1896

THE 896
OLYMPIC GAMES
Results for All Competitors
in All Events, with Commentary
by
Bill Mallon
and Ture Widlund
RESULTS OF THE EARLY MODERN OLYMPICS,
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers

Jeerson, North Carolina, and London
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication data are available

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Mallon, Bill.
The 896 Olympic Games : results for all competitors
in all events, with commentary / by Bill Mallon and Ture
Widland.
p. cm. (Results of the early modern Olympics ; )
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7864-0379-9 (library binding : 50# alkaline paper)
. Olympic Games (st : 896 : Athens, Greece) 2. Olympics
Records. I. Widland, Ture. II. Title. III. Series: Mallon,
Bill. Results of the early modern Olympics ; .
GV72.8.M32 998
[GV722 896]
796.48 s
[796.48] DC2
97-26356
CIP
998 Bill Mallon. All rights reserved
No part of this book, specifically including the table of contents and
index, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publisher.
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers

Box 6, Jeerson, North Carolina 28640
To the memory
of Erich Kamper
Table of Contents
Introduction
Abbreviations
References
ix
xi
xiii
896 Olympic Games Analysis and Summaries
1
17
24
SUMMARY STATISTICS
NOTES
Summary Articles
The Olympian Games at Athens (Charles Waldstein)
The Olympic Games of 896 (Pierre de Coubertin)
The Olympic Games (Miss Maynard Butler)
High Hurdles and White Gloves (Thomas P. Curtis)
The New Olympian Games (Rufus Richardson)
The Olympic Games by a Competitor and Prize Winner (G. S. Robertson)
Athletics (Track & Field)

NOTES
Cycling
NOTES
Fencing
NOTES
Gymnastics
NOTES
Shooting
NOTES
Swimming
NOTES
Tennis (Lawn)
NOTES
vii
26
30
37
41
45
54
64
74
81
85
87
89
91
95
97
101
103
105
107
109
viii
Table of Contents
Weightlifting
NOTES
Wrestling
NOTES
Other Sports and Events

NOTES
Appendix I: 896 Program

Appendix II: Competitors (by Country)
The Olympic Games a Classical Greek Ode by George Stuart Robertson, 896
Index
111
113
115
116
117
120
121
126
143
145
Introduction
The modern Olympic Games are more than a century old; in the summer of 996, the world
celebrated the centennial games in Atlanta. The modern Olympic Games began in 896 in
Athens, Greece, through the eorts of the Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who made it
his lifes work to resurrect the Olympic dream that had first begun in ancient Greece several centuries before the common era.
It is reasonable to ask, why an unocial report of an Olympic Games which ended more
than 00 years ago? This book began as one of a series of monographs attempting to resurrect
the results of the earliest games. Complete records of the results of the earliest Olympics do not
exist, unlike more recent Games, in which computers and the media dissect each event with
almost surgical precision. While corresponding with each other we found that we were both working on the same project of unearthing the records of the 896 Games, which led to our colloboration on this project.
We are primarily trying to present in detail the most complete results ever seen of the 896
Olympic Games. Thus the emphasis here is on the statistics, and we have not intended to present new political or sociological analyses of the first modern Games. We will leave that to our
academic colleagues. We have included a short synopsis of the Sorbonne Congress, the Organization, and the details of the 896 Olympics. In addition, we have included some reprints of
rather famous articles describing the 896 Olympics. These are often referenced in academic
works and are the best descriptions of the 896 Olympics in English, but they are not always
easy to find, especially for Europeans looking for sources.
We have provided extensive references for the results and statistics. This eort is primarily
meant to note that we have looked at all sources and that we wish to correct previously published errors. In noting errors in more recent works, it is not our intent to denigrate the original authors, but to let the reader know that we are aware of any discrepancy between our data
and those of other authors, and then to present our sources and the reasons for our conclusions.
In all cases, we have tried to use 896 sources, of which we have been able to identify several,
by examining works in a number of languages. (Note from Mallon: these 896 sources, at least
8, were unearthed primarily through the excellent research of Widlund.) We did not succeed
in finding complete results of all events, although we have come close.
This work is the first in a series published by McFarland on the earliest Games, detailing
the very nearly complete records of the poorly documented Olympics from 896 through 920.
There has been a rebirth of interest in the history of the Games. The authors of this book,
ix
The 896 Olympic Games
along with five other Olympic historians (Ian Buchanan, Stan Greenberg, Ove Karlsson, Peter
Matthews, and David Wallechinsky), were founding members of the International Society of
Olympic Historians (ISOH), which was created on 5 December 99. Much of this work has
been reviewed and edited by members of ISOH. In addition, much of the work has used material contributed by other ISOH members. We are thankful to all of them for their eorts.
We give special thanks to the following: Tony Bijkerk [NED], Ian Buchanan [GBR], Jim
Crossman [USA/SHO], Konstantinos Georgiadis [GRE], Heiner Gillmeister [GER/TEN],
Volker Kluge [GER], Jir Kssl [CZE], Hans Agersnap Larsen [DEN], Karl Lennartz [GER],
Wolf Lyberg [SWE/many sports], Athanasios Tarasouleas [GRE], Walter Teutenberg [GER], and
David Wallechinsky [USA/many sports].
Finally, we both acknowledge our debt to the late Erich Kamper of Austria, who was the
pioneer of all Olympic historians and statisticians. Erich was the motivating force behind the
founding of ISOH and served as its honorary president in its first Olympiad of existence. He
died in late 995. This book is dedicated to his memory.
Bill Mallon
Durham, North Carolina
Ture Widlund
Stockholm, Sweden
October 997
Abbreviations
General
A
AB
AC
bh
C
d.
D
DNF
DNS
DQ
E
est
f
athletes competing
abandoned
also competed (place not known)
behind
countries competing
defeated
date(s) of competition
did not finish
did not start
disqualified
entered
estimate(d)
final
F
h
km.
m
NH
NM
NP
OR
r
T
wo
WR
format of competition
heat
kilometer(s)
meter(s)
no-height
no mark
not placed
Olympic Record
round
time competition started
walkover (won by forfeit)
World Record
SWI
TEN
WAP
WLT
WRE
Swimming
Tennis (Lawn)
Water Polo
Weightlifting
Wrestling (Greco-Roman)
GER
GRE
HUN
ITA
SMY
SUI
SWE
USA
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Italy
Smyrna
Switzerland
Sweden
United States
Sports
ATH
CYC
FEN
GYM
ROW
SHO

Cycling
Fencing
Gymnastics
Rowing & Sculling
Shooting
Nations
AUS
AUT
BUL
CHI
DEN
EGY
FRA
GBR
Australia
Austria
Bulgaria
Chile
Denmark
Egypt
France
Great Britain and Ireland
xi
References
with Their Abbreviations as Cited in Text
Primary Sources from 896

Arms and the Man. American shooting magazine from 896.
Akropolis. Greek (Athens) newspaper from 896.
Argyros, A. Diethneis olympiakoi agones tou 896. Athens, 896.
Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung. Austrian weekly sporting newspaper from 896.
Birmingham Daily Post. British newspaper from 896.
Bergman, Johan. P klassisk mark. Stockholm, 896.
La Bicicletta. Italian (Milan) sporting newspaper, 896.
Boland, John Pius. Collected Diaries of John Pius Boland. Unpublished.
Butler, Maynard. The Olympic Games, Outlook 53 (30 May 896): 993995.
Chrysafis, Ioannis. Oi protoi diethneis olympiakoi agones en Athinais to 896. Athens
896.
Coubt
Coubertin, Baron Pierre de. The Olympic Games of 896, Century Magazine 53,
3 (November 896): 3953.
Epth
Epitheorisis. Greek (Athens) newspaper from 896.
Gagalis
Gagalis, Athanasiou; Kazis, Milt.; Ioannidis, Georg. Perifrafi ton en Athinais proton
diethnon olympiakon agonon. Athens 896.
Gavrilidou Gavrilidou, V. I Ellas kata tous olympiakous agonas tou 896. Athens 896.
Grigoriou Grigoriou. Greek (Athens) newspaper from 896.
Guth
Guth-Jarkovsky, Jir. Die olympischen Spiele in Athen 896. In Zeitschrift fr die
sterreichischen Gymnasien. 896.
Hppe
Hppe, Ferdinand. Griechenland und die jetzigen und einstigen olympischen Spiele.
A series of articles in Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung, November 896January 897.
NS
Nea Smyrna. Greek (Athens) newspaper from 896.
OR
Ocial Report of the 896 Olympic Games the actual bibliographic information
is as follows: The Baron de Coubertin; Philemon, Timoleon; Lambros, Spiridon
P.; and Politis, Nikolaos G., editors. The Olympic Games 776 B.C.896 A.D.; With
the approval and support of the Central Council of the International Olympic Games
in Athens, under the Presidency of H.R.H. the Crown Prince Constantine. Athens:
AATM
Akrp
Argy
ASZ
BDP
Berg
Bici
Boland
Butler
Chrysafis
xiii
xiv
Plng
Pron
Prsk
Roberts
Rufus
RW
Salpigx
SiB
Smnds
SS
SV
TfI
TF
ToA
Velo
Waldst
References (with Abbreviations)

Charles Beck, 896. This was issued in various versions, including several in parallel texts, as follows: Greek/English; Greek/French; Greek/French/English; and
German/English. Also, multiple reprints of this first Ocial Report have been
produced, most notably a 966 edition with English/French/Greek parallel texts
published by the Hellenic Olympic Committee, and also a 97 German edition
entitled Die olympischen Spiele 896: Ozieller Bericht, published by the CarlDiem-Institut in Cologne, Germany. Finally, see KL96 below, which is a German reprint of the Ocial Report, supplemented with articles on the 896
Olympics by various Olympic historians, and also containing reprints of various
primary documentary material from 896.
Palingenesia. Greek (Athens) newspaper from 896.
Pronoia. Greek (Athens) newspaper from 896.
Paraskevopoulos, K. To dekaimeron ton olympiakon agonon. Athens 896.
Robertson, George Stuart. The Olympic Games by a Competitor and Prize Winner, Fortnightly Review 354 ( June 896): 944957.
Richardson, Rufus. The New Olympian Games, Scribners Magazine 20, 3 (September 896): 267286.
Rad-Welt. German cycling magazine from 896.
Salpigx. Greek (Athens) newspaper from 896.
Sport im Bild. German sporting newspaper from 896.
Simeonidis. Greek (Athens) newspaper from 896.
Schwimmsport. German swimming magazine from 896.
Sport-Vilg. Hungarian sporting newspaper from 896.
Tidning fr Idrott. Swedish sporting newspaper from 896, containing a series of articles written by Viktor Balck (Swedish IOC member) entitled, De olympiska Spelen i Athen 54 April 896.
The Field. British sporting newspaper from 896.
To Asty. Greek (Athens) newspaper from 896.
Le Vlo. French sporting newspaper from 896.
Waldstein, Charles. The Olympian Games at Athens, The Field, May 896.
Olympic Historical and Statistical Works after 896

CD
Chrysafis
Coub
Coub2
Curtis
DW
EK
Diem, Carl. Ein Leben fr den Sport. Dsseldorf: no year.

