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Olympia Stadium
“The stadium, finally, whose track has a length of 192 meters, that is to say 600 times the length of the foot of Heracles… Which allows us to know that the demigod was wearing size 46 approximately.”
The narrator
Go Gaul
While our two favorite Gauls are out in the forest for their daily wild boar hunt, Asterix and Obelix meet Claudius Cornedurus, a legionnaire selected to participate in the Olympic Games.
Neither one, nor two, the two Gauls decide to participate in the famous games, encouraged by the whole village which accompanies them in the Greek city.
When Asterix learns that doping is forbidden, and therefore the use of magic potion, he finds himself the sole representative of Gaul during the competitions, all of which take place in the stadium of Olympia.
Direction Olympia
The twelfthAsterix album is an opportunity for the little moustachioed Gaul to travel again after his stays in ancient Egypt, Great Britain and Rome. This time, direction Greece and more precisely in Olympia.
René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo took great pleasure in drawing the most important places in Greek history. We find Piraeus – the main port of the country – Athens and its acropolis, and of course Olympia with all its monuments including the Hellanodikéon, the Prytanéon, the Bouleutérion or the gymnasiums where the athletes train.
Brutus at the Olympic Games
Asterix at the Olympic Games is one of the albums that have been adapted for the big screen. After the success of Mission Cleopatra, a new adaptation is planned. Having initially refused an adaptation of Asterix in Hispania by Gérard Jugnot and his friends from the Splendid troupe, he was chosen to adapt the twelfth adventure.
When it was released in 2008, Asterix at the Olympic Games was the most expensive film in the history of French cinema with a budget of 78 million euros.
The filming of the latter is almost entirely carried out in the Ciudad de la Luz film complex in Alicante, Spain, which can accommodate large sets such as a reproduction of the 300-meter Olympic stadium.
The film will be a critical failure, reproaching among other things to put a lot of emphasis on Brutus, played by Benoît Poelvoorde, a character absent from the original comic book.
The birth of the dean
Although it was only glimpsed in the previous volumes, Asterix at the Olympic Games is the first album in which we really get to know the village’s doyen, the future recurring character of the series: Agecanonix.
In addition to learning his name, the authors also give us his age: 93 years.
René Goscinny had the idea of the album following the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
Stadium at Olympia
Central place of the Olympic Games of the antiquity, the stadium of Olympia is the symbol of one of the biggest sports competitions of the world.
Built to host the games, the stadium of Olympia has known several versions during its history. Archaeologists do not know the date of construction of the first stadium, they have determined that the second version was built in the years 540 BC. The current stadium would have appeared in the fifth century BC.
The stadium could accommodate between 40,000 and 45,000 people. It was 212.54 meters long and 28.50 meters wide.
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Astérix - Toutes les coulisses, par Toutatis ! (French Edition)
Go behind the scenes of Asterix and discover all the secrets of the village of Gallic diehards. Did you know that Louis de Funès wanted to play the Gaul in the movies or that he was the only one who could play…
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By Damien Biju
Passionné par le cinéma, les séries d'animations et les jeux vidéo, il rêve secrètement de voyager à travers le monde à la recherche des lieux les plus emblématiques de la pop culture à bord d'une Delorean.