It all began with a myth, but the career of the olive branch and laurel as the most important sports trophies is a fact.

“’Oh no, Mardonius! What sort of men have you led us to fight? They compete not about money but about excellence!” shouted, according to Herodotus, one of the Persians about to fight in the battle of Thermopylae, once he learned that in the Olympics the Hellenic people competed for a olive wreath, rather than gold and riches.

Branches from the sacred wild olive tree (Olea oleaster, as opposed to the domesticated variety Olea europaea) growing next to the Temple of Zeus in Olympia were cut with golden scissors by a boy from Elea. In order to be assigned this task, both of his parents still had to be alive. He carried the cut branches to the Temple of Hera, where he laid them down on an altar made of gold and ivory. It was from there that the judges of the games, or Hellanodikai (literally: ‘judges of the Greeks’) took them and made wreaths from the branches, with which they would later crown the winners. According to Humanistyczna encyklopedia sportu [The Huma