Chrysafis, Ioannis E. Hoi protoi diethnais olympiakoi agones en Athenais 896. Athens:
Biblioteke tes Epitropes ton Olympiakon Agonon, 926 and 930.
Coubertin, Pierre de. Une Campagne de vingt-et-un ans (887908). Paris: Librairie
de lEducation Physique, 909.
Coubertin, Pierre de. Mmoires olympiques. Aix-en-Provence: 93.
Curtis, Thomas P. High Hurdles and White Gloves, The Sportsman 2, ( July
932): 606.
Wallechinsky, David. The Complete Book of the Olympics. First edition, Middlesex,
England: Penguin Books, 983. Second edition, New York: Viking Penguin, 988.
Third edition, London: Aurum, 99. Fourth edition, New York: Little, Brown,
996.
Kamper, Erich. Enzyklopdie der olympischen Spiele. Dortmund: Harenberg, 972.
Parallel texts in German, French, and English. American edition issued as Encyclopaedia of the Olympic Games by McGraw-Hill (New York) in 972.
xv
zur Megede, Ekkehard. Die olympische Leichtathletik. Bands 3. Darmstadt: Justus

von Liebig Verlag, 984.
FM
Mezo, Ferenc. The Modern Olympic Games. Budapest: Pannonia Press, 956. Multiple editions were issued in English, French, German, Spanish, and Hungarian.
FW
Wasner, Fritz. Olympia-Lexikon. Bielefeld, Germany: Verlag E. Gunglach Aktiengesellschaft, 939.
Georgi
Georgiadis, Konstantinos. Die Geschichte der ersten olympischen Spiele 896 in
Athen ihre Entstehung, Durchfhrung und Bedeutung. Unpublished diplomarbeit, Johannes Gutenberg Universitat Mainz, 986/87.
Gynn
Gynn, Roger. The Guinness Book of the Marathon. London: Guinness, 984.
Henry
Henry, Bill. An Approved History of the Olympic Games. Last three editions edited by
Henrys daughter, Patricia Henry Yeomans. First edition, New York: G.P. Putnam,
948. Second edition: New York: G.P. Putnam, 976. Third and fourth editions,
Sherman Oaks, Calif.: Alfred Publishing, 98 and 984.
KL96
Lennartz, Karl, ed. Die olympischen Spiele 896 in Athen: Erluterungen zum Neudruck des Oziellen Berichtes. Agon Sportverlag, 996.
KLWT
Lennartz, Karl, and Teutenberg, Walter. Die deutsche Olympia-Mannschaft von 896.
Kassel: Kasseler Sportverlag, 992.
Levy
Levy, E[dward] Lawrence. Autobiography of an Athlete. Birmingham, England: J.G.
Hammond & Co., 93.
Lyberg
Lyberg, Wolf. The History of the IOC Sessions. I. 894930. Lausanne: International
Olympic Committee, Oct. 994.
MacAl
MacAloon, John J. This Great Symbol: Pierre de Coubertin and the Origins of the Modern Olympic Games. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 98.
Mallon
Mallon, Bill. The Olympic Games 896, 900, 904, and 906. Part I: Track and Field
Athletics. Durham: author, 984.
Mandell Mandell, Richard D. The First Modern Olympics. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 976.
Mantk
Manitakis, P. 00 chronia neoellinikou athlitismen 830930. Athens, 962.
Olympiadebogen Andersen, Peder Christian, and Hansen, Vagn. Olympiadebogen. De olympiske Lege 896948. K bnhavn: 948.
ORev
Lovesey, Peter. The First Olympic Hurdles, Olympic Review 222 (NovemberDecember 977): 722.
OTAF
Olympic Track and Field. Editors of Track & Field News. Los Altos, Calif.: Tafnews
Press, 979.
PIX
Kluge, Volker, ed. 896 Athens: The Pictures of the First Olympiad. Parallel texts in
German, English, French, and Spanish. Brandenburgisches Verlaghaus, 996.
Pointu
Pointu, Raymond. 42,95 km.: Grandeurs et misres des marathons olympiques. Paris:
ditions du Seuil, 979.
Sinn
Sinn, U. Neue Erkenntnisse zu den letzten olympischen Spielen in der Antike
ein Neufund aus Olympia. Antike Welt 26, 2 (955): 55.
SG
Greenberg, Stan. The Guinness Book of Olympics Facts & Feats. Enfield, Middlesex,
England: Guinness, 983. Second edition issued as Olympic Games: The Records,
same publisher, 987. Third edition issued as The Guinness Olympics Fact Book,
same publisher, 99.
Tara
Tarasouleas, Ath[anassios]. Olympic Games in Athens 896906. Athens: author,
988.
TMF
Martin, David E., and Gynn, Roger W. H. The Marathon Footrace. Champaign, Ill.:
C.C. Thomas, 979.
EzM
xvi
Tsolak
VK
Young

Tsolakidis, Elias. Die olympischen Spiele von 896 in Athen: Versuch einer Rekonstruktion. Unpublished diplomarbeit, Deutsche Sporthochschule Kln, 987.
Kluge, Volker. Die olympischen Spiele von 896 bis 980. Berlin: Sportverlag, 98.
Young, David C. Demetrios Vikelas: First President of the IOC. In Stadion (988),
pp. 8502.
National Olympic Histories

Buchanan, Ian. British Olympians: A Hundred Years of Gold Medallists. London: Guinness, 99.
Glanell, Tomas, Huldtn, Gsta, et al., editors. Sverige och OS. Stockholm: Brunnhages Frlag
AB, 987.
Lennartz, Karl. Geschichte der deutschen Reichsauchues fr olympische Spiele: Heft Die Beteiligung Deutschlands an den olympischen Spielen 896 in Athen. Bonn: Verlag Peter
Wegener, 98.
Lennartz, Karl, and Teutenberg, Walter. Die deutsche Olympia-Mannschaft von 896. Frankfurt
am Main: Kasseler Sportverlag, 992.
Lester, Gary. Australians at the Olympics: A Definitive History. Sydney: Lester-Townsend Publishing, 984.
Mallon, Bill, and Buchanan, Ian. Quest for Gold: The Encyclopaedia of American Olympians. New
York: Leisure, 984.
Mezo, Ferenc. Golden Book of Hungarian Olympic Champions / Livre dor des champions olympiques
hongrois. Budapest: Sport Lap. s Knyvkiad, 955. Parallel texts in English and
French.
Tarasouleas, At[hanassios]. Helliniki simmetokhi stis sinkhrones olympiades. Athens: author, 990.
Summary Articles
THE OLYMPIAN GAMES AT ATHENS
Charles Waldstein
REJOICE! We have conquered! The two Greek words shouted by one panting runner were
taken up by a hundred thousand voices, and rang through the Stadium, across the Ilissus to the
distant Pentelicus, to the Hymettos on the right, and on the left the rocks of the Acropolis
caught up the sound and sent it back. But the shout lost itself in one cavern of the rock, where
it lingered, and seemed held as by the familiarity of some vague and distant association. The
shouting multitude in and about the Stadium were not aware of what was going on in the grotto
of Pan, under the rock of the Acropolis. For the old god Pan, who had been sleeping here for
two thousand years, awoke and smiled. He remembered how, 2276 years ago, he had gladdened
the heart of the runner Pheidippides when he raced back from Sparta in despair at not obtaining Lakonian help to meet the Persian foe threatening Athens before Marathon; how he, the great
god Pan, had promised him and the Athenians success against their barbarian enemies. But it
was not Pheidippides who, after the victory of Marathon, as Browning puts it,
flung down his shield,
Ran like fire once more; and the space twixt the fennel-field
And Athens was stubble again, a field which fire runs through,
Till he broke, Rejoice, we conquer! Like wine through clay,
Joy in his blood bursting his heart, he died the bliss!
The Marathon runner who died with the blessed words on his lips, sinking down in the
market-place of Athens, according to the account of Lucian, was a certain Philippides.
It is impossible to describe the enthusiasm within the Stadium nay, in the whole city of
Athens over the result of this the most important contest in the Games during these ten days.
The Stadium packed with over 50,000 people; the walls around it, the hills about, covered with
a human crowd that from the distance looked like bees clustering over a comb; and this mass of
humanity rising in one great shout of joy with the advent the one runner who was the first to
cross the line within the Stadium, caught in the arms of the Crown-Prince, who led him before
the King, embraced and kissed by those who could get near him; all this and much more sent a
26
Summary Articles (Waldstein)
27
thrill through every heart which few could have experienced before with the same intensity. It
might almost have been Philippides of old bringing to the anxious inhabitants of Athens the news
of their glorious victory, the salvation of their county and home.
We can well understand how the Greeks themselves should, from all these associations, have
viewed this race as especially their own; and we must admire them the more for the fairness and
generosity with which they received the news (while the pole-jumping, in which the American,
Hoyt, proved victorious, was going on in the Stadium) that Flack, the Australian, and then that
Blake, the Boston man, were leading after 20 kilometers. But when, finally three of their own
men came in as the leaders, we can equally sympathize in their unbounded joy. While, with strong
protests on his part, the victor was being rubbed down in the dressing-rooms behind the Stadium, presents were showered upon him. One person sent a gold watch, another a gold cigarette-case; I am told that he has had a small farm given him, daughters oered in marriage in
fact, all that a hero can wish for. I hope this will not counteract one of the chief aims of these
games, namely, the preservation of strict amateur principles in not giving valuable prizes.
Both Flack, the Austalian, and Blake of Boston say that they were fairly outrun by these
Greek peasants, who have not been trained systematically over a prepared course. It is one thing
to run long distances on a course, another to keep up pace up and down hill over a rough road.
The distance from Marathon to Athens is forty kilometers, about twenty-five miles. I saw the
victor, Spiros Loues. He is a peasants son from Amaroussi, a village in Attica, not far from
Athens. He is about twenty-four years of age, slightly over medium height, slim and strong, with
fine features, clear bright gray eyes, and dark hair. He is as yet quite simple and unspoilt, and
we must hope that his success will not turn his head. He remains the true Greek peasant a
hardy, clear-headed, honest, and kind tiller of the soil than which no better type of man exists
in the world. It was a delight to see him in his clean fustanella, his blue embroidered waistcoat
jacket with the long sleeves, his red Greek cap and tassel, his embroidered gaiters and red pointed
zarucchia, or shoes, walking with his old peasant father, cheered by the enthusiastic crowd as he
passed through the streets of Athens.
I have dwelt so long on this Marathon race because it is a type of the joyful like which these
Games have brought into the place. Only it cannot illustrate the generous joy and enthusiasm
which moved the Greeks and all the visitors at each victory, to whatever nation it might have
fallen. Still, I venture to say that the greatest glee was shown at each successive victory that fell
to our nation, the youngest of all, that carried o the palm and gained by far the greater number of prizes, namely, the Boston and Princeton boys. T.E. Burkes running, Curtiss hurdle-racing, Clarks jumping, Connolly in the triple jump (hop, skip and jump), Garretts putting the
weight and throwing the diskos, Hoyts pole-jumping, the brothers Paines pistol-shooting
each of these carried o a first prize. But whenever their own man was beaten and the stars and
stripes were hoised at the end of the Stadium to indicate the nationality of the winner, the Greeks
raised a shout of applause. This they did for the other nations as well the English (Flack, the
Australian), in the 500 meters race; Elliott (lifting the weights with one hand); the Frenchmen
(at bicycling); the Germans (at gymnastics and wrestling); the Dane (at lifting weights with two
hands); the Hungarians (at swimming); their own men (gymnastics on rings and two prizes in
rifle-shooting); but with none was the cheer as hearty as with the Americans. There can be no
doubt that our boys were the most popular with the mass of the people and with the ocials.
Prince George of Greece (the powerful naval ocer who saved the life of his cousin the Czar of
Russia, in Japan felling the would-be assassin with one blow of a light cane) who acted as chief
umpire throughout, said to me: We all love the American athletes. They behaved so well, and
are such good fellows. They taught our people a lesson with their true interest in sport itself.
They would sit down and discuss sport with them without any idea that they were rivals.
This first celebration of the Olympic Games has thus been a stupendous success; and Mr.
28
Bikelas, the president of the International Committee, Baron de Coubertin, the originator of
the idea; the Crown-Prince of Greece, who proved himself the most capable and energetic organizer of all the work here; his brothers, Prince George and Prince Nicholas (the latter making
all arrangements for the magnificent shooting-stands); the secretaries, Messrs. Philemon, Manos,
Streit, Melas and Metaxas all are to be heartily congratulated. Several American friends
expressed the same sentiment when they said that only once in their lives had they been impressed
as powerfully as when they sat in the Stadium on a full day, namely, at some scenes in the
Chicago Exposition.
But all this would not have been possible had it not been for the local receptacle for all this
human energy and enthusiasm.
The Stadium
Pausanias, the ancient traveller, who visited Athens in the time of the Antonines, states that
the Stadium was built by Herodes Atticus, and the greater part of the marble from the quarries
of the Pentelicon was used in its construction.
But Pausanias is wrong in maintaining that Herodes built the Stadium. We know from
Plutarch that it existed in the time of the orator Lycurgus, and an inscription of his tells us that
in 330 B.C. Eudemos gave 000 yoke of oxen towards its building. What Herodes did was to
clothe it all in resplendent marble; and the mass of marble required to cover all the seats of this
huge structure might well have exhausted one vein of the quarries of Mount Pentelicus, which,
however, supplies its beautiful stone to the modern community at the present moment, and is
used for the restoration of the Stadium now. Herodes is reported to have formed the project of
this splendid gift to Athens while he was witnessing the Panathenaic games in the Stadium. He
promised the spectators that when they assembled for the next Panathenaic festival they should
find it covered with marble. He kept his promise. And the ancients owed much to this wealthy
friend of Hadrian and teacher of Marcus Aurelius.
After about 760 years another Herodes Atticus has arisen. Mr. Avero, a wealthy Greek
living at Alexandria, has generously given the funds with which the Stadium is to be restored in
order to be used in the new Panathenaic games, which now bring together all nations which
are the inheritors of ancient Hellenic and Athenian life, the truly civilized nations of Europe and
America. He has already contributed over 500,000 francs, and he is determined to complete the
marble and stone seats throughout the whole Stadium; at least all below the zone or passage which
divides the tiers horizontally. At present a lower row of marble seats runs round the whole Stadium, while at the crescent, or semicircular portion, the throne-like seats below and several upper
rows are in marble, the rest being temporarily erected in wood.
An idea of the size of this structure, in the shape of an elongated horseshoe, can be formed
when one realizes that the length of the inner portion of the Stadium itself, round which the
seats rise is 236 meters. The usual length of the stadium was 600 Greek feet, and this became
the standard measure of distance for the ancients about one-eighth of a mile.
It is a mistake to believe that chariot or horse races took place in the Stadium. It was
reserved for the foot-race, the oldest of Greek games. This consisted of the single race or stadion; the diaulos down the course, turning the post, and back again; the dolichos, the long-distance race of 24 stadia; and the hoplitodromos, in which they ran in armor. It is also probable
that some of the other contests, such as wrestling (pygme), boxing (pale), the pancration (a combination of wrestling and boxing), and perhaps even throwing the discus and the spear took place
here.
Summary Articles (Waldstein)
29
Under the able direction of the Greek architect, Mr. Metaxas, this edifice (identified as early
as the seventeenth century, and partly excavated in 863) has now been restored. All the indications of antique remains have been most carefully followed, so that now the interior, the seats,
the underground passage leading out of the Stadium to the dressing-room of the athletes, are
exactly as they were two thousand years ago.
In principle, I have always been opposed to restorations of ancient monuments. But this is
the one exception in which I consider such a complete restoration called for, instructive and adequate in every way. A temple like the Parthenon, or any building in which beauty of conception and execution, truly artistic qualities of composition and of detail, are essential, and are the
very soul of the monument, it would be sacrilege and folly to attempt to restore. But here the
artistic quality is one of purity of line in the whole structure, of proportion in its construction,
and this has been reproduced literally. An interesting point was made clear, hitherto unknown
i.e., a gentle curve in the rows of seats converging on either side of the centre, and thus not uniformly parallel to the inner Stadium.
The really impressive and instructive feature of the Stadium is the magnitude and spaciousness of its dimensions, and its capacity of holding 50,000 people witnessing the eorts of
their athletic youths. Besides this number of seated Athenians, the helots, or slaves, were allowed
to stand about the upper portion above the seats. As now many thousands of the poor population filled this space, so was it crowded in antiquity. The Acropolis, the museums and the monuments scattered over the country and abroad, bring home to us the refinement of taste and the
height of Athenian culture. This Stadium, especially when filled with such a vast population,
brings us face to face with the grandeur and power of the ancient community of Athens. It shows
us the bulk and magnitude of their life, which before one hardly realized. It has often happened
to me to hear travellers coming from Egypt remark upon the smallness of scale of all they met
here, their eyes having been accustomed to the huge proportions of the monuments of the
Pharaohs building with slaves; though they were entranced by the beauty, grace, and refinement
of the work they found in Athens. The Stadium now will convey to the visitor some impression
of magnitude, not in a monument erected by slaves for the glorification of one ruler, but in a
structure to house a free and powerful community, uniting in the peaceful delight at physical
strength and skill.
The immediate aim, the encouragement of athletics, has been fully attained. But in a still
more gratifying manner has the further and higher purpose, the spread of international good
feeling and fellowship, been carried out. Rarely, if ever, have so many people of all civilized
nations been brought together for a common purpose, and never have they shown themselves
to such advantage.
Here the Greek committee, and especially the King of Greece and the royal family, deserve
especial gratitude from all. Throughout they have acted as a powerful link between all the nationalities. At a grand luncheon, in the large hall of the royal palace, to which all the winners and
foreign representatives were invited, the King, in a graceful speech in French and then in Greek,
thanked all the foreigners for coming and contributing to the great success of this noble enterprise. He ended by saying, Not good-by, but au revoir. Then he and his sons mingled among
the guests, talking and jesting with all, and making them all feel that they were really at home
in his country.
The games opened in the presence of all the royalties, the King and Queen in the centre;
the Crown-Prince advanced before them in the middle of the sphendon, his two brothers beside
him with the committee, and made his opening speech, to which the King answered. Upon this
followed, sung by a large chorus with double orchestra, the splendid hymn composed by the
Greek Samara (the composer of the operas Flora, Mirabilis, and Le Martyr) a most impressive
opening. The Olympic Games ended by the conferring of the simple bay wreath to each victor,
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led up before the King, in the Stadium, in the presence of thousands of admiring people of all
nations, as two thousand years ago the victor stepped before the high-priest of Zeus and received
the bay wreath before the great temple at Olympia.
The Field, May 896
THE OLYMPIC GAMES OF 896

