the 1896 Olympics: I Olympiad

[Fiona]

On June 23, 1894, French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin, speaking at the Sorbonne in Paris to a gathering of international sports leaders from nine nations— including the United States and Russia— proposed that the ancient Games be revived on an international scale. The idea was enthusiastically received and the Modern Olympics, as we know them, were born.

The first Olympiad was celebrated two years later in Athens, where an estimated 245 athletes (all men) from 14 nations competed in the ancient Panathenaic stadium before large and ardent crowds.

‘On 5 April 1896 James B. Connolly of the Suffolk Athletic Club, Boston, projected himself 13 m and 71 cm through the Attic air in the newly restored Panathenaic Stadium of Athens, in the hop, step and jump, and became the first Olympic victor for more than 1500 years.’

Americans won nine of the 12 track and field events, but Greece won the most medals with 47. The highlight was the victory by native peasant Spiridon Louis in the first marathon race, which was run over the same course covered by the Greek hero Pheidippides after the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C.