I Olympiad: Athens 1896

By Frank Condron

Today the Olympic Games is a global spectacle that captures the attention of the entire world and has the power to produce moments of individual courage and triumph that live on forever. But there was a time when reviving the ancient festival of sport was just a dream shared by a handful of dedicated sportsmen led by a determined French aristocrat named Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

The I Olympiad—Athens 1896, the second volume in The Olympic Century series, tells the story of the first modern Olympic Games and the essential role they played in launching the Modern Olympic Movement as it is known today. The book traces the origins of the Olympic revival back to the 17th Century, and follows Baron de Coubertin as he travels the world seeking the moral, political and financial support needed to stage the first Olympiad of the Modern Era. The focus then shifts to the 1896 Games themselves and the colourful assortment of athletes who participated, from the British embassy worker recruited to play tennis to the Danish strongman who participated in seven individual events in four different sports. The book concludes with the towering triumph of Spyridon Louis, the Greek peasant who, by claiming victory for the host country in the first-ever marathon, ensured the survival of the Modern Olympic Movement.

Juan Antonio Samaranch, former President of the International Olympic Committee, called The Olympic Century, “The most comprehensive history of the Olympic games ever published”.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Warwick Press Inc.
• Release date: Nov 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781987944013

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

In the early evening of August 13, 2004, an expectant crowd of some 70,000 people sat on the edge of their seats in the glittering Olympic stadium in Athens, Greece awaiting the opening ceremonies of the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad of the Modern Era. What followed was a two-hour extravaganza of sight and sound that took the spectators in the stadium, along with countless millions watching on television around the globe, on a journey through Greek history, from its mythological beginnings to the modern age. The spectacular production featured computer-generated video and pyrotechnics, as well as hundreds of traditional dancers and musicians moving flawlessly in a carefully choreographed celebration of Greek culture and art. The spectacle culminated with the lighting of a great iron cauldron by a young athlete, symbolizing the beginning of the Games.

Yet, for all their extravagance, the opening ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympics were not in any way exceptional. In fact, they were quite typical of modern Olympic ceremonies in terms of both historical themes and sheer scale; and, in many ways, symbolic of what the world’s preeminent international multi-sport event has become. That they took place in Athens, however, gave the opening ceremonies of the 2004 Games special significance.

As the first Olympic host city in 1896, the ancient Greek capital was the birthplace of the modern Olympic movement, meaning the 2004 Games provided a benchmark of just how far the movement had come in the 108 years since it was inaugurated. And in the emotions and passions that are now aroused at the start of every Olympic Games, replete as they are with rituals and traditions with a history all their own, it was possible to gain some understanding of just what a watershed moment Athens 1896 was, not just in the history of sport, but in the history of mankind.

From its simple and uncertain beginnings in 1896, the modern Olympic movement went on to have a level of social and political influence around the globe that even its founder, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, could never have imagined. In terms of sheer scale alone, the modern Olympic Games certainly would exceed de Coubertin’s wildest expectations. With just 14 competing nations, 241 athletes, men only, and 43 total events in nine disciplines, the 1896 Athens Games bore scant resemblance to the Olympic Games as they are today. One hundred and eight years later, the same city played host to 10,625 athletes, 6,296 men and 4,329 women, representing 201 nations; those athletes participated in 301 separate events in 28 sporting disciplines, some of them not even invented in 1896.

As the scale of the movement grew from one four-year Olympiad to the next, so did the political influence of the Games themselves. The power of the Olympics to send a political message to the world was demonstrated for the first time in Antwerp, Belgium in 1920, when the nations seen as the aggressors in the First World War—Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire–were barred from participating. In 1936 in Berlin, Adolf Hitler used the Olympic Games as a global stage to demonstrate the power of Germany under his Nazi regime and to propagate his theories on racial superiority. In the latter stages of the Cold War, the world’s two superpowers traded insults via the Games: In 1980, the United States led a coalition of 65 countries in a boycott of the Moscow Olympics to protest the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan; in 1984 the Soviets reciprocated, leading 13 Eastern Bloc countries and Cuba in a boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics, citing chauvinistic sentiments and anti-Soviet hysteria being whipped up in the U.S.