Pierre de Coubertin
The Olympic games which recently took place at Athens were modern in character, not
alone because of their programs, which substituted bicycle for chariot races, and fencing for the
brutalities of pugilism, but because in their origin and regulations they were international and
universal, and consequently adapted to the conditions in which athletics have developed at the
present day. The ancient games had an exclusively Hellenic character; they were always held in
the same place, and Greek blood was a necessary condition of admission to them. It is true that
strangers were in time tolerated; but their presence at Olympia was rather a tribute paid to the
superiority of Greek civilization than a right exercised in the name of racial equality. With the
modern games it is quite otherwise. Their creation is the work of barbarians. It is due to the
delegates of the athletic associations of all countries assembled in congress at Paris in 894. It
was there agreed that every country should celebrate the Olympic games in turn. The first placed
belonged by right to Greece; it was accorded by unanimous vote; and in order to emphasize the
permanence of the institution, its wide bearings and its essentially cosmopolitan character, an
international committee was appointed, the members of which were to represent the various
nations, European and American with whom athletics are held in honor. The presidency of this
committee falls to the country in which the next games are to be held. A Greek, M. Bikelas, has
presided for the last two years. A Frenchman now presides, and will continue to do so until 900,
since the next games are to take place at Paris during the Exposition. Where will those of 904
take place? Perhaps at New York, perhaps at Berlin, or at Stockholm. The question is soon to
be decided.
It was in virtue of these resolutions passed during the Paris Congress that the recent festivals were organized. Their successful issue is largely owing to the active and energetic cooperation of the Greek crown prince Constantine. When they realized all that was expected of them,
the Athenians lost courage. They felt that the citys resources were not equal to the demands
that would be made upon them; nor would the government (M. Tricoupis being then prime minister) consent to increase facilities. M. Tricoupis did not believe in the success of the games. He
argued that the Athenians knew nothing about athletics; that they had neither the adequate
grounds for the contests, nor athletes of their own to bring into line; and that, moreoever, the
financial situation of Greece forbade her inviting the world to an event preparations for which
would entail such large expenditures. There was reason in the objections; but on the one hand,
the prime minister greatly exaggerated the importance of the expenditures, and on the other, it
was not necesary that the government should bear the burden of them directly. Modern Athens,
which recalls in so many ways the Athens of ancient days, has inherited from her the privilege
of being beautified and enriched by her children. The public treasury was not always very well
filled in those times any more than in the present, but wealthy citizens who had made fortunes
at a distance liked to crown their commerical career by some act of liberality to the mother-country. They endowed the land with superb edifices of general utility-theaters, gymnasia, temples.
The modern city is likewise full of monuments which she owes to such generosity. It was easy
Summary Articles (Coubertin)
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to obtain from private individuals what the state could not give. The Olympic games had burned
with so bright a luster in the past of the Greeks that they could not but have their revival at
heart. And furthermore, the moral benefits would compensate largely for all pecuniary sacrifice.
This the crown prince apprehended at once, and it decided him to lend his authority to
the organizing of the first Olympic games. He appointed a commission, with headquarters in
his own palace; made M. Philemon, ex-mayor of Athens and a man of much zeal and enthusiasm, secretary-general; and appealed to the nation to subscribe the necessary funds. Subscriptions began to come in from Greece, but particularly from London, Marseilles, and Constantinople, where there are wealthy and influential Greek colonies. The chief gift came from
Alexandria. It was this gift which made it possible to restore the Stadion to its condition in the
time of Atticus Herodes. The intention had been from the first to hold the contests in this justly
celebrated spot. No one, however, had dreamed that it might be possible to restore to their former splendor the marble seats which, it is said, could accommodate forty thousand persons. The
great inclosure would have been utilized, and provisional wooden seats placed on the grassy slopes
which surround it. Thanks to the generosity of M. Avero, Greece is now the richer by a monument unique of its kind, and its visitors have seen a spectacle which they can never forget.
Two years ago the Stadion resembled a deep gash, made by some fabled giant, in the side
of the hill which rises abruptly by the Ilissus, and opposite Lycabettus and the Acropolis, in a
retired, picturesque quarter of Athens. All that was visible of it then were the two high earth
embankments which faced each other on opposite sides of the long, narrow race-course. They
met at the end in an imposing hemicycle. Grass grew between the cobblestones. For centuries
the spectators of ancient days had sat on the ground on these embankments. Then, one day, an
army of workmen, taking possession of the Stadion, had covered it with stone and marble. The
first covering served as a quarry during the Turkish domination; not a trace of it was left. With
its innumerable rows of seats, and the flights of steps which divide it into sections and lead to
the upper tiers, the Stadion no longer has the look of being cut out of the hill. It is the hill which
seems to have been placed there by the hand of man to support this enormous pile of masonry.
One detail only is modern. One does not notice it at first. The dusty track is now a cinder-path,
prepared according to the latest rules of modern athletics by an expert brought over from London for the purpose. In the center a sort of esplanade has been erected for the gymnastic exhibitions. At the end, on each side of the turning, antiquity is represented by two large boundary-stones, forming two human figures, and excavated while the foundations were being dug.
These were the only finds; they add but little to archaeological data. Work on the Stadion is far
from being completed, eighteen months having been quite insucient for the undertaking.
Where marble could not be placed, painted wood was hastily made to do duty. That clever architect, M. Metaxas cherishes the hope, however, of seeing all the antique decorations restored
statues, columns, bronze quadrig, and, at the entrance, majestic proplya.
When this shall be done, Athens will in truth possess the temple of athletic sports. Yet it
is doubtful whether such a sanctuary be the one best suited to worship of human vigor and beauty
in these modern days. The Anglo-Saxons, to whom we owe the revival of athletics, frame their
contests delightfully in grass and verdure. Nothing could dier more from the Athenian Stadion
than Travers Island, the summer home of the New York Athletic Club, where the championship
games are decided. In this green inclosure, where nature is left to have her way, the spectators
sit under the trees on the sloping declivities, a few feet away from the Sound, which murmurs
against the rocks. One finds something of the same idea at Paris, and at San Francisco, under
those Californian skies which so recall the skies of Greece, at the foot of those mountains which
have the pure outlines and the iridescent reflections of Hymettus. If the ancient amphitheater
was more grandiose and more solemn, the modern picture is more in-time and pleasing. The
music floating under the trees makes a softer accompaniment to the exercises; the spectators move
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about at friendly ease, whereas the ancients, packed together in rigid lines on their marble
benches sat broiling in the sun or chilled in the shade.
The Stadion is not the only enduring token that will remain to Athens of her inauguration
of the new Olympiads: she has also a velodrome and a shooting-stand. The former is in the plain
of the modern Phalerum, along the railway which connects Athens with the Piraeus. It is copied
after the model of that at Copenhagen, where the crown prince of Greece and his brothers had
an opportunity of appreciating its advantages during a visit to the King of Denmark, their
grandfather. The bicyclists, it is true, have complained that the track is not long enough, and
that the turnings are too abrupt; but when were bicyclists ever content? The tennis courts are
in the center of the velodrome. The shooting-stand makes a goodly appearance, with its manorlike medieval crenelations. The contestants are comfortably situated under monumental arches.
Then there are large pavilions for the rowers, built of wood, but prettily decorated, with boathouses and dressing-rooms.
WHILE the Hellenic Committee thus labored over the scenic requirements, the international committee and the national committees were occupied in recruiting competitors. The matter was not as easy as one might think. Not only had indierence and distrust to be overcome,
but the revival of the Olympic games had aroused a certain hostility. Although the Paris Congress had been careful to decree that every form of physical exercise practised in the world should
have its place on the program, the gymnasts took oense. They considered that they had not
been given sucient prominence. The greater part of the gymnastic associations of Germany,
France and Belgium are animated by a rigorously exclusive spirit; they are not inclined to tolerate the presence of those forms of athletics which they themselves do not practise; what they
disdainfully designate as English sports have become, because of their popularity, especially
odious to them. These associations were not satisfied with declining the invitation sent them to
repair to Athens. The Belgian federation wrote to the other federations, suggesting a concerted
stand against the work of the Paris Congress. These incidents confirmed the opinions of the pessimists who had been foretelling the failure of the ftes, or their probable postponement. Athens
is far away, the journey is expensive, and the Easter vacations are short. The contestants were
not willing to undertake the voyage unless they could be sure that the occasion would be worth
the eort. The dierent associations were not willing to send representatives unless they could
be informed of the amount of interest which the contests would create. An unfortunate occurrence took place almost at the last moment. The German press, commenting on an article which
had appeared in a Paris newspaper, declared that it was an exclusively Franco-Greek aair; that
attempts were being made to shut out other nations; and furthermore, that the German associations had been intentionally kept aloof from the Paris Congress of 894. The assertion was
acknowledged to be incorrect, and was powerless to check the eorts of the German committee
under Dr. Gebhardt. M. Kemeny in Hungary, Major Balck in Sweden, General de Boutowski
in Russia, Professor W. M. Sloane in the United States, Lord Ampthill in England, Dr. Jiri Guth
in Bohemia, were, meantime, doing their best to awaken interest in the event, and to reassure
the doubting. They did not always succeed. Many people took a sarcastic view, and the newspapers indulged in much pleasantry on the subject of the Olympic games.
EASTER MONDAY, April 6, the streets of Athens wore a look of extraordinary animation. All the public buildings were draped in bunting; multicolored streamers floated in the wind;
green wreaths decked the house-fronts. Everywhere were the two letters O.A., the Greek letters of the Olympic games, and the two dates, B.C. 776, A.D. 896, indicating their ancient past
and their present renascence. At two oclock in the afternoon the crowd began to throng the Stadion and to take possession of the seats. It was a joyous and motley concourse. The skirts and
33
braided jackets of the palikars contrasted with the somber and ugly European habiliments. The
women used large paper fans to shield them from the sun, parasols which would have obstructed
the view, being prohibited. The king and queen drove up a little before three oclock, followed
by Princess Marie, their daughter, and her fianc, Grand Duke George of Russia. They were
received by the crown prince and his brothers, by M. Delyannis, president of the Council of
Ministers, and by the members of the Hellenic Committee and the international committee.
Flowers were presented to the queen and princess, and the cortge made its way into the hemicycle to the strains of the Greek national hymn and the cheers of the crowd. Within, the court
ladies and functionaries, the diplomatic corps, and the deputies awaited the sovereigns, for whom
two marble arm-chairs were in readiness. The crown prince, taking his stand in the arena, facing the king, then made a short speech, in which he touched upon the origin of the enterprise,
and the obstacles surmounted in bringing it to fruition. Addressing the king, he asked him to
proclaim the Olympic games, and the king, rising, declared them opened. It was a thrilling
moment. Fifteen hundred and two years before, the Emperor Theodosius had addressed the
Olympic games, thinking, no doubt, that in abolishing this hated survival of paganism he was
furthering the cause of progress; and here was a Christian monarch, amid the applause of an
assemblage composed almost exclusively of Christians, announcing the formal annulment of the
imperial decree; while a few feet away stood the Archbishop of Athens, and Pere Didon, the celebrated Dominican preacher, who, in his Easter sermon in the Catholic cathedral the day before,
had paid an eloquent tribute to the pagan Greece. When the king had resumed his seat, the
Olympic ode, written for the occasion by the Greek composer Samara, was sung by a chorus of
one hundred and fifty voices. Once before music had been associated with the revival of the
Olympic games. The first session of the Paris Congress had been held June 6, 894, in the great
amphitheater of the Sorbonne, decorated by Puvis de Chavannes; and after the address of the
president of the congress, Baron de Coubertin, the large audience had listened to that fragment
of the music of antiquity, the hymn to Apollo, discovered in the ruins of Delphi. But this time
the connection between art and athletics was more direct. The games began with the sounding
of the last chords of the Olympic ode. That first day established the success of the games beyond
a doubt. The ensuing days confirmed the fact in spite of the bad weather. The royal family was
assiduous in its attendance. In the shooting contest, the queen fired the first shot with a flowerwreathed rifle. The fencing-matches were held in the marble rotunda of the Exposition Palace,
given by the Messrs. Zappas, and known as the Zappeion. Then the crowd made its way back
to the Stadion for the foot-races, weight-putting, discus-throwing, high and long jumps, polevaulting, and gymnastic exhibitions. A Princeton student, Robert Garrett, scored highest in
throwing the discus. His victory was unexpected. He had asked me the day before if I did not
think that it would be ridiculous should he enter for an event for which he had trained so little. The stars and stripes seemed destined to carry o the laurels. When they ran up the victors mast, the sailors of the San Francisco, who stood in a group at the top of the Stadion, waved
their caps, and the members of the Boston Athletic Association below broke out frantically,
B.A.A.! rah! rah! rah! These cries greatly amused the Greeks. They applauded the triumph of
the Americans, between whom and themselves there is a warm feeling of good-will.
The Greeks are novices in the matter of athletic sports, and had not looked for much success for their country. One event only seemed likely to be theirs from its very nature the longdistance run from Marathon, a prize for which has been newly founded by M. Michel Bral, a
member of the French Institute, in commemoration of that soldier of antiquity who ran all the
way to Athens to tell his fellow-citizens of the happy issue of the battle. The distance from
Marathon to Athens is 42 kilometers. The road is rough and stony. The Greeks had trained for
this run for a year past. Even in the remote districts of Thessaly young peasants prepared to enter
as contestants. In three cases it is said that the enthusiasm and the inexperience of these young
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fellows cost them their lives, so exaggerated were their preparatory eorts. As the great day
