The Olympics

"What were the Olympics?" Magnus asked the Emperor one day.
"At which point in time?" the Emperor replied. "There were the ancient Games that the Greccans held, and the later Games that were started in M2 and ran for quite some time."
"Both," Horus said, joining the conversation. The other Primarchs turned to the Emperor, all looking excited. They enjoyed learning history from their father. In part because the Emperor had been there. This often allowed for interesting, or silly, stories.
"The Ancient Games were held by the Greccans on the plains of Olympia," the Emperor said.
"They had spaceflight?" Perturabo asked.
"No," the Emperor said with a chuckle. "The plains of Olympia were near a town of the same name, close to Mount Olympus. The Greccans believed that their gods lived on that mountain, the games were dedicated to those gods."
Perturabo snorted in distaste. He had a very strong distaste for gods and religion. It affected his interactions with the Mechanicum. He understood why the Mechanicum was allowed to keep their religion, but it still didn't sit well with him.
"They were not as advanced at the time," the Emperor reminded Perturabo. "The gods were used to explain what they saw around them."
"I know," Perturabo said.
"What did they do at the Games?" Leman asked.
"They participated in feats of sports," the Emperor said. "The Ancient Games were mostly focused on what we consider track and field today. There was wrestling, boxing, and equestrian events as well."
"That's cool," Leman said. He liked wrestling as it was popular among the Fenrisians that made up the Space Wolves Legion.
"You said there were Games that happened later," Magnus said. "It seemed separate from the Ancient Games, why is that?"
"The Ancient Games were ended in M1," the Emperor said. "Another emperor declared the Games to be a religious cult and ordered it disbanded."
"Are you sure it wasn't you?" Lorgar asked.
"I am quite sure it wasn't me," the Emperor said. "The later Olympic Games were started in 896 M2. They were inspired by the Greccan Games of old."
"Did you ever participate in the Ancient Games?" Leman asked.
"No," the Emperor said. "I am not of Greccan birth. Only Greccan boys were allowed to participate if their city-states would agree to the Olympic peace."
"The Olympic peace?" Corvus asked.
"No wars were to be fought between city-states participating in the Games as it would give offense to Zeus, in whose honor the Games were held," the Emperor explained.
"That's interesting," Sanguinius said. "What can you tell us about the later Games?"
"First, they were far larger than the Ancient Games," the Emperor said. "These were held internationally. They were aimed to foster peace, as the Ancient Games had done."
"What sports did these Games have?" Leman asked.
"That's a bit harder to explain," the Emperor said. "In 924 M2 they began holding a second set of Games called the Winter Games. They were focused on winter sports. They maintained the other set of Games as the Summer Games."
"So the Winter Games had things like on Fenris?" Leman asked.
"Not exactly," the Emperor said. "Most of the events in the Winter Games were skiing, hockey, ice skating, and a few other ice based sports."
"That might have been interesting too," Leman said. "I guess Fenrisian sports don't work well here."
"Indeed," the Emperor said with a chuckle.
"What about the Summer Games?" Magnus asked.
"They had many of the same games as the Ancient Games," the Emperor said. "They added many sports as they developed. This included fencing, gymnastics, archery, swimming, and more."
"Did you participate in these Games?" Horus asked.
"That wouldn't be very fair, would it?" the Emperor said. "I thought about it a few times though."
"Could we make our own version of the Olympics?" Angron asked. "That way you can participate, and it would be fair as we would be the competitors."
"I, an adult, would be competing against you, children," the Emperor pointed out.
"But we aren't normal children," Vulkan said. "We are stronger and faster than normal adults."
