The Grandma has read about the first International Olympic Games held in modern history, celebrated in Athens that started on a day like today in 1896.
The 1896 Summer Olympics, in Greek Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 1896, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, was the first international Olympic Games held in modern history.
Organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which had been created by French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin, it was held in Athens, Greece, from 6 to 15 April 1896.
Fourteen nations (according to the IOC, though the number is subject to interpretation) and 241 athletes (all males; this number is also disputed) took part in the games. Participants were all European, or living in Europe, except the United States team. Over 65% of the competing athletes were Greek.
Winners were given a silver medal, while runners-up received a copper medal. Retroactively, the IOC has converted these to gold and silver, and awarded bronze medals to third placed athletes. Ten of the 14 participating nations earned medals.
The United States won the most gold medals, 11, while host nation Greece won the most medals overall, 46. The highlight for the Greeks was the marathon victory by their compatriot Spyridon Louis. The most successful competitor was German wrestler and gymnast Carl Schuhmann, who won four events.
More information: IOC
Athens had been unanimously chosen to stage the inaugural modern Games during a congress organized by Coubertin in Paris on 23 June 1894, during which the IOC was also created, because Greece was the birthplace of the Ancient Olympic Games.
The main venue was the Panathenaic Stadium, where athletics and wrestling took place; other venues included the Neo Phaliron Velodrome for cycling, and the Zappeion for fencing.
The opening ceremony was held in the Panathenaic Stadium on 6 April, during which most of the competing athletes were aligned on the infield, grouped by nation. After a speech by the president of the organizing committee, Crown Prince Constantine, his father officially opened the Games. Afterwards, nine bands and 150 choir singers performed an Olympic Hymn, composed by Spyridon Samaras, with words by poet Kostis Palamas.
After the Games, Coubertin and the IOC were petitioned by several prominent figures, including Greece's King George and some American competitors in Athens, to hold all the following Games in Athens.
However, the 1900 Summer Olympics were already planned for Paris and, except for the Intercalated Games of 1906, the Olympics did not return to Greece until the 2004 Summer Olympics, 108 years later.
During the 19th century, several small-scale sports festivals across Europe were named after the Ancient Olympic Games. The 1870 Olympics at the Panathenaic stadium, which had been refurbished for the occasion, had an audience of 30,000 people.
Pierre de Coubertin, a French pedagogue and historian, adopted Dr William Penny Brookes' idea to establish a multi-national and multi-sport event -the ancient games only allowed male athletes of Greek origin to participate.
In 1890, Coubertin wrote an article in La Revue Athletique, which espoused the importance of Much Wenlock a rural market town in the English county of Shropshire. It was here that, in October 1850, the local physician William Penny Brookes had founded the Wenlock Olympian Games, a festival of sports and recreations that included athletics and team sports, such as cricket, football and quoits.
Coubertin also took inspiration from the earlier Greek games organized under the name of Olympics by businessman and philanthropist Evangelis Zappas in 1859, 1870 and 1875.
The 1896 Athens Games were funded by the legacies of Evangelis Zappas
and his cousin Konstantinos Zappas and by George Averoff who had been
specifically requested by the Greek government, through crown prince
Constantine, to sponsor the second refurbishment of the Panathenaic
Stadium.
More information: Pierre de Coubertine, The Modern Olympic Games
On 6 April, 25 March according to the Julian calendar then in use in Greece, the games of the First Olympiad were officially opened; it was Easter Monday for both the Western and Eastern Christian Churches and the anniversary of Greece's independence.
The Panathenaic Stadium was filled with an estimated 80,000 spectators, including King George I of Greece, his wife Olga, and their sons. Most of the competing athletes were aligned on the infield, grouped by nation.
On the morning of Sunday 12 April or 3 April, according to the Julian calendar then used in Greece, King George organized a banquet for officials and athletes even though some competitions had not yet been held.
During his speech, he made clear that, as far as he was concerned, the Olympics should be held in Athens permanently. The official closing ceremony was held the following Wednesday, after being postponed from Tuesday due to rain. Again the royal family attended the ceremony, which was opened by the national anthem of Greece and an ode composed in ancient Greek by George S. Robertson, a British athlete and scholar.
More information: Independent
is not winning but taking part;
the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.
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