approached, women oered up prayers and votive tapers in the churches, that the victor might
be a Greek!
The wish was fulfilled. A young peasant named Loues, from the village of Marousi, was the
winner in two hours and fifty-five minutes. He reached the goal fresh and in fine form. He was
followed by two other Greeks. The excellent Australian sprinter Flack, and the Frenchman Lermusiaux, who had been in the lead the first 35 kilometers, had fallen out of the way. When Loues
came into the Stadion, the crowd, which numbered sixty thousand persons, rose to its feet like
one man, swayed by extraordinary excitement. The King of Servia, who was present, will probably not forget the sight he saw that day. A flight of white pigeons was let loose, women waved
fans and handkerchiefs, and some of the spectators who were nearest to Loues left their seats,
and tried to reach him and carry him in triumph. He would have been suocated if the crown
prince and Prince George had not bodily led him away. A lady who stood next to me unfastened
her watch, a gold one set with pearls, and sent it to him; an innkeeper presented him with an
order good for three hundred and sixty-five free meals; and a wealthy citizen had to be dissuaded
from signing a check for ten thousand francs to his credit. Loues, himself, however, when he
was told of this generous oer refused it. The sense of honor, which is very strong in the Greek
peasant, thus saved the non-professional spirit from a very great danger.
Needless to say that the various contests were held under amateur regulations. An exception was made for the fencing-matches, since in several countries professors of military fencing
hold the rank of ocers. For them a special contest was arranged. To all other branches of the
athletic sports only amateurs were admitted. It is impossible to conceive the Olympic games with
money prizes. But these rules, which seem simple enough, are a good deal complicated in their
practical application by the fact that definitions of what constitutes an amateur dier from one
country to another, sometimes even from one club to another. Several definitions are current in
England; the Italians and the Dutch admit one which appears too rigid at one point, too loose
at another. How to conciliate these divergent or contradictory utterances? The Paris Congress
made an attempt in that direction, but its decisions are not accepted everywhere as law, nor is
its definition of amateurship everywhere adopted as the best. The rules and regulations, properly so called, are not any more uniform. This and that are forbidden in one country, authorized
in another. All that one can do, until there shall be an Olympic code formulated in accordance
with the ideas and the usages of the majority of athletes, is to choose among the codes now existing. It was decided, therefore, that the foot-races should be under the rules of the Union Franaise
des Sports Athltiques; jumping, putting the shot, etc., under those of the Amateur Athletic Association of England; the bicycle-races under those of the International Cyclists Association, etc.
This had appeared to us the best way out of the diculty; but we should have had many disputes if the judges (to whom had been given the Greek name of ephors) had not been headed
by Prince George, who acted as final referee. His presence gave weight and authority to the decisions of the ephors, among whom there were, naturally, representatives of dierent countries.
The prince took his duties seriously, and fulfilled them conscientiously. He was always on the
track, personally supervising every detail, an easily recognizable figure, owing to his height and
athletic build. It will be remembered that Prince George, while traveling in Japan with his
cousin, the czarevitch (now Emperor Nicholas II) felled with his fist the ruan who had tried
to assassinate the latter. During the weight-lifting in the Stadion, Prince George lifted with ease
an enormous dumb-bell, and tossed it out of the way. The audience broke into applause, as if
it would have liked to make him the victor in the event.
Every night while the games were in progress the streets of Athens were illuminated. There
were torch-light processions, bands played the dierent national hymns, and the students of the
university got up ovations under the windows of the foreign athletic crews, and harangued them
35
in the noble tongue of Demosthenes. Perhaps this tongue was somewhat abused. That Americans might not be compelled to understand French, nor Hungarians forced to speak German,
the daily programs of the games, and even invitations to luncheon, were written in Greek. On
receipt of these cards, covered wtih mysterious formulae, where even the date was not clear (the
Greek calendar is twelve days behind ours), every man carried them to his hotel porter for elucidation.
Many banquets were given. The mayor of Athens gave one at Cephissia, a little shaded village at the foot of the Pentelicus. M. Bikelas, the retiring president of the international committee, gave another at Phalerum. The king himself entertained all the competitors, and the members of the committees, three hundred guests in all, at luncheon in the ball-room of the palace.
The outside of this edifice, which was built by King Otho, is heavy and graceless; but the center of the interior is occupied by a suite of large rooms with very high ceilings opening one into
another through colonnades. The decorations are simple and imposing. The tables were set in
the largest of these rooms. At the table of honor sat the king, the princes, and the ministers, and
here were also the members of the committees. The competitors were seated at the other tables
according to their nationality. The king, at dessert, thanked and congratulated his guests, first
in French, afterward in Greek. The Americans cried Hurrah!, the Germans , Hoch!, the Hungarians, Eljen!, the Greeks, Zito!, the French, Vive le Roi! After the repast the king and his son
chatted long and amicably with the athletes. It was a really charming scene, the republican simplicity of which was a matter of wonderment particularly to the Austrians and the Russians, little used as they are to the spectacle of monarchy thus meeting democracy on an equal footing.
Then there were nocturnal festivities on the Acropolis, where the Parthenon was illuminated with colored lights, and at the Piraeus, where the vessels were hung with Japanese lanterns.
Unluckily, the weather changed, and the sea was so high on the day appointed for the boat-races,
which were to have taken place in the roadstead of Phalerum, that the project was abandoned.
The distribution of prizes was likewise postponed for twenty-four hours. It came o with much
solemnity, on the morning of April 5, in the Stadion. The sun shone again, and sparkled on
the ocers uniforms. When the roll of the victors was called, it became evident, after all, that
the international character of the institution was well guarded by the results of the contests. America had won nine prizes for athletic sports alone (flat races for 00 and 400 meters; 0-meter
hurdle-race; high jump; broad jump; pole-vault; hop, step, and jump; putting the shot; throwing the discus), and two prizes for shooting (revolver, 25 and 30 meters); but France had the
prizes for foil-fencing and for four bicycle-races; England scored highest in the one-handed
weightlifting contest, and in single lawn-tennis; Greece won the run from Marathon, two gymnastic contests (rings, climbing the smooth rope), three prizes for shooting (carbine, 200 and
300 meters; pistol 25 meters), a prize for fencing with sabers, and a bicycle-race; Germany won
in wrestling, in gymnastics (parallel bars, fixed bar, horse-leaping), and in double lawn-tennis;
Australia, the 800-meter and 500-meter foot-races on the flat; Hungary, swimming-matches
of 00 and 200 meters; Austria, the 500-meter swimming-match and the 2-hour bicycle race;
Switzerland, a gymnastic prize; Denmark, the two-handed weight-lifting contest.
The prizes were an olive-branch from the very spot, at Olympia, where stood the ancient
Altis, a diploma drawn by a Greek artist, and a silver medal chiseled by the celebrated French
engraver Chaplain. On one side of the medal is the Acropolis, with the Parthenon and the
Propyla; on the other a colossal head of the Olympian Zeus, after the type created by Phidias.
The head of the god is blurred, as if by distance and the lapse of centuries, while in the foreground, in clear relief, is the Victory which Zeus holds on his hand. It is a striking and original
conception. After the distribution of the prizes, the athletes formed for the traditional procession around the Stadion. Loues, the victor of Marathon, came first, bearing the Greek flag; then
the Americans, the Hungarians, the French, the Germans. The ceremony, moreover, was made
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more memorable by a charming incident. One of the contestants, Mr. Robertson, an Oxford
student, recited an ode which he had composed, in ancient Greek and in the Pindaric mode, in
honor of the games. Music had opened them, and Poetry was present at their close; and thus
was the bond once more renewed which in the past united the Muses with feats of physical
strength, the mind with the well-trained body. The king announced that the first Olympiad was
at an end, and left the Stadion, the band playing the Greek national hymn, and the crowd cheering. A few days later Athens was emptied of its guests. Torn wreaths littered the public squares;
the banners which had floated merrily in the streets disappeared; the sun and the wind held sole
possession of the marble sidewalks of Stadion street.
It is interesting to ask oneself what are likely to be the results of the Olympic games of 896,
as regards both Greece and the rest of the world. In the case of Greece, the games will be found
to have had a double eect, one athletic, the other political. It is a well-known fact that the Greeks
had lost completely, during their centuries of oppression, the taste for physical sports. There wre
good walkers among the mountaineers, and good swimmers in the scattered villages along the
coast. It was a matter of pride with the young palikar to wrestle and to dance well, but that was
because bravery and a gallant bearing were admired by those about him. Greek dances are far
from athletic, and the wrestling-matches of peasants have none of the characteristics of true
sports. The men of the towns had come to know no diversion beyond reading the newspapers,
and violently discussing politics about the tables of the cafes. The Greek race, however, is free
from the natural indolence of the Oriental, and it was manifest that the athletic habit would, if
the opportunity oered, easily take root again among its men. Indeed, several gymnastic associations had been formed in the recent years at Athens and Patras, and a rowing-club at Piraeus,
and the public was showing a growing interest in their feats. It was therefore a favorable moment
to speak the words, Olympic games. No sooner had it been made clear that Athens was to aid
in the revival of the Olympiads than a perfect fever of muscular activity broke out all over the
kingdom. And this was nothing to what followed the games. I have seen, in little villages far
from the capital, small boys, scarcely out of long clothes, throwing bit stones, or jumping improvised hurdles, and two urchins never met in the streets of Athens without running races. Nothing could exceed the enthusiasm with which the victors in the contests were received, on their
return to their native towns, by their fellow-citizens. They were met by the mayor and municipal authorities, and cheered by a crowd bearing branches of wild olive and laurel. In ancient
times the victor entered the city through a breach made expressly in its walls. The Greek cities
are no longer walled in, but one may say that athletics have made a breach in the heart of the
nation. When one realizes the influence that the practice of physical exercises may have on the
future of a country, and on the force of a whole race, one is tempted to wonder whether Greece
is not likely to date a new era from the year 896. It would be curious indeed if athletics were
to become one of the factors in the Eastern question! Who can tell whether, by bringing a
notable increase of vigor to the inhabitants of the country, it may not hasten the solution of this
thorny problem? These are hypotheses, and circumstances make light of such calculations at long
range. But a local and immediate consequence of the games may already be found in the internal politics of Greece. I have spoken of the active part taken by the crown prince and his brothers, Prince George and Prince Nicholas, in the labors of the organizing committee. It was the
first time that the heir apparent had had an opportunity of thus coming into contact with his
future subjects. They knew him to be patriotic and high-minded, but they did not know his
other admirable and solid qualities. Prince Constantine inherits his fine blue eyes and fair coloring from his Danish ancestors, and his frank, open manner, his self-poise, and his mental lucidity come from the same source; but Greece has given him enthusiasm and ardor, and this happy
combination of prudence and high spirit makes him especially adapted to govern the Hellenes.
The authority, mingled with the perfect liberality, with which he managed the committee, his
Summary Articles (Coubertin; Butler)
37
exactitude in detail, and more particularly his quiet perseverance when those about him were
inclined to hesitate and to lose courage, make it clear that his reign will be one of fruitful labor,
which can only strengthen and enrich his country. The Greek people have now a better idea of
the worth of their future sovereign: they have seen him at work, and have gained respect for and
confidence in him.
So much for Greece. On the world at large the Olympic games have, of course, exerted no
influence as yet; but I am profoundly convinced that they will do so. May I be permitted to say
that this was my reason for founding them? Modern athletics need to be unified and purified.
Those who have followed the renaissance of physical sports in this century know that discord
reigns supreme from one end of them to the other. Every country has its own rules; it is not possible even to come to an agreement as to who is an amateur, and who is not. All over the world
there is one perpetual dispute, which is further fed by innumerable weekly, and even daily newspapers. In this deplorable state of things professionalism tends to grow apace. Men give up their
whole existence to one particular sport, grow rich by practising it, and thus deprive it of all nobility, and destroy the just equilibrium of man by making the muscles preponderate over the mind.
It is my belief that no education, particularly in democratic times, can be good and complete
without the aid of athletics; but athletics, in order to play their proper educational role, must
be based on perfect disinterestedness and the sentiment of honor.
If we are to guard them against these threatening evils, we must put an end to the quarrels
of amateurs, that they may be united among themselves, and willing to measure their skill in
frequent international encounters. But what country is to impose its rules and its habits on the
others? The Swedes will not yield to the Germans, nor the French to the English. Nothing better than the international Olympic games could therefore be devised. Each country will take its
turn in organizing them. When they come to meet every four years in these contests, further
ennobled by the memories of the past, athletes all over the world will learn to know one another
better, to make mutual concessions, and to seek no other reward in the competition than the
honor of the victory. One may be filled with desire to see the colors of ones club or college triumph in a national meeting; but how much stronger is the feeling when the colors of ones country are at stake! I am well assured that the victors in the Stadion at Athens wished for no other
recompense when they heard the people cheer the flag of their country in honor of their achievement.
It was with these thoughts in mind that I sought to revive the Olympic games. I have succeeded after many eorts. Should the institution prosper, as I am persuaded, all civilized
nations aiding, that it will, it may be a potent, if indirect, factor in securing universal peace.
Wars break out because nations misunderstand each other. We shall not have peace until the
prejudices which now separate the dierent races shall have been outlived. To attain this end,
what better means than to bring the youth of all countries periodically together for amicable trials of muscular strength and agility? The Olympic games, with the ancients, controlled athletics and promoted peace. It is not visionary to look to them for similar benefactions in the future.
The Century Magazine 53, 3 (November 896) 3953
THE OLYMPIC GAMES