And just as the Olympics developed the power to further partisan national interests, they also developed the power to create history, weaving unforgettable performances into the very fabric of nations. Paavo Nurmi, The Flying Finn, won nine gold medals in middle- and long-distance running over the course of three Olympic Games in the 1920s and became a national icon in his homeland. Jesse Owens, the grandson of a slave from the southern United States, won four gold medals in Berlin in 1936, spoiling Hitler’s celebration of his Aryan master race. In 1976, a 15-year-old Romanian named Nadia Comaneci became a global superstar when she recorded the first perfect-10 score in Olympic gymnastics.

But it is not just Olympic gold-medal winners who add a page to their nation’s story. At the 2008 Games in Beijing, China, Ismail Ahmed Ismail became the first Olympic medal winner in history from Sudan when he claimed the silver in the 800 metres. Ismail’s achievement sparked an outpouring of national pride and celebration among Sudanese around the world and cast a rare positive light on a country wracked for decades by conflict. And although he did not win a medal, shot-putter Zlatan Saracevic became a national hero in his country in 1992 when he carried the flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina into the stadium for the opening ceremonies of the Barcelona Games; Bosnia and Herzegovina had been recognized as an independent country by the United Nations just two months previous.

The power of the Olympics to imprint unforgettable moments on the history of a nation was apparent from the beginning. In 1896, a humble water-carrier named Spyridon Louis made all of Greece erupt with joy when he won the first-ever marathon race. Louis’s emotional victory on his home soil was the first true Olympic moment of the modern era, and the desire to recreate that feeling of elation has sustained the Olympic movement ever since. That is because although the individual sporting achievement may be fleeting, the moment, and the sense of national pride it evokes, are indelible.

It was the expectation of Olympic moments to come that gripped spectators and athletes alike in the stadium for the opening ceremonies of the Athens Games in 2004--a stadium named in honor of Spyridon Louis. That expectation has existed at every Olympic Games, and always will exist whenever the Olympic flame is ignited. But it was born in Athens in 1896 – The Games of the I Olympiad of the Modern Era.

SEEDS OF THE MODERN GAMES

The inspiration for the modern Olympic movement is clearly rooted in the classical Games celebrated in ancient Olympia, and that is what the organizers were striving to recreate in Athens in 1896. But the organizers of the 1896 Olympics were not the first to attempt to establish a regular multi-sport festival based on the ancient Games. Indeed, there were several prior attempts made to revive the tradition, albeit on a smaller scale, and these can rightly be credited with providing inspiration for the modern Olympics as well.

Although they tend to be steeped in mythology, the ancient Olympic Games were once very real. Legend holds that the Olympics were founded by Heracles (Hercules to the Romans), son of the god Zeus, but classical historians believe the Games actually began no later than 776 BCE, and likely many years before, on the plains of Olympia as a religious festival celebrating the physical ideal. For the next 12 centuries athletes from the various city states of ancient Greece met every four years in Olympia to compete in athletic events like javelin, discus, wrestling and running. The Olympics were banned in 393 BCE by the Holy Roman Emperor Theodosius, a Christian, who regarded them as a pagan festival.

For many centuries thereafter, the idea of a festival that brought diverse groups of people together in peaceful sporting competition lived on only in legend. There were isolated examples of similar events, but nothing approaching the scale of the ancient Olympics. In the 11th century King Malcolm II of Scotland is said to have held an annual running race among champions from all the ancient clans in order to pick his personal messenger. This contest eventually became the fabled Highland Games, where the clans came together peacefully once a year to feast and test themselves in feats of arms.

At the turn of the 17th century classical Greek history and art experienced a resurgence in popularity in late Renaissance England. Inspired by Greek art and literature related to the ancient Games, Robert Dover, a local magistrate in the market town of Saintbury in the Cotswold district, organized a public celebration of games around 1612 designed to promote social harmony and physical exercise necessary to the defense of the realm. Known as the Cotswold Olimpicks, this festival included events such as horse racing, running, jumping, sword fighting and wrestling and was open to members of all social classes. Over time the annual festival became hugely popular, eventually attracting competitors and spectators from across England. King James I was a supporter, and gifted some of his elegant clothing to Dover to wear as he officiated the events on horseback.

The Cotswold Olimpicks thrived until the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642. Following the war they were subsequently banned by the Puritans in parliament, who felt such public celebrations held outside the church led to acts of debauchery like dancing, brawling and drinking alcohol. The festival was revived in 1660 following the Restoration under King Charles II, but without Dover, who died in 1652, it began to decline in importance. The Cotswold Olimpicks continued to be celebrated, however, for another 200 years before the impact of the industrial revolution and the enclosure of common land in the mid-19th century led to a decline in the rural population, and thus a decline in participants. The Cotswold Olimpicks were revived again in 1966 and carry on largely as a cultural event. In 2012, in the lead up to the London Olympics, The British Olympic Committee called the Cotswold Olimpicks the first stirrings of Britain’s Olympic beginnings.

