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1896 Summer Olympics
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The 1896 Summer Olympics—officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad—was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to April 15, 1896. It was the first Olympic Games held in the Modern era, marking the revival of the Ancient Olympic Games. With Ancient Greece as the birthplace of the Olympic Games, Athens was seen as an appropriate choice to stage the inaugural modern Games. It was unanimously chosen as the host city during a congress organized by Pierre de Coubertin, in Paris, on June 23, 1894, in which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was also established.
Against all odds and despite bad weather, the Olympics were regarded as a great success. Although many of the top athletes of the time did not take part, the Games had the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date.
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1896 Opening ceremonies of the 1896 Summer Olympics, the first modern Olympic Games.
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Encyclopedia
The 1896 Summer Olympics—officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad—was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to April 15, 1896. It was the first Olympic Games held in the Modern era, marking the revival of the Ancient Olympic Games. With Ancient Greece as the birthplace of the Olympic Games, Athens was seen as an appropriate choice to stage the inaugural modern Games. It was unanimously chosen as the host city during a congress organized by Pierre de Coubertin, in Paris, on June 23, 1894, in which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was also established.
Against all odds and despite bad weather, the Olympics were regarded as a great success. Although many of the top athletes of the time did not take part, the Games had the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date. Panathinaiko Stadium, the first big stadium in the modern world, overflowed with the largest crowd ever to watch a sporting event. The highlight for the Greeks was the marathon victory by their compatriot Spiridon Louis. The most successful competitor was German wrestler and gymnast Carl Schuhmann, winning four gold medals.
After the Games, Coubertin and the IOC were petitioned by, among others, Greece's King George and some of the American competitors in Athens, to hold all the following Games in Athens. However, the 1900 Summer Olympics were already planned for Paris and, barring the Intercalated Games of 1906, the Olympics did not return to Greece until the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Host city election
During the 19th century, several small-scale sports festivals across Europe were named after the Ancient Olympic Games. French pedagogue and historian Pierre de Coubertin's idea was to revive the ancient Greek Olympics, but in the form of an international multi-sport event. In 1890, he wrote an article in La Revue Athletique acknowledging the importance of Much Wenlock—a rural market town in the English county of Shropshire—to the endurance of the Olympic spirit and revival of the modern Olympic Games. 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 games organised in Greece, by businessman Evangelos Zappas.
On June 18, 1894, Coubertin organized a congress at the Sorbonne, in Paris, to present his plans to representatives of sports societies from 11 countries. Following his proposal's acceptance by the congress, a host city for the first modern Olympics needed to be chosen. Coubertin suggested them to be held concurrently with the 1900 Universal Exposition of Paris, however, congress members opted to hold the inaugural Games in 1896, as they were concerned a six-year waiting period might lessen the public interest.
It remains a mystery how Athens was finally chosen, as Coubertin's and Demetrius Vikelas's accounts, and the official minutes of the congress contradict each other. Several congressmen first proposed London as the location, but Coubertin opposed; after a brief talk with Vikelas, who represented Greece, he suggested Athens. Vikelas made the Athens proposal official, on June 23, and since Greece had been the original home of the Olympics, the congress unanimously approved the decision. Vikelas was then elected the first president of the newly established International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Organization
The news that the Olympic Games would return to Greece was received favorably by the Greek public, media, and the royal family. According to Coubertin, "the Crown Prince Constantine learned with great pleasure that the Games will be inaugurated in Athens." Coubertin assured that "the King and the Crown Prince will confer their patronage on the holding of these games." Constantine later conferred more than that; he eagerly assumed the presidency of the 1896 organizing committee.
However, the country had financial troubles and was in political turmoil, the job of prime minister alternating between Charilaos Trikoupis and Theodoros Deligiannis at a high frequency. Because of this financial and political instability, both prime minister Trikoupis and Stephanos Dragoumis, the president of the Zappas Olympic Committee, which had attempted to organize a series of national Olympiads, believed that Greece could not host the event. In late 1894, the organizing committee under Stephanos Skouloudis presented a report that the cost of the Games would be three times higher than originally estimated by Coubertin. They concluded the Games could not be held, and offered their resignation. The total cost of the Games was 3,740,000 drachmas (about US$448,000).