Miss Maynard Butler
O King! said the Crown Prince Konstantine, in his address the opening day of the Festival in Athens, the International Convention, held in Paris, decided that the Olympic Games
38
should first be celebrated in the land in which they originated and in which they reached such
excellence therein is contained the history of the Premiers Jeux Olympiques Internationaux.
To bring together the strong, the active, the skilled men of all nations, upon the common ground
of physical perfection, and to have the first of the friendly contests take place in the chief city
of the country from which the ideal of that perfection was derived, was the aim of Coubertin
and Bikelas. Through labor and discouragement, led by their President, the Crown Prince Konstantine, the Committee has reached its goal, and may congratulate itself upon a great success.
Well might the London Times, in a leader some time before the Olympic Festival, say:
We are sorry that in this revival England, and especially Oxford and Cambridge, will not be
well represented. For most of the contests we could send competitors whom we could trust, and
in some of them, as in cricket and boating, we might fairly expect to hold our own against the
world. Possibly on the next occasion, in 900, when the Games are held at Paris, we shall make
a better show, but it will poorly compensate us for having missed the first chance. Olympic games
at Paris will have a local color of their own, but it will not be that of Olympic games in Greece,
and, as Bacon says, the first precedent, if good, is seldom attained by imitation.
The quiet of Holy Week, preceding the seventy-fifth anniversary of the expulsion of the
Turk from Greece, intensified the joy natural to the national celebration. The streets of the city
on Good Friday night were densely crowded with the processions of the dierent parishes, and,
unless one had come within doors before nine oclock, it was impossible to walk from square to
square. Squads of boys and men preceded the four, sometimes six and eight, priests who held
extended above their heads a rectangular V-shaped cloth of silk, upon which the figure of the
Saviour, done in embossed work, lay. Each priest carried a large altar-taper, and the men,
women, and little children who followed, the candles. The figure thus carried, typifying the bier
of the Lord, and the funeral marches played by the bands, with the hymns and cries of Kyrie
eleison! Kyrie eleison! in a weird, half-chanting tone, presented an extraordinary scene. As every
such bier passed, the people on the pavements crossed themselves in the waving manner evidently customary here, unlike the fashion of the Roman Catholics, and rather grand than otherwise. Portions of regiments with reversed arms (as for funerals), schools and choirs passed in
endless numbers, and not until two oclock was Athens quiet. As one looked over the balcony of
the Hotel Angleterre, a diplomat pointed out her Majesty Queen Olga, clad in black, walking
incognito and in the very closest crush of the untidy but quietly devout throng, leaning upon
the arm of her relative, the Grand Duke Georgius of Russia, betrothed of the Princess Marie.
The perfect simplicity and evident unconsciousness of the act quite won ones heart.
Saturday the church bells were tolling, at intervals, all day, and the shops were closed. But
the streets seemed to grow fuller and fuller. Easter is, in the Greek Church, rather more than in
the Roman, a time of especial demonstrations of joy, and the week ushered in by it this year,
having the gayeties of the Independence Day and the opening of the Stadion added to it, was
exceptionally full of excitement. At twelve oclock Saturday night the fast of the forty days no
mere form in this country was over, and in every true Athenian house a meal was prepared
upon the return from the services. Sunday morning dawned bright and clear, but, with a rapidity not equaled even by the changes of the New England coast, clouds had gathered by ten oclock,
and it became evident that the ceremony of the unveiling of the statue of Avro would have to
take place in the rain. But it was nevertheless an interesting event, the eect of which was singularly heightened by the fact that the man whom the Athenian sculptor Brutos had molded is
still living, at the age of eighty-two, and had intended to be present. His great age, and the strain
of emotion unavoidable upon such an occasion, however, induced him to follow the advice of
his physicians and remain in Alexandria. The address of Mons. Philemon, General Secretary of
the Olympian Games and a former Mayor of Athens, reviewed the benefactions of the patriotic
banker, and formally presented the statue to Athens. It was received by the Crown Prince in a
Summary Articles (Butler)
39
few dignified words, in which he laid stress upon the latest gift of Avero the restoration of
the Stadion. Monday morning was beautiful, and the Te Deum in the metropolis, in commemoration of the deliverance from the Turkish invaders, drew great masses of people about the
doors and the streets leading to the church. The fine voices of ten men and boys rang out from
the choir, without accompaniment, as the royal family entered, the body of the church being
filled with a mass of ocers, guards, ladies, and servants, men and small children of every class,
all standing Greek churches aording no seats. The chanting of the Chief Priest in this, as in
the three other Greek services I heard, was not pleasant, the tone adopted being thick and rasping in quality and the pitch, though well maintained, being too high for musical eect. The
responses of the choir were in every case absolutely pure in quality, and the shading of the voices
well managed.
And now excitement in the town reached an intense point: in two hours and a half the longtalked of moment would arrive, the magnificent Stadion be opened and the Games begin. In the
chief hotels and cafs people scrambled for places, and in a large number of private houses
breakfasts were being given and parties arranged to go to the great horseshoe-shaped inclosure.
Only the carriages of the Ministers, Committee, and the ocers of state are admitted over
the line drawn by the police, and the occupants even of these are obliged to alight before the
gate is reached. M. Mataxas, the architect chosen by Avero to make the restoration, is, as is
fitting, also a Greek by birth. He has spent infinite care and thought and research upon his work,
and the result is superb. The sweep of the semicircle, the tiers upon tiers of seats, the doublefaced statues, found while the work was going on, the marble chairs for the King and Queen,
in the ancient shape, the hills rising up either side, and now covered with people make a picture beyond the fancy of the foreigner. Seats are found with little diculty, those provided for
foreign correspondents and the honorary members of the Committee being generously chosen
from among the best. The Royal Family enter, the Olympiode Ymnoe begins, the composer
Samaras directing; the Crown Prince formally presents the Stadion to the King, and requests
him to declare it opened. The King replies: I proclaim the opening of the First International
Olympic Games in Athens. Long live the nation! Long live the Greek people! and the Games
begin. Across the field, in answer to the Heralds trumpet, come two Hungarians, a Chilian, a
Frenchman, a German, an Englishman and an American, to run the 00-meters race. Lane, of
the United States, must have felt a sense of responsibility as he took his place, and if, silent sympathy is conveyed in the air, he must also have been impelled by the hopes of his countrymen,
who believed in him and not in vain, for it is the American who arrives first! Cheer upon cheer
resounds, in which the Greeks join heartily, for our nation is popular here, thanks to its genial
representative at the Court. The starters shot is fired for the second heat; again it is an American, Curtis, of the Boston Athletic Association, who outdistances a Greek, an Englishman, two
Frenchmen, a Dane, and a Hungarian. The third heat, and Burke, of the same Association wins
over a Swede, two Greeks and three Germans. His time is 4 seconds; Lanes 2 5, Curtiss 2 5.
The first event is over, and the victory in each heat belongs to the United States. The time is
posted and the flag unfurled, and Americans examine their list of the days sports eagerly. The
hop, skip and jump, contested by two Frenchmen, four Germans, one Greek and by Connolly,
of the Boston Athletic Association, is won by Connolly, who makes a distance of 3 meters and
7 centimeters, leaving behind all his fellow-competitors in amazement, and filling the hearts of
his compatriots with joy. He leaves the field amidst a storm of applause, and a little son of an
American professor residing in Athens, is unable to repress his delight, and hurrahs in his young
voice again and again. In the 800-meter run, next announced, a most beautiful stride is exhibited by the Australian Flack, who wins in 2 minutes 0 seconds in the first heat, and Lermusiaux, of the Paris Racing Club, called a famous runner in France, takes the second in 2 minutes
63 5 seconds. No Americans appear in this event. Then comes the throwing of the disk, in which
40
Grisel, of France; Paraskevopoulos and Versis, of Greece; Robertson, of England, the wellknown thrower of the hammer; Jensen, of Denmark, Sjberg, of Sweden, and Garrett of the
United States are entered. As Garrett arrived in Athens only the night before, and the two Greeks
are popular heroes in this national sport, Americans tremble for their country. But unnecessarily. The accustomed cunning of the skillful shot-putter does not forsake him. His second throw
rectifies the swerve of his first, and with his last he leaps past the marks of the Greeks and is the
winner. Frantic though the enthusiasm of the Princeton and Boston athletes is, proud as are the
old and young Harvard men who rush down to the cave to greet Garrett, every foreigner feels
with the Greeks, who cannot but be keenly disappointed. There is, for a moment, an uncomfortable silence, and then, with their accustomed politeness and never-failing kindliness, they
join in the cheers. Let every nation represented at this first international contest in 896 remember this lesson in courtesy taught them by the Greeks.
I couldnt have congratulated my opponent if he had beaten me on my own ground, as a
Greek fellow down in the cave did me, said an American athlete a few days afterward and it
was a mighty fine thing to do. It was indeed.
Jamison, of Princeton, and Burke again, add to the list of victories and complete the events
of the day. Great excitement prevails in the streets all the evening, and timid attempts at an imitation of the college rah-rah-rah are made by the Athenian youths. Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday morning are occupied by shooting and fencing contests, the former being opened by
the Queen, who fired the first shot. Tuesday afternoon at the Stadion included a hurdle race,
run in two heats, won respectively by Grantley Goulding, of England, and Curtis, of the United
States, the deciding heat for the prize to be run on Friday. Clark, of the Boston Athletic Association, won the long jump in a distance of 6 meters 35 centimeters, his Greek fellow-competitors showing great possibilities, which all athletes agree will make them formidable in 900.
Putting the shot was Garretts second victory, his distance being meters 22 centimeters;
Gouskos, a superb Greek thrower being second. The double-hand dumbbell lifting was won by
Jensen, the Dane, who put up 2 kilograms; and the single-hand by Eliott, of London, who
put up 7 kilograms.
Then came the first and only American loss, their man Blake, the well-known long distance runner, being second to Flack the Australian, who did the ,500-meter race in 4 minutes
33 second. Flacks rhythmic swing of arms and feet was a pleasant sight, and his stride the American athletes say, is like Kilpatricks, the New York winner.
The day closed with America the victor in four out of seven events. On Wednesday morning the contest with foils was won by Gravelotte, a Frenchman, and in the afternoon, at the Velodrome, at Phaleron, a Frenchman also came in first in the bicycle race. The ride, a distance of
00 kilometers, was done in 3 hours 8 minutes 9 seconds, by Flameng, who was pluckily followed by two Greeks, one of whom, Kolettis, persisted to the end, though his bicycle broke twice
during the course.
Thursday was occupied with swimming matches, in which many fine exhibitions were
made, especially by the Greek sailors and the Hungarian; by exhibitions on parallel bars, with
rings, etc, at the Stadion, and by a concert in the evening. On Friday, the day of the Marathon
race, the crowds from all the provinces increased, and the struggle for food in the hotels and
cafs became so uncomfortable that for an hour the doors of the most popular ones near the
palace were locked, that those already within might be served. The final course in the hurdlejumping, the first of the events in the afternoon, was won by Curtis, of Boston, over Goulding,
of England; leaping with a pole by Tyler of Princeton, over Hoyt, of Boston the other competitors, Greeks and Germans, retiring before them; the wrestling by Schumann of Germany.
The runners from Marathon were to leave that place, twenty-four and three quarter miles away,
at exactly two oclock, and by half-past four the strain of curiosity as to the man first on the road
Summary Articles (Butler; Curtis)
41
was raised to an unbearable pitch by the rushing of an orderly along the path to tell the King
who was first. Is it a Greek? the crowd began to shout, and a representative of the chief Athens
morning paper left his seat, determined to find out. He returned in about five minutes, his brown
eyes dancing, and said, A Greek, a Greek! and then arose a tremendous sound. Not even the
runner of old who fell dead at the feet of the King was awaited with keener interest; and as he
came up to the gates, a brown-faced, white and blue clad figure, making the countrymans sign
of greeting to his Princes, the whole sixty thousand people within and the forty thousand without the gates joined in a loud cry. Either side of him as he approached the seat of the King, ran
the handsome Princes and as he made his obeisance each flung an arm about him. Greece had
indeed won, and every stranger rejoiced with her. There will not be soon a scene like that again.
An ocer of the war-ship San Francisco, familiar with many lands and who has seen many strange
sights, was heard to say that he knew nothing comparable with it. Long may the spontaneous,
courteous country live, and long the noble, generous, manly family at its head! May its political life be unified, its resources be developed, its incomparable art treasures be preserved! May
it come more closely into touch with the nations of western Europe and American, yet retain
untouched its own peculiar character!
And now, what have American athletes learned from this first International Olympic contest? Much. They return undoubtedly the first among the twelve nations represented. They have
done their work well and have received the unaected admiration of their fellow-competitors.
They have been charmingly entertained by the Athenians, and more than graciously received by
the head of the Committee, the Crown Prince Konstantine, and Prince George, whose unflagging
attention to their duties might serve as a model of faithfulness. And from this success, attention,
and graciousness they will, as observing Americans, learn two things: one, that as athletes they
must look to their laurels in long-distance running; and the other, as men, that they must
remember in 900 and 904 the pattern of generosity in defeat set them by the Athenians in
896.
The prizes, diplomas, olive branches, and special vases, cups, etc. were distributed to-day
by the King. An ode, in ancient Greek, upon the Olympic Revival was read by Robertson, of
Oxford, and several wreaths of laurel were presented by Germans, Hungarians, and Danes to
the Crown Prince as President of the International Committee. This evening a soire is held in
the Hotel Grand Bretagne, in honor of the athletes and foreign correspondents and the great
festival of joy will be over. [Athens, April 5.]
Outlook 53 (30 May 896): 993995
HIGH HURDLES AND WHITE GLOVES