About 150 years after the death of Robert Dover, a Swedish aristocrat, politician and church leader named Fredrik Bogislaus von Schwerin published a plan to improve the fitness and overall wellbeing of the Swedish people through sport and physical exercise. This plan called for each town and village in the country to build a sport park where teachers could instruct local citizens in various sporting activities and hold competitions. The plan also called for an annual celebration of sport, based on the ancient Olympic Games, which would bring together regional champions from across Sweden for a national competition. By 1800 the concept of an Olympic revival clearly existed, but it would be several decades before that idea was put into practice.

In 1834, perhaps inspired by the ideas put forth by Bogislaus von Schwerin, a group led by Gustaf Johan Schartau, a gymnastics and fencing instructor in the town of Helsingborg, Sweden, formed an Olympic Association for the purposes of organizing a national festival of sport. The group called for athletes from across Sweden to gather in the resort town of Ramlosa, near the city of Malmo, to contest a series of events including running, wrestling, high jump, pole climbing, vaulting and acrobatics. In a newspaper ad promoting the event, the organizers wrote The Olympic Games have long been buried in centuries of oblivion, but we hope that one day, Scandinavia’s strong sons may be able to take part in a rejuvenated form. The inaugural Olympic Games of Ramlosa, as they were known, were a great success, attracting 40 competitors and thousands of spectators. Unfortunately, the event would be held just once more, in 1836, before the strict class divisions of the time made friendly competition impossible.

The Ramlosa Games did not survive, but the dream of an Olympic revival lived on. The next to take up the challenge was Dr. William Penny Brookes, a surgeon and magistrate in the town of Much Wenlock, in the English district of Shropshire near the Welsh border. In 1850 Brookes led a group of like-minded individuals in the formation of the Wenlock Olympian Class, which dedicated itself to the organization of an annual festival of games to promote the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of Much Wenlock. The Wenlock Games began as a combination sport festival and rural fair, with parades, music and dancing as well as athletic competitions. Along with typical Olympic events like running, long jump, shot put and javelin, Wenlock also featured nonsense events like wheelbarrow races, pig-chasing and an Old Woman Race, with the winner receiving a pound of tea.

The Wenlock Games quickly gained both popularity and prestige, attracting competitors and spectators from around England. Upon hearing about the Games, King Otto of Greece conveyed his congratulations and support to the Wenlock Olympian Class and donated a silver cup to be awarded to the winner of the pentathlon. In response, Brookes petitioned the Greek king to initiate a revival of the ancient Olympics in their birthplace, but to no avail. The Wenlock Games continued to grow in both scale and importance through the 1850s. By 1861 they had become the Shropshire Olympian Games; and in 1866, inspired by Wenlock, the first National Olympian Games were held at the famed Crystal Palace in London.

While William Penny Brookes was doing his part to revive the spirit of the ancient Olympics in England, there were influential individuals, apart from King Otto, working to do the same in Greece. Following the successful conclusion of the Greek War of Independence in 1832, Greece experienced an outpouring of pride and renewed interest in ancient Greek culture, including the Olympic Games. Calls for a revival of the Olympics began as early as 1833 when the poet Panagiotis Soutsos stressed the importance of the Games to Greek culture in his national ode, Dialogue of the Dead. Soutsos, who was also a prominent newspaper editor, became a tireless advocate for the cause, writing numerous editorials on the subject and continuously petitioning King Otto to initiate a revival.

In the mid-1850s Soutsos gained a powerful ally in his cause to revive the Games in the Greek industrialist Evangelis Zappas. Zappas was a respected Greek patriot, having served as an officer during the War of Independence, and also one of the wealthiest men in Europe. A well-known philanthropist, Zappas provided funds to build schools and libraries as well as to fund scholarships for Greek students to study abroad. Zappas agreed to provide all the funds needed to stage a revival of the Olympic Games, as well as to undertake a full refurbishment of the ancient Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, which had fallen into ruin. Although there was some resistance from the Greek political class, which saw the Games as anachronistic and backward-looking, Soutsos and Zappas persisted. Eventually King Otto agreed to the proposal and preparations began to hold a revived Olympic Games in