After the feverish efforts of Coubertin and Vikelas the arguments of the pro-Olympic movement prevailed, and on January 7, 1895, Vikelas announced that Constantine had assumed the presidency of the organizing committee. He added that the basic financial plan was to trust in the patriotism of the Greek people. Constantine's enthusiasm sparked a wave of contributions from the Greek public, raising 330,000 drachmas. A special set of postage stamps raised a further 400,000, and ticket sales added 200,000 drachmas. At the request of Constantine, wealthy businessman George Averoff agreed to pay for the restoration of the Panathinaiko Stadium, donating about one million drachmas. As a tribute to his generosity, a statue of Averoff was constructed and unveiled on April 5 outside the stadium, where it still stands. The stadium had a straight running track of 232 meters, and very narrow curves, all covered with fine sand.
Some of the athletes would take part in the Games because they happened to be in Athens at the time the Games were held, either on vacation or for work (e.g., some of the British competitors worked for the British embassy). The concept of a designated Olympic Village for the athletes did not appear until the 1932 Summer Olympics; the athletes had to provide their own lodging.
According to the first regulation IOC voted in 1894, only amateur athletes were accepted in the Olympic Games. The various contests were thus held under amateur regulations with the exception of fencing matches. The rules and regulations were not uniform, so the Organizing Committee and Coubertin had to choose among the codes of the various national athletic associations. The jury, the referees and the game director bore the same names as in antiquity (Ephor, Helanodic and Alitarc). Prince George acted as final referee; according to Coubertin, "his presence gave weight and authority to the decisions of the ephors."
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|bgcolor=#00cc33| ? || Opening ceremony
|bgcolor=#3399ff| ? || Event competitions
|bgcolor=#ffcc00| ? || Event finals
|bgcolor=#ee3333| ? || Closing ceremony
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Opening ceremony
On April 6 (March 25 according to the Julian calendar), the games of the First Olympiad were officially opened; it was Easter Monday and the anniversary of the Greek War of Independence. The Panathinaiko 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. After a speech by the president of the organizing committee, Crown Prince Constantine, his father officially opened the Games:
I declare the opening of the first international Olympic Games in Athens. Long live the Nation. Long live the Greek people.
Afterwards, nine bands and 150 choir singers performed an Olympic Hymn, composed by Spyros Samaras, with words by poet Kostis Palamas. Thereafter, a variety of musical offerings provided the backgrounds to the Opening Ceremonies until 1960, since which time the Samaras/Palamas composition has become the official Olympic Anthem (decision taken by the IOC Session in 1958). Other elements of the current Olympic openings were initiated later: the Olympic flame was first lit in 1928, the first athletes' oath was sworn at the 1920 Olympic Games, and the first officials' oath was sworn at the 1972 Olympic Games.
EventsAt the 1894 Sorbonne congress, a large roster of sports had been mentioned for the program in Athens. The first edition of the official announcement featured sports such as football and cricket, but these plans were never carried out. Rowing and yachting was scheduled, but had to be canceled due to strong winds on the planned day of competition.
Athletics
The athletics events had the most international field of any of the sports. The major highlight was the marathon, held for the first time in international competition. Spiridon Louis, a previously unrecognized water carrier, won the event to become the only Greek athletics champion and a national hero. Although Greece had been favored to win the discus and the shot put, the best Greek athletes finished just behind the American Robert Garrett in both events.
No world records were set, as few top international competitors had turned up. In addition, the curves of the track were very tight, making fast times in the running events virtually impossible. Despite this, Thomas Burke won both the 100 meter and the 400 meter run for the United States, winning with times of 12.0 seconds and 54.2 seconds and with relative ease. Burke was the only one who used the "crouch start" (putting his knee on soil), confusing the jury. Eventually, he was allowed to start from this "uncomfortable position", winning however casually.
Cycling
The rules of the International Cycling Association were used for the cycling competitions. The track cycling events were held at the newly built Neo Phaliron Velodrome. Only one road event was held, a race from Athens to Marathon and back (87 kilometers).
Frenchman Paul Masson was the best cyclist on the track, winning the one lap time trial, the sprint event, and the 10,000 meters. In the 100 kilometers event, Masson entered as a pacemaker for his compatriot Léon Flameng. Flameng won the event, after a fall, and after stopping to wait for his Greek opponent Georgios Kolettis to fix a mechanical problem. The Austrian fencer Adolf Schmal won the 12-hours race, which was completed by only two cyclists, while the road race event was won by Aristidis Konstantinidis.
Fencing
The fencing events were held in the Zappeion, which, built with money Evangelos Zappas had given to revive the ancient Olympic Games, had never seen any athletic contests before. Unlike other sports (in which only amateurs were allowed to take part at the Olympics), professionals were allowed to compete in fencing, though in a separate event. These professionals were considered gentlemen athletes, just as the amateurs.