Thomas P. Curtis
The way our U.S. team was selected for those first modern Olympic games held at Athens
in 896 would seem extraordinary to an athlete of 932. In eect we selected ourselves. When
an invitation was received in this country, asking the United States to send representatives to
Greece, the powers of the Boston Athletic Association went into a huddle and decided that the
B.A.A. had a pretty good track team which had met with reasonable success at home and that
the Association could aord to send a group of seven athletes and a coach to the first Olympiad.
Princeton University also decided to send over a small team, and as the amateur standing of all
was satisfactory, that was all there was to it. Nave? Yes, but so was the whole idea, which had
blossomed in the brain of Baron Pierre de Coubertin. So were the competitors and so were the
42
spectators. So were most of the governments which sent representatives to Athens, and so were
many of the incidents, which seem just as funny today as they did at the time, perhaps even more
so, in view of modern developments.
We sailed by the southern route to Naples, passing the Azores, and we kept in condition as
well as we could by exercising on the afterdeck. At Gibraltar the British ocers invited us to use
their field for practice, and we managed to get rid of our sea legs to a certain extent. But when
we arrived at Athens on the day preceding the opening of the games after crossing Italy by
train, spending twenty-fours hours on the boat from Brindisi to Patras, and then crossing Greece
by train we were not exactly in what todays Olympic coaches would call the pink.
Nor did our reception at Athens, kind and hospitable as it was, help. We were met with a
procession, with bands blaring before and behind, and were marched on foot for what seemed
miles to the Htel de Ville. Here speech after speech was made in Greek, presumably very
flattering to us, but of course entirely unintelligible. We were given large bumpers of the whiteresin wine of Greece and told by our advisors it would be a gross breach of etiquette if we did
not drain these o in response to the various toasts. As soon as this ceremony was over, we were
again placed at the head of a procession and marched to our hotel. I could not help feeling that
so much marching, combined with several noggins of resinous wine, would tell on us in the contests the following day.
My doubts were deepened on meeting the proprietor of our hotel. He asked me in what
events I was going to compete, and when I named particularly the high hurdles, he burst into
roars of laughter. It was some time before he could speak, but when he had calmed down enough,
he apologized and explained that it had seemed to him inexpressibly droll that a man should
travel 5000 miles to take part in an event which he had no possible chance to win. Only that
afternoon, the Greek hurdler in practice had hung up an absolutely unbeatable record.
With a good deal of anxiety, I asked him what this record was. He glanced about guiltily,
led me to a corner of the room, and whispering in my ear like a stage conspirator, said that the
record was not supposed to be made public but that he had it on unimpeachable authority that
the Greek hero had run the hurdles in the amazing time of nineteen and four-fifths seconds!
Again he was overcome with mirth but recovered to say that I should not be too discouraged, perhaps I might win second place. As I had never heard of anyone running the high hurdles, 0 meters, in such amazingly slow time, I decided that I should not take the mental hazard of the Great Greek Threat too seriously.
One of the British hurdlers, however, was more disturbing. He had quite a number of medals
hung on his waistcoat and these he insisted on showing me. You see this medal, he would say.
That was for the time I won the championship of South Africa. This one here was from the
All-England games and so on. He was perfectly certain that he would win the Olympic event,
but he, too, consoled me with the possibility of my taking second place. I never met a more
confident athlete.
The next day the games opened in a superb stadium, gift of a wealthy and patriotic Greek,
built of Pentelic marble and seating seventy-five thousand spectators. Around and above it, on
three sides, rose bare hills, which provided free space for the local deadheads a sort of Athenian Coogans Blu. In building the stadium, the Greeks had unearthed four statues which had
marked the turns in the ancient Athenian games held on the same site, and these were now
installed at the four turns of the new cinder track for the first Olympic revival. The track, by
the way, was well intended and well built, but it was soft, which accounted in part for the slow
times recorded. After the opening ceremonies before the King and Queen, the taking of the
Olympic oath, and the lighting of the Olympic torch, we proceeded to business.
The first event was a trial heat in the 00-meter dash. Entered in the heat with me were a
German, a Frenchman, an Englishman, and two Greeks. As we stood on our marks, I was next
Summary Articles (Curtis)
43
to the Frenchman, a short stocky man. He, at that moment, was busily engaged in pulling on a
pair of white kid gloves, and have some diculty in doing so before the staring pistol. Excited
as I was, I had to ask him why he wanted the gloves. Ah-ha! he answered, zat is because I run
before ze Keeng!
Later, after the heat was run, I asked him in what other events he was entered. He was in
only two, ze cent metre and ze marathon, to me a curious combination. He went on to explain
his method of training. One day I run a lettle way, vairy queek. Ze next day, I run a long way,
vairy slow.
I remember the last day of the games. The marathon had been run. All the other runners who had finished had completed the race. The King and Queen had left, and the stadium
was about to be closed for the night. And then, all alone, the little Frenchman came jogging
into the stadium, running vairy slow, and passed in front of the empty thrones of the
Royal Box, wearing his little white kid gloves, even though ze Keeng was not there to see
them.
When it came to high hurdles, I learned how the Greek Threat had managed to spend nineteen and four-fifths seconds in covering the distance. It was entirely a matter of technique. His
method was to treat each hurdle as a high jump, trotting up to it, leaping and landing on both
feet. At that, given the method, his time was really remarkable. In the finals, I met the confident
Britisher who was, in fact, a better hurdler than I. However, he was not so fast on the ground,
and I beat him in the stretch, whereupon he stopped neither to linger nor to say farewell, but
went from the stadium to the station and took the first train out of Athens.
Apropos of the Greek Threat it is only fair to add that Greece, as a nation, knew very little about modern track and field sports. They had imported an English trainer named Perry
shortly before the games. In the sprints, the middle, and the long distance runs, he could give
them useful hints on form and condition, but the pole vault and the hurdles and high jump were
too dicult for satisfactory results from any such athletic cramming. The Greek hopes aside
from those of my hotel proprietor centered on two events, the discus and the marathon run.
For the first they had the classic example of the Discobolus to study and analyze, and for the second they had the equally classic precedent of Pheidippides, who had run over almost identically
the same course to death and immortal glory.
In the discus they were doomed to disappointment by a performance which illustrates as
well as anything else the navet of the contests. We had on our team a Princeton representative, Robert Garrett, a very powerful, long-armed athlete who had never seen a discus, let
alone thrown one, but who decided to enter the event just for the sport of it. When the moment
came, the Greek champion assumed the attitude of the Discobolus, which incidentally is a very
trying and complicated attitude, and proceeded to make three perfect throws in the classic manner.
Garrett, with no knowledge of form or of how to skim the awkward discus, caused infinite
merriment by running up to the mark and completely flubbing his first two attempts. On his
third attempt, aided by his great strength, great length of arm, and an enormous amount of good
luck, he succeeded in sailing the discus to a new record, beating the champion by almost a
foot. This was a tragedy for Greece, but high comedy for us.
I think it was on the third or fourth day of the games that the Americanization of Europe
began. Our team sat in a box not far from that of the King and whenever the circumstances
seemed to call for it, such as a win for the United States or a particularly good performance, we
gave the regular B.A.A. cheer, which consisted of B.A.A. Rah! Rah! Rah! three times, followed by the name of the individual performer who had evoked it. This cheer never failed to
astonish and amuse the spectators. They had never heard organized cheering in their lives. During one of the intervals between events we were much surprised to see one of King Georges aides-
44
de-camp, an enormous man some six feet six tall, walk solemnly down the track, stop in front
of us, salute and say: His Majeste, ze King, requests zat you, for heem, weel make once more,
zat fonnee sound. We shouted B.A.A. -Rah! Rah! Rah! three times and then ended up with
a mighty Zito Hellas! whereupon the King rose and snapped into a salute and everyone
applauded vigorously.
King George was much intrigued by this barbarian custom. When we breakfasted with him
the day after the completion of the games, he asked us to cheer in the middle of breakfast. If we
had only known then about the movies and Hollywood and Henry Ford and mass production,
we might have considered ourselves the advance agents of Americanization and committed suicide.
When we left Athens, more than a hundred undergraduates of the University were at the
station and gave us an organized cheer in Greek such as never was heard before on sea or land.
It was a pity that a group of Elis were not there to respond with the Frog Chorus -Brek-ekkek, co-ax, co-ax but probably the Greeks would not have understood it, Greek though it
claims to be.
On the whole, our team did very well. William Hoyt won the pole vault, Ellery Clarke the
high jump and broad jump, Tom Burke the 00 meters and 400 meters. I won the high hurdles,
and Arthur Blake was second in, I think, the 500 meters. Our finest performances were by the
two sons of General Paine of Boston, Sumner and John, who won the revolver and pistol contests against the pick of the military and civilian shots of Europe. These were really outstanding achievements.
For the aquatic events we had on our team a very fast short-distance swimmer, who had
won many races in warm American swimming pools. He journeyed to the Piraeus on the day of
the first swimming competition blissfully ignorant that even the Mediterranean is bitterly cold
in the month of April.
He had traveled 5000 miles for this event, and as he posed with the others on the edge of
the float, waiting for the gun, his spirit thrilled with patriotism and determination. At the crack
of the pistol, the contestants dived headfirst into the icy water. In a split second, his head reappeared, Jesu Christo! Im freezing!; with that shriek of astonished frenzy he lashed back to the
float. For him the Olympics were over.
The Greek people, from high to low, treated us with great courtesy and friendliness. Sometimes their kindness was embarrassing. If we had won an event, our return to our quarters would
be attended by admiring followers shouting Nik!Victory! Shopkeepers would herd us into
their shops and invite us to help ourselves to their wares gratis. One merchant successfully
insisted on each of us taking three free neckties. Gazing on their color and design, I saw a new
meaning in the phrase, timeo Danaos, et dona ferentes. But the whole thing was so simple, so
nave, that in spite of our amusement, we were touched and pleased.
On the last day of the games, Greece came into her own. Loues, a Greek donkey boy, led
all the other contestants home in a great marathon. As he came into the stretch, a hundred and
twenty-five thousand people went into delirium. Thousands of white pigeons, which had been
hidden in boxes under the seats, were released in all parts of the stadium. The handclapping was
tremendous. Every reward which the ancient cities heaped on an Olympic victor, and a lot of
new ones, were showered on the conqueror, and the games ended on this happy and thrilling note.
We stayed on in Athens for about ten days of entertainment and merrymaking. I recall especially a great reception at Mme. Schliemanns and also a picnic in the Vale of Daphne, which
the Crown Prince, later King Constantine, and his brother, Prince George attended. Their Royal
Highnesses were extremely interested in learning how American baseball was played. We
explained to them the functions of the pitcher, catcher, infielders, and outfielders and the theory of running bases.
Summary Articles (Curtis; Richardson)
45
Nothing would do, however, except a demonstration, and as the picnic yielded little in the
way of paraphernalia, we were obliged to demonstrate with a walking stick and an orange. We
appointed Prince George pitcher and the Crown Prince catcher, and, for my sins, I was named
batter. At the first orange pitched, I struck not wisely but too well, and the stick cut the orange
in halves, both of which the Crown Prince caught in the bosom of his best court uniform. He
was a good sport and joined in the somewhat subdued laughter, but I think the Americanization of Greece ended right there.
The Sportsman 2, ( July 932): 606
THE NEW OLYMPIAN GAMES

