white shirts and striped ties measured their efforts.

"This looks like a high school field but it is loaded with history," said a Greek man who identified himself only as Alex. Kristin Heaston of the United States, the first woman to perform in a contest at Olympia, did not qualify for the finals.

But she accepted defeat gracefully, telling reporters: "I had to think about what I was doing in the ring, not what I was doing in history. Now that I am done I can focus and even take some pictures. This was a long trip for me to throw 17 metres."

She was clearly disappointed but like other athletes who failed to make it at Olympia, she was honoured to just be here. The word "awesome" - as in a place filled with awe - was used and reused by the competitors. So even if they lost, they won - they made it to the heights of Olympia. -Reuters