Four events were scheduled, but the épée event was cancelled for unknown reasons. The foil event was won by a Frenchman, Eugène-Henri Gravelotte, who beat his countryman, Henri Callot, in the final. The other two events, the sabre and the masters foil, were won by Greek fencers. Leonidas Pyrgos, who won the latter event, became the first Greek to become an Olympic champion in the modern era.
Gymnastics
The gymnastics exercises were carried out on the infield of the Panathenaiko Stadium. Germany had sent an 11-man team, which won five of the eight events, including both team events. In the team event on the horizontal bar, the German team was unopposed. Three Germans added individual titles: Hermann Weingärtner won the horizontal bar event, and also took two seconds and a third place; Alfred Flatow won the parallel bars; and Carl Schuhmann, who also competed successfully in wrestling, won the vault. Louis Zutter, a Swiss gymnast, won the pommel horse, while Greeks Ioannis Mitropoulos and Nikolaos Andriakopoulos were victorious in the rings and rope climbing events, respectively.
Shooting
Held at a shooting range at Kallithea, there were five shooting events—two rifle events and three pistol shooting competitions. The first event, the military rifle, was won by Pantelis Karasevdas, the only competitor to hit the target with all of his shots. The second event, for military pistols, was dominated by two brothers, Americans John and Sumner Paine. In order to avoid embarrassing their hosts, the brothers decided that only one of them would compete in the next pistol event, the free pistol. Sumner Paine won that event, thereby becoming the first relative of an Olympic champion to become Olympic champion himself.
The Paine brothers did not compete in the 25 meter pistol event, as their weapons were judged to be not of the required caliber. In their absence, Ioannis Phrangoudis won. Phrangoudis also placed second in the final event, the free rifle, begun on the same day. However, the event could not be completed due to darkness and was completed the next morning, when Georgios Orphanidis was celebrated as the champion.
Swimming
The 1896 swimming competitions were held at open sea, as the organizers had refused to spend the money necessary for a specially constructed stadium. Nearly 20,000 spectators watched the event, in the Bay of Zea off the Piraeus coast, where the swimmers suffered in the bay's icy waters. There were three open events, in addition to a special event open only to Greek sailors, all of which were held on the same day (April 11).
For Alfréd Hajós of Hungary, this meant he could only compete in two of the events, as they were held shortly after one another, giving him little time to recuperate. Nevertheless, he won the two events in which he swam, the 100 meters and the 1200 meters freestyle. Hajós later became one of only two Olympians to win a medal in both athletic and artistic competitions, when he won a silver medal for architecture in 1924. The 500 meters freestyle was won by Austrian swimmer Paul Neumann, who defeated his opponents by more than a minute and a half.
Tennis
Although tennis was already a major sport by the end of the 19th century, none of the top players turned up for the tournament in Athens, which was held at the courts of the Athens Lawn Tennis Club, and the infield of the velodrome. John Pius Boland, who won the event easily, had been entered in the competition by a fellow-student of his in Oxford, the Greek Konstantinos Manos. As a member of the Athens Lawn Tennis sub-committee, Manos had been trying, with the assistance of Boland, to recruit competitors for the Athens Games from among the sporting circles of Oxford University. In the first round, Boland defeated Friedrich Traun, a promising tennis player from Hamburg, who had been eliminated in the 100 meters competition. Boland and Traun decided to team up for the doubles event, in which they reached the final and defeated their Greek and Egyptian opponents after losing the first set.
Weightlifting
The sport of weightlifting was still very young in 1896, and the rules differed from those in use today. Competitions were held outdoors, in the infield of the main stadium, and there were no weight limits. The first event was the two-handed event, held in a style now known as "clean and jerk". Two competitors stood out: Scotsman Launceston Elliot and Viggo Jensen of Denmark. Both of them lifted the same weight; but the jury, with Prince George as the chairman, ruled that Jensen had done so in a better style. The British delegation, unfamiliar with this tie-breaking rule, lodged a protest. The lifters were eventually allowed make further attempts, but neither lifter improved, and Jensen was declared the champion.
Elliot got his revenge in the single handed "snatch" event, which was held immediately after the two-handed one. Jensen had been slightly injured during his last two-handed attempt, and was no match for Elliot, who won the competition easily ahead of Jensen. The Greek audience was very charmed by the Scottish victor, whom they considered very attractive. During this contest, a curious incident happened: when a servant was ordered to remove the weights, which seemed a difficult task for him, Prince George came to his assistance; he picked up the weight, and threw it with ease to a considerable distance, receiving applause from the audience.