Rufus Richardson
It seemed a hazardous experiment to institute a series of international athletic contests
under the name of Olympic Games. The sun of Homer, to be sure, still smiles upon Greece,
and the vale of Olympia is still beautiful. But no magicians wand and no millionaires money
can ever charm back into material existence the setting in which the Olympic Games took place.
It is only in thought that we can build again the imposing temples and porches, set up the thousands of statues, make the groves live again, bring back the artists, musicians, poets, philosophers, and historians, who came both to gaze and to contribute to the charm of the occasion.
Never again will athletes move in such an athletic atmosphere, winning eternal glory in a few
brief moments. The full moon of the summer evening with Pindars music and wreaths upon
the victors brow belong to the days that are no more, to the childhood of the world free and
joyous. We are those upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Another race hath been and other palms are won.
For most of us life is serious, if not sad.
But although no athletic contest will ever have the splendor of Olympia, the experiment
of international contests was not really hazardous. The athletic habit may be in a measure lost,
as has been shown especially in Greece, but the athletic instinct never dies. Let a man try how
far he can jump or throw a weight almost anywhere, in any civilized county, and for aught I
know also among savages, and the unoccupied bystanders feel as irresistible impulse to join in
an impromptu athletic contest. The desire to outleap, outrun, and outwrestle is just as strong
now as it was when old Homer recorded: A man has no greater glory as long as he lives than
what he does with his hands and his feet. Clergymen and professors over fifty years old have
been caught in summer-time in the North Woods, or elsewhere showing more pride in a long
jump than in their learning or their standing.
Back of Olympia, against which the philosoper Xenophanes protested, and back of the modern athletic craze so feared by some of the serious friends of the colleges, lies the athletic
instinct, which has caused history thus to repeat itself. The International Committee was safe
in appealing to this instinct, and the first contest at Athens has been a brilliant success.
If it did not have the old setting at Olympia, which was the growth of ages, all that could
be done to replace this was provided. The restored Panathenaic Stadion; innumerable bands of
music; concerts; illuminations at Athens and Peiraeus; torchlight processions and fireworks; the
presence of the royal family of Greece in the Stadion, accompanied by the King of Servia, the
Grand Duke George of Russia, whose engagement to Princess Marie, the daughter of the King
46
of Greece, was announced on the day before the opening of the games, and the widow of the
late Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria with her two daughters; and more than all, a maximum
attendance of sixty thousand people, gave something to replace Olympia, and almost persuaded
one that the old times had come around again when there was nothing more serious to do than
to outrun, outleap and outwrestle.
There were some intellectual accompaniments of the occasions. The Antigone of Sophokles was presented twice at Athens and once at the Peirus, in the original text, with music for
the choruses by Mr. Sakellarides, a Greek well versed in Byzantine music, who also with his fine
voice and boundless enthusiasm ociated as chorus-leader. The newspapers, which for the most
part represented a rival faction in music, had for some time made merriment at the idea of Sakellarides vying as a composer with Mendelssohn. For the first hour of the first presentation the
theatre was in a hubbub, but Sophokles, who is always eective, silenced it. The music, which
was somewhat uniform, achieved a triumph, in that some of the opposing faction confessed that
it was not so bad as they had expected, which is a good deal for a musical partisan to say. The
greatest wrong done to Sophokles was that the actors of the two leading roles, Kleon and
Antigone, put little soul into their parts, which made the play a disappointment to one who had
seen Antigone presented at Vassar College in 893. A fine opportunity was lost.
The dead also were not forgotten. A procession of native and foreign scholars marched past
the Academy to Kolonos, and with appropriate ceremonies placed wreaths upon the somewht
neglected monuments of Karl Gottfried Mller and Charles Lenormont.
But the kernel of everything was the events of the Stadion. Here for a week everything centred. The wiles of the diplomats ceased. There was no call for poring over miserable books.
Bodily excellence, especially the power to gather all ones forces together for one supreme eort,
came to the front. Almost anyone who had gifts of strength or skill had an opportunity to display them and to win generous applause. Young men full of the gaudium certaminis were the
heroes of the hour.
An ancient Greek, had he come to life again, would have missed some of the events of his
old games. The pancration, with its brutalities, was happily lacking. Even boxing was omitted.
He might have asked with some reason why the pentathlon was not retained as a test of general
athletic excellence. He would hardly have acquiesced in the substitution of the boat-races at
Phaleron for the ancient chariot-races, and would doubtless have thought the pistol and rifle
shooting a poor substitute for throwing the javelin. Probably he would have approved of the
swimming matches, and looked curiously at the fencing. But of all the additions to his old list
of games he would have found lawn-tennis and bicycling the most removed from ancient athletics. Considering, however, not the shades of ancient Greeks but the modern world, ought not
the patrons of the contest to have persuaded Englishmen and Americans to add to the sports
games of football and baseball?
It was a happy thought of the committee to bring the first contest to Greece, the mother
of athletics. The visiting contestants were forced into contact with history, and their visit to
Greece was an education. The Greek athletes, on the other hand, have received an impulse and
a suggestion of higher standards than they had hitherto thought possible. In four years from now
they will be among the foremost contestants for athletic honors. The eect will be good on both
sides.
Of course it must be conceded that the success achieved at Athens might have been even
more brilliant at Paris or New York, but who knows? Two circumstances were adverse to Athens:
First, it is a small city of only 30,000 inhabitants, and some of its best citizens felt that a wrong
was being done to it in thrusting upon it the burden of an honor to which it was inadequate,
and that foreigners would simply come to see the nakedness of the land. But in spite of the
shortness of the time allowed for preparation, Athens responded nobly to the call, and put the
Summary Articles (Richardson)
47
doubters to shame. It was, however, chiefly George Avero who, by furnishing the money to
restore the old Panathenaic Stadion, contributed to this success. The visitors are unanimous in
their praise of the adequate and warm hospitality aorded them by the Athenian people.
The other diculty was the season of the year, and this diculty proved in a measure irremediable. The time was prescribed within somewhat narrow limits. Summer was excluded on
account of heat, and winter on account of certain bad weather. October was a possibility but,
some time in the spring was the natural time of Greece to be the place. Perhaps a mistake was
made in choosing a date a few weeks earlier than necessary. But even the first part of May would
hardly have obviated the diculty, which excluded, for example, the New York Athletic Club,
viz., that it was impossible for the members to get into good form for track athletics, and take
the field in a country so distant as Greece so early in the year. The same feeling was expressed
by the Germans, who did come. This consideration, to say nothing of some incipient national
jealousies, lessened somewhat the number of contestants from several countries. England notably
was not well represented.
For America the time was particulary unfavorable, as it practically excluded college athletes, for whom a visit to Greece was greatly to be desired as an educational stimulus. It was almost
impossible for students, especially seniors approaching graduation, to secure leave of absence at
this time of the year. Princeton alone of the colleges, perhaps largely through the influence of
Professor Sloane, who has been interested in the enterprise from its inception, sent a direct representation of four men: Robert Garrett, Jr., Captain, H. B. Jamison, F. A. Lane, and A. C. Tyler.
The Boston Athletic Association sent a delegation composed of Arthur Blake, T. E. Burke, E.
H. Clarke, T. P. Curtis, and W. W. Hoyt. J. B. Connolly, of the Suolk Athletic Club, accompanied them. Blake, Clarke, Hoyt and Connolly were members of the Harvard University, which
was thus indirectly represented. In the same way Burke represented Boston University, and Curtis represented the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia College. Thus the athletes who represented America in the Stadion were all college men, making for America a fair
and genuine representation. Greece will not soon forget this frank response from so remote a
land. In spite of the poor representation of England and the total defection of Italy, Russia and
Turkey, the games took on a fairly international character.
There was also a danger that in the first part of April there might be bad weather. In the
first days of May there was certainty of good weather. Still, even in April one might count the
danger as slight. But this year the worst that could be expected actually happened. The multitude present at the unveiling of the statue of Avero at the entrance to the Stadion, on Sunday,
the day before the opening of the games, was drenched by a heavy, persistent rain. Clouds also
hung heavy and dark over the Stadion all the afternoon of Monday, in spite of which, however,
the games went on without interruption. Wednesday was the coldest day since February, and is
likely to have caused much illness in connection with the bicycle races and the lawn-tennis tournament, since a cutting north wind swept over the plain of Phaleron where those contests were
held. On Thursday, April 9th, the spite of the elements appeared most conspicously. Pentelicus
was covered with snow nearly down to its base, an event probably unparalleled in the weather
record for this time of the year. On the following Monday the boat-races at Phaleron were postponed, and ultimately given up, on account of a steady gale from the south, and the crew of the
San Francisco lost their chance in the races, as they had to leave the Peirus the next morning.
The distribution of the prizes, which was to take place on the following day, was prevented by
a rain like that of Easter. The crowd dispersed after an hour of fruitless waiting under umbrellas. All this more than justified the forbodings of the King, who remarked, when he heard of the
time proposed for the games, that we often had bad weather about Independence day; and sent
the visitors away with the false impression that Greece did not have much advantage over more
northern countries in its spring weather.
48
For Greece the time was in one way conspicuously, brilliantly opportune. Sunday, April 5th,
was the Greek Easter, which on this year concided with the European Easter. This was as usual
celebrated with pomp and noise like our Fourth of July, the law prohibiting the sale of large torpedoes being in abeyance on that day. The next day, the opening day of the games was the
anniversary of Greek Independence, when all the army is wont to appear in fine array. This made
a congeries of holidays almost bewildering to one wishing to be quite sure that he was celebrating, and gave to the period of Easter a character befitting the name given it by the Greeks, Lambri, the brilliant. Easter itself was made the proagon to the games by the unveiling of the statue
of Avero.