"Would we do games like the Ancient ones or the later ones?" Sanguinius asked.
"The later ones I think," the Emperor said.
"Then which set of games?" Roboute asked.
"Winter!" Leman declared. "We can do Fenrisian games."
"Summer," the Lion said. "We could actually compete at that. Jaghatai can race and not have to hold back like he does in track."
"I agree with the Lion," Fulgrim said. "Also fencing sounds like an event we can all get into."
"True," Leman said, he only looked a little sad about not getting to participate in Fenrisian sports.
"We can do wrestling," Angron said, he was quite excited about that.
"The Custodians can be judges," Roboute said. "They're the best option."
"True," Lorgar said. "Though it shouldn't be Valdor. He can participate, provide someone fair for Father to compete against."
"That might be hard," the Lion said. "Valdor would allow Father to win."
"Not if Father ordered it," Lorgar said.
"But that's him following orders," the Lion said. "That's still not true competition."
"I won't order Valdor to fight me like that," the Emperor said. "The Lion is right, it would not be proper competition. I can explain it to him."
"Alright," Lorgar said. He really hoped that Valdor would compete.
"Other than wrestling, what are we going to do?" Horus asked.
"Racing," Jaghatai said instantly. Track season had started again at Nova, but he wanted to race against his brothers and father where he didn't have to hold back.
"That's two events," Horus said. He looked around for other suggestions.
"Shooting was a sport," the Emperor suggested.
"Three."
"There were a bunch of types of races," Magnus said. "So really it's more than three."
"True, what type of races were you thinking, Jaghatai?" Horus asked.
"Mostly the dashes, like in track," Jaghatai said. "Though a marathon might be fun."
"I like the marathon idea," Mortarion said. He wasn't the fastest of the Primarchs, but he liked the idea of testing his endurance against his brothers in a race.
"What about hurdles?" Magnus asked.
"Hurdles are also fun," Jaghatai said. This track season he was more focused on hurdles, though he was still in all of the other dashes as well.
"Alright," Horus said. "We have wrestling, shooting, and a bunch of races. What else?"
"Swimming?" Corvus suggested questioningly.
"Yeah!" Leman said. "Like racing, but in the water!"
"Fencing's still in right?" Fulgrim asked. Like his legionaries, he enjoyed duels.
"Naturally," the Lion said. He also enjoyed duels.
"Is there some way for us to test our strength against each other?" Perturabo asked.
"There was weightlifting in the later Games," the Emperor said.
"That's a great idea," Leman said. "Valdor and Allfather can compete against each other and we can compete against each other."
"Yeah!" Angron said. He knew that they couldn't compare to either the Emperor or Valdor in a competition of weightlifting.
"We can use Sisters of Silence to keep Father and Magnus from cheating during that competition," Roboute said. He had been considering the fact that both could easily use their abilities to help them lift heavier things than the others.
"That will keep things a bit fairer," the Emperor said. He had intended on bringing Sisters in for that reason himself. He wanted fair competition, as it was something that had kept him from participating in Olympics in the past.
"For all the competitions?" Magnus asked. He didn't particularly like the idea of having Sisters shadowing his every move during the Games.
"I think only for the weightlifting," the Emperor said. He didn't want the Sisters to have to follow the two of them around for all of the events.
"Alright," Magnus said, relaxing.
"When are we going to do this?" Jaghatai asked. He was excited and wanted the Games to start.
"We should make some preparations first," The Emperor said. "I also haven't spoken to Valdor yet."
"Alright," Jaghatai said, he sounded more disappointed than Magnus had.
"Three days should give us enough time," the Emperor said. Jaghatai looked excited again.

