Olympics Revived: Athens Hosts First Modern Games

Eighty thousand spectators packed the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens on April 6, 1896, to watch the opening of the first modern Olympic Games, an event that a French aristocrat had spent years willing into existence against near-universal skepticism. Pierre de Coubertin, a pedagogue obsessed with the idea that athletic competition could promote international peace, had convened a congress in Paris in 1894 and persuaded delegates from twelve countries to approve the revival of the ancient Greek games. Athens was chosen unanimously as the host city, but the Greek government initially refused to fund the event. The games happened because of one man's wallet. Georgios Averoff, a wealthy Greek businessman living in Alexandria, Egypt, donated nearly one million drachmas to renovate the Panathenaic Stadium, which had been built for the ancient Panathenaic Games in 329 BC and lay in ruins. His donation covered the cost of rebuilding the stadium in white Pentelic marble, the same stone used for the Parthenon. A statue of Averoff was erected outside the stadium before the games began. Fourteen nations sent athletes, though the participation was haphazard. Several Americans from the Boston Athletic Association and Princeton University entered after organizing their own travel. Some competitors were tourists who happened to be in Athens. John Pius Boland, an Irish student at Oxford, entered the tennis tournament on a whim and won gold. The swimming events took place in the open sea at Piraeus, where water temperatures hovered around 55 degrees Fahrenheit and waves disrupted the races. The marathon, a race invented specifically for these games to commemorate the legend of Pheidippides, produced the most dramatic moment. Greek runner Spyridon Louis, a water carrier with no competitive running experience, entered the stadium in first place to delirium from the home crowd. King George I rose from his seat, and two Greek princes ran alongside Louis for the final meters. His victory remains the emotional cornerstone of Greek Olympic history. The most successful competitor was German wrestler and gymnast Carl Schuhmann, who won four gold medals across two sports, a feat of versatility unimaginable in the specialized modern games.