Wrestling
No weight classes existed for the wrestling competition, held in the Panathinaiko Stadium, which meant that there would only be one winner among competitors of all sizes. The rules used were similar to modern Greco-Roman wrestling, although there was no time limit, and not all leg holds were forbidden (in contrast to current rules).
Apart from the two Greek contestants, all the competitors had previously been active in other sports. Weightlifting champion Launceston Elliot faced gymnastics champion Carl Schuhmann. The latter won easily and advanced into the final, where he met Georgios Tsitas, who had previously defeated Stephanos Christopoulos. The final match had to be abandoned after 40 minutes as darkness fell; it was continued the following day, when the German finished needed only a quarter of an hour to finish the bout.
Closing ceremonyOn the morning of Sunday April 12, King George organized a banquet for officials and athletes (even though some competitions were not to be 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.
Afterwards, the king awarded prizes to the winners. Unlike today, the first place winners received silver medals, an olive branch and a diploma; and the second-placed athletes received copper medals, a branch of laurel and a diploma. Third place winners did not receive a medal. Some winners also received additional prizes, such as Spiridon Louis, who received a cup from Michel Bréal, a friend of De Coubertin who had conceived the marathon event. Louis then led the medalists on a lap of honor through the stadium, while the Olympic Hymn was played again. The King then formally announced that the first Olympiad was at an end, and left the Stadium, the band playing the Greek national hymn, and the crowd cheering.
Like the Greek king, many others supported the idea of holding the next Games in Athens as well; most of the American competitors signed a letter to the Crown Prince expressing this wish. Coubertin, however, was heavily opposed to this idea, as he envisioned international rotation as one of the cornerstones of the modern Olympics. According to his wish, the next Games were held in Paris, although they would be subdued by the concurrently held Universal Exposition.
Participating nations
The concept of national teams was not a major part of the Olympic movement until the Intercalated Games 10 years later, though many sources list the nationality of competitors in 1896 and give medal counts. Sources conflict as to which nations competed. The International Olympic Committee gives a figure of 14, but no list. The following 14 are most likely the ones which the IOC figure includes. Some sources list 12, excluding Chile and Bulgaria; others list 13, including those two but excluding Italy. Egypt is also sometimes included because of Dionysios Kasdaglis' participation. Belgium and Russia had entered the names of competitors, but withdrew.
- – Despite Australia's lack of independence from the British Empire, the results of Teddy Flack are typically given with him listed as Australian.
- – Austria was part of Austria-Hungary at the time, though the results of Austrian athletes are typically reported separately.
- – The Bulgarian Olympic Committee claims that gymnast Charles Champaud was competing as a Bulgarian. Champaud was a Swiss national living in Bulgaria. Mallon and de Wael both list Champaud as Swiss.
- – The Chilean Olympic Committee claims to have had one athlete, Luis Subercaseaux, compete in the 100, 400, and 800 meter races in the athletics programme. No further details are given, and no mention is made of Subersaceaux in Mallon, de Wael, or the Official Report.
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- – The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland has historically maintained separate athletic organisations for each of its constituent countries. The major exception to this has been the Olympic Games, in which the country is considered as a single entity. However, it has conventionally used the name "Great Britain" at the Olympics rather than the more common shortening of the name to "the United Kingdom".
- – Greek results typically include the results of competitors from Cyprus, Smyrna and Egypt. Some sources give Cypriot results separately, though most count Anastasios Andreou, a Greek-Cypriot and the only athlete from Cyprus, as Greek (Cyprus was a protectorate of the United Kingdom at the time). Kasdaglis, an athlete of Greek origins living in Alexandria, Egypt, is listed by the IOC as Greek during his competition in the singles tennis competition but Kasdaglis and his doubles tennis teammate, Greek athlete Demetrios Petrokokkinos, are listed a mixed team.
- – Hungary is usually listed separately from Austria, despite the two being formally joined as Austria-Hungary at the time. However, Hungarian results are considered to include those of athletes from Vojvodina (now part of Serbia) and Slovakia.
- – The most prominent Italian involved with the games, Carlo Airoldi, was deemed a professional and excluded from competition. However, the shooter listed by name simply as Rivabella was also Italian and did compete.
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Medal count
Ten of the 14 participating nations earned medals, in addition to three medals won by mixed teams, i.e. teams made up of athletes from multiple nations. The United States won the most gold medals (11), while host nation Greece won the most medals overall (46) as well as the most silver (17) and bronze (19) medals, finishing with one less gold medal than the United States.
During these inaugural Olympics, winners were given a silver medal and an olive branch, while runner-ups received a bronze medal and a laurel branch. The IOC has retroactively assigned gold, silver and bronze medals to the three best placed athletes in each event to comport wi | |