********************************

Three days later the Primarchs were nearly un-containable in their excitement for their Olympic Games. Valdor had agreed to the idea of competing in the Games without holding back, despite competing against his own master. 

The Emperor had set up an amphitheater like area for the Games to occur in. Palace staff had been allowed to bring their families to watch the events. There was excitement in the air as the Primarchs came into the arena, the Emperor and Valdor with them.

They had gotten Geryth to be the announcer. Qeullen, Fellnor, Bryth, and Cavlor were serving as judges. Malcador was going to be handing out the "medals" at the end of events. Since these were unofficial Games they weren't true medals. The Emperor had used small disks and colored them to match the medals that had been used in the later Games. Only the Primarchs were winning medals. Valdor and the Emperor were the only adults competing, so they had opted to skip medals.

The first event was one of the races, with the Primarchs running their races first with Valdor racing the Emperor after the winner was decided among the Primarchs. To everyone's surprise Jaghatai didn't win the final race. He came in second, winning the silver medal. Alpharius won the gold. However, there were other races to be had later. The Emperor won the race against Valdor,  though it was very close.

The second event was shooting. Perturabo won the gold there. He was the most focused of all the Primarchs on shooting as a primary weapon. The others used guns, but preferred close combat weapons. Valdor beat the Emperor in their competition by a fraction of a second.

The next several events were the swimming events. Fulgrim was very happy about this, because he got to wear what the Emperor called a "speedo", form fitting swimwear that looked rather like underclothes. Corvus was a bit concerned that he and Konrad would blind the spectators. Konrad rather looked forward to trying to blind them.

They had four swimming events set up, one for each of the strokes. The Primarchs were more even in swimming with Leman winning the freestyle, Jaghatai winning the breaststroke, Angron giving a surprise win in the butterfly, and Horus winning the backstroke. The Emperor and Valdor won two races apiece. 

They dried off and did more of the track races afterwards. Jaghatai won most of them. Then it was time for the marathon. This was the event Mortarion had been looking forward to the most. He was one of the slower Primarchs, and he was excited to prove that speed wasn't always the deciding factor. 

There was also the fact that it was the only event that all twenty were competing in together. The Emperor had chosen to hold only the one marathon, despite the disparity between the two adult competitors and the Primarchs. It was much easier as the day was running down. The wrestling and fencing events would be held the next day along with a diving competition that Fulgrim had learned about. Also the weightlifting.

Mortarion won the marathon, with Valdor coming in a few seconds later. The Emperor came in third. Jaghatai was quite devastated, but happy that Mortarion had won something.

The next day came, and the fencing competition began. Fulgrim won the gold, the Lion got silver, and had very nearly gotten the gold away from Fulgrim. The duel between Valdor and the Emperor went for quite some time before a draw was determined by the judges.

Wrestling was next, and the competition was quite fierce. Lorgar was eliminated early by Corvus. Leman knocked out Angron several rounds later. Horus was proving to be one of the toughest fighters, eliminating Corvus in a close bout. He was taken out by Sanguinius in the following round. Leman barely managed to eliminate the Lion for the gold. Vulkan got the bronze, having been TKO'd by the Lion to get into the final fight.

"I finally beat you!" Leman crowed as Malcador awarded the medals.

"Barely," the Lion said. He was a bit disappointed that he hadn't won any gold medals during the games, but was happy that he had gotten the two silver medals on the same day. He also had a silver and a bronze from the swimming competitions the previous day.

"A wins still a win," Leman said. The Lion didn't have anything to say for that, and they had to prepare for the weightlifting competition. 

The Silent Sisters came into the arena, staying in a corner until Magnus came up to take his turn at the weightlifting. They stepped back when he had finished. They maintained that pattern as the weight increased. Competition was tight, but Vulkan came out on top. The Emperor barely edged out Valdor in their version. 

Then it was time for the diving competition. Fulgrim had discovered it the day after they had talked about the Games. The others had quickly agreed to it, even though they didn't know the finer points of diving. Angron was determined to do the highest belly flop ever.

"CANNONBAAAAAAAAAALLL!!!!!!!" Leman yelled as he took his turn. His idea was to soak all four of the judges. He nearly succeeded. Only Cavlor escaped the drenching. 

Angron did his belly flop, and managed to knock himself out in the process. Sister Kaelana entered the pool to retrieve him. He came around a few moments later, wondering what his score was. The Emperor had him sit next to Malcador for the rest of the event. 

Fulgrim thought he had the diving competition in the bag, but the Lion slipped in ahead of him. He had done a more complicated dive than Fulgrim had and the judges scored him higher. Fulgrim found he couldn't begrudge the Lion his first, and only, gold medal in the Games.  

The diving competition was the last event in the Games. The diving pool was too shallow for Valdor to safely dive in, so the Emperor abstained from diving himself. The Primarchs paraded past the spectators one final time, wearing all the medals that they had won throughout competition.