Ancient Nemea to host 2008 summer games
By Kathleen Maclay
Just as the official Summer http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4328 Games will once again come alive with competition.
The Nemean Games, revived footraces held in the village of Ancient Nemea every four years since 1996, are not for trained athletes, but for anyone worldwide who wants to run. There will be a 100-meter sprint on the fourth-century clay track on June 21 and a 7.5- kilometer race the following day from the ancient temple of Herakles near the town of Kleonai to the stadium.
The 45-acre archaeological site, with its restored stadium, has been the focus of 35 years of excavations, analysis and study by UC Berkeley scholars. Stephen Miller, a UC Berkeley professor of classical archaeology, led the effort from its outset. He now lives primarily in Nemea, and continues to promote the footraces in his role as honorary president of the Society for the Revival of the Nemean Games, the http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4420 organization responsible for the event.Among this year’s crowd at Nemea will be 18 UC Berkeley students and Robert Knapp, a UC Berkeley professor of classics. Knapp said that while he has been involved since 1987 with the excavation at Ancient Nemea, which is 80 miles southwest of Athens, this year marks his first entry into the race.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/06/04_nemea.shtml