1896 Games a Culmination of Two Centuries of Effort
The first “modern” Olympic Games were officially played from April 6 through April 15, 1896, in Athens, Greece, with 280 male athletes from 12 countries vying for medals in 43 events. Those games, though, came about because of more than 175 years of effort by individuals across the European continent.
The Early Efforts to Revive the Olympic Competition
Though scholars disagree on a specific date for the first ancient Olympics, they estimate that the original games started around 800 BCE and were regularly held until approximately 400 CE, lying dormant for nearly 1,200 years.
- In the early 1600s, a lawyer in England, Robert Dover, organized an event that he called the “Cotswold Olimpick Games, held annually in Chipping Camden, England for around 30 years.
- In 1796, the First Republic (the government of Revolutionary France) held a competition entitled “L’Olympiade de la Republique,” which sought to recreate the ancient games. Though the effort was short-lived, lasting just three years, it did introduce the metric system to the Olympics.
- Approximately 40 years later (1834 and 1836), Sweden hosted “Olympic Games, with an estimated 25,000 people attending
- In 1850, another Englishman named William Penny Brookes created the Wenlock Olympian Games, which are still held every year.
- The concept began to take hold in England, as Liverpool hosted a Grand Olympic Festival every year between 1862 and 1867.
The Movement to Revive the Ancient Olympic Games
Sentiment for establishing a new modern games in Greece began shortly after Greece successfully secured its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821. Though the concept was first proposed in 1833, the first games of any kind were not held in Greece until 1859. Evangelos Zappas, a Greek philanthropist, paid for the restoration of the ancient Panathenaic Stadium, which was used for subsequent Olympic-style competitions for the next 30 years. In 1890, inspired by both the Greek Olympics and the Wenlock Olympic Games, Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin formed the International Olympic Community. He then held a meeting of delegates from participating countries, who voted to hold the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. The 1900 Olympics (Paris) and the 1904 Olympics (St. Louis) were both considered to be failures and the modern Olympics almost died a quick death. Fortunately, a second Olympic Games was held in Athens in 1906, drawing athletes and fans from around the world.
