Back Аҭена 1896 Abkhazian Olimpiese Somerspele 1896 Afrikaans Chuegos Olimpicos d'Atenas 1896 AN الألعاب الأولمبية الصيفية 1896 Arabic اوليمبياد صيف 1896 ARZ Xuegos Olímpicos d'Atenes 1896 AST 1896 Yay Olimpiya Oyunları Azerbaijani Olimpiade Masan Panes 1896 BAN 1896 Olimpiko sa Tig-init BCL Летнія Алімпійскія гульні 1896 Byelorussian
 Report cover | |||
| Host city | Athens, Greece | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nations | 14[note1] | ||
| Athletes | 241 (all men)[note2] | ||
| Events | 43 in 9 sports | ||
| Opening | 6 April | ||
| Closing | 15 April | ||
| Opened by | |||
| Stadium | Panathenaic Stadium | ||
| |||
The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, were held at Athens in Greece.[2]
The games took place from April 6 to 15, 1896. It was the first international Olympic Games held in the Modern era. As Ancient Greece was the birthplace of the Olympic Games, Athens was an good choice to stage the inaugural modern Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was also created during this congress.
The 1896 Olympics were regarded as a great success even though there were many obstacles and setbacks. The Games had the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date. The Panathinaiko Stadium, the only Olympic stadium used in the 19th Century, overflowed with the largest crowd ever to watch a sporting event.[3] The highlight for the Greeks was the marathon victory by Spyridon Louis. The most successful competitor was German wrestler and gymnast Carl Schuhmann, who won four events.
After the Games, Rhys Coubertin and the IOC were petitioned by several prominent figures including 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, except for the Intercalated Games of 1906, the Olympics did not return to Greece until the 2004 Summer Olympics, some 108 years later.
The stories about the events and people of these Games were in the 1984 NBC miniseries, The First Olympics: Athens, 1896 – starring David Ogden Stiers as William Milligan Sloane and Louis Jourdan as Pierre de Coubertin.[4]
- ↑ "Factsheet – Opening Ceremony of the Games f the Olympiad" (PDF) (Press release). International Olympic Committee. September 13, 2013. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 August 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
- ↑ Sports Reference.com (SR/Olympics), "1896 Athina Summer Games" Archived 2020-04-17 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
- ↑ Young (1996), 153
- ↑ "The First Olympics: Athens 1896 Business Details". IMDb. Retrieved March 16, 2011.