The attendance in the Stadion, in spite of cold weather, ran up to 35,000 on the first day.
It was somewhat less on subsequent days until Friday, the last great day, when the Stadion was
filled to its utmost capacity, i.e., with 50,000 people. But outside and above the enclosing wall
of the Stadion, especially on the west side, where the hill runs up much higher than this wall,
were congregated from seven to ten thousand more, poor people, a sea of down-turned faces,
reminding one of those old Athenians who, not getting into the theatre, contented themselves
with the view from the poplar. Many more stood outside the entrance to the Stadion, just across
the Ilissos, on ground even lower than the floor of the Stadion, where they could see nothing of
what was going on inside, but could only catch something of the spirit of the occasion from proximity. On Friday probably nearly one hundred thousand people were massed in and about the
Stadion, besides which the whole road to Marathon was lined with spectators.
Entrance to the Stadion was, according to our ideas, cheap enough, being two drachmas
for the lower half and one for the upper. The drachma, which at par is a franc, owing to the
depreciated currency of poor Greece, has now a value of only about 2 cents. It is significant of
the res augusta domi in Greece that the newspapers made an appeal to the committee during the
games to reduce the price of admission by one-half, on the ground that heads of families could
not aord to pay such prices. The reduction, it was claimed, would fill the Stadion, and the committee was reminded that the object of the games was not to make money, but to have a joyous
festival for all. Yawning chasms of seats were indeed repellant. There was absolute safety if every
seat was filled. Nothing could give way and cause a panic, inasmuch as the seats of Peirus stone,
wood and marble were but a lining of the solid hillside beneath. But no reduction was made,
and when the interest was strong enough the Stadion was filled without it.
The forty thousand or more people who were present at the opening were enough to stir
that deep feeling caused by the presence of a multitude, the feeling which made Xerxes weep at
the Hellespont. When King George entered with his family, and walked the length of the Stadion, accompanied all the way by the acclamations of this mass, he is said to have declared his
emotion to have been so great that he could with diculty compose himself for the great historic act of reopening the Olympic Games after they had remained in abeyance for fifteen centuries.
The audience, like the athletes, was cosmopolitan. All the tongues of Europe were heard.
But all the foreigners together amounted to only a few thousands. At least nineteen-twentieths
of the mass were Greeks. For the reason that the greater part of the events of the Stadion were
won by foreigners the enthusiasm, which on such occasions is more important than mere numbers or even sharpness of competition, was during much of the time somewhat lacking. The
applause was generous, but not wild.
While at Olympia a mass of fellow townsmen watched each contestant with the keenest
interest, in the Athenian Stadion, even if the crowd had been tolerably evenly apportioned
according to the nationalities of the contestants, it is doubtful whether the intensity of feeling
between Frenchman and German, or Englishman and Greek, could have equalled that which
was evoked at Olympia between Dorian and Ionian. Indeed the closer the tie and the more
49
intimate the acquaintance the sharper often was the rivalry. A Mantinean could more easily
endure defeat at the hands of an Athenian or a Locrian than at the hands of a neighbor from
Tegea who might cross his path any day.
In the games at Athens the generous national rivalry was acknowledged by the displaying,
after each event, of the flag of the victors country on a pole erected at the entrance to the Stadion. Our own country became conspicuous at the outset. On Monday, in the first contest of
the games, Lane, of Princeton, won the first heat in the 00 meter race. This seemed almost glory
enough for one day; but Burke and Curtis proceeded to win the other two heats also. Next came
the triple jump, which was won by Connolly, and the first flag that was run up was ours. After
the intervention of another event, in which no American was entered, came the throwing of the
discus, in which Garrett beat the Greeks at what was regarded as their own game, and again the
American flag went up. Next came the 400 meter race, in which both heats were taken by Americans Jamison and Burke. In the five contests of the day, then, the Americans had won the only
two that were decided, and in two of the others they had won all the heats. It is no wonder that
the victories of the Americans became the talk of the town. The Hungarians, who alone of all
the athletes wore a distinctive mark on the street straw hats with uniform bands had scored
the first point in the favor of the populace by stepping forward and depositing a wreath at the
foot of the Avero statue at the unveiling. And they remained popular all through the festival.
But now they were relegated to the second place. The American athletes were the heroes of the
hour. They were lionized and followed by enthusiastic crowds wherever they went at evening.
One paper accounted for their prowess by the consideration that in their composite blood they
joined to the inherited athletic training of the Anglo-Saxon the wild impetuosity of the red-skin.
Even the Australian, who, on the second day won the ,500 meter race, was set down as one of
us. An educated Greek, whose notions of geography being derived from school days were probably a little vague, said to me, Australian, why it is the same. Being busy in watching another
American victory I had no time to set him right.
This second day went much like the first. Curtis began by winning one of the two heats in
the hurdle race, Hoyt coming in second. Then the long jump narrowed down to three Americans, who finished in the order, Clark, Garrett, Connolly. Then in the final heat in the 400 meter
race resulted in Burke first, Jamison second. Then, after a close contest, Garrett succeeded in
putting the shot farther than his Greek competitor, the favorite of the Stadion, whom the crowd
called Hermes, from his fine form and motions.
The Americans were also evidently great favorites with the audience, partly perhaps because
they lived so far away as to take the place occupied in Homer by the blamless thiopian, almost
beyond the sphere of their jealousies and antipathies. An old priest who sat two seats in front of
me kept turning and asking, with smiles, Is that one of yours? adding, after an armative
answer, Yours are doing well. The danger now was that if the few American spectators made
too much demonstration this good-will might be turned to envy.
Three times again this second day the American flag went up, and not until the fifth event,
the lifting of heavy weights, did another flag reach the masthead during these two days; then the
Danish flag was displayed for the victory in lifting with two hands, and the British flag for the
victory with one hand. In the sixth and last event of the second day, the ,500 meter race, for
the first time an American was beaten by a man of another nation, Blake coming in second, while
the first place was taken by Flack, an Australian, but that was the same thing.
It was almost a relief when Wednesday was given up to contests outside the Stadion, and
when on Thursday the Germans came out strong on their favorite Turn exercise, their squad
excelling the Greeks in the accomplishment of more dicult exercises even when the Greeks
squads kept better form. The Germans also showed some brilliant individual practice. On this
day the Greeks also succeeded in getting their flag to the masthead.
50
But the gymnastic exercises did not fill the Stadion as the running matches had done, and
the individual contest in vaulting the wooden horse, with twenty contestants, and the horizontal bar contest, with about the same number, nearly emptied it. The victories of this day
depended on the judgment of a committee, and however fair the award might be, it was, after
all, a matter of opinion, and the spectators seeing that the award resulted sometimes from discussion and compromise, kept their own opinion, which was sometimes at variance with that
which found expression at the masthead.
The real athletic contest is that which is decided by measurements and time-keeping beyond
the possibility of dispute, aording results which the spectators can see for themselves. Such is
pre-eminently the run. This, in the present games, as always and everywhere, evoked the keenest interest. It is explicable that for over fifty years at Olympia the games consisted simply of
running matches, and that they were always regarded as the central events. It is no wonder that
the great apostle, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, was so impressed by this feature of the Greek games
that he is constantly alluding to it, saying, So run, Ye did run well, I press toward the mark.
In the Athenian Stadion the cloud of witnesses also was brought vividly to mind.
With this reassembling in the Stadion on Friday came a heightening of the good will
between the Greeks and the Americans, caused by the American athletes displaying little Greek
flags besides their own and the distinctive marks of orange and black for Princeton and the unicorns head for the Boston Athletic Association. There came also a repetition of the same story
of American victories. The first event was the final heat in the 00 meter race, which was won
by Burke, with Homann, German second. Then the competition in the high jump narrowed
down, like the long jump of Tuesday, to three Americans Clark, Garrett and Connolly, and
was finally won by Clark. Then followed the final heat of the hurdle race, won by Curtis in an
exciting contest, the Englishman, Goulding, being neck and neck with him at the last hurdle.
Then came the pole vault, which was immeasurably drawn out by the bar being lifted inch by
inch for Greek competitors, long before the Americans, Hoyt and Tyler, had felt called upon to
take o their sweaters and really compete. These two finally settled the contest at a height about
a foot and a half above that at which the other contestants had struggled. When Hoyt had won,
the King requested him to try a still higher notch, 3.30 meters, which he accomplished to the
Kings evident satisfaction. But even this was below Hoyts own previous record. It is worthy of
note that in the whole course of games no world record was broken.
Three times already before this the American flag, and no other, had gone up on this day.
A detachment of the crew of the San Francisco, who had not, like the other Americans, got tired
of cheering on former days, roared lustily everytime the flag was displayed. But with the polevaulting America rested its case; and even before its flag went up for this fourth time the great
event of this great day came in, preventing envy, and stopping for a time the talk of American
invincibility.
The Greeks had waited long for their turn. On Tuesday they thought that in putting the
shot their man had won, whereas he had not reached by several inches a mark attained by Garrett in one of his earlier trials. For the first time one then felt the real heaving of the heart of the
multitude. Misled by the applause and sharing the general impression, the man intrusted with
the posting of the record put up the number of the Greek as the winner. The revulsion of feeling which came with the speedy correction of the error was all the more painful. It was not until
a quarter past five on Thursday that the Greek flag was up, when the judges decided that
Metropoulos had surpassed the others in the gymnastic exercise with the rings. Then the
dierence was made manifest between generous applause hitherto bestowed on foreigners and
real delight in victory, all the more intense for the long delay and the disappointment. Then it
was that if the seats had not rested upon solid earth they might have come down. The young
victor after being carried about on the shoulders of the crowd went to the dressing-room, kissed
51
by his father and brother as he passed them. At last the Greeks had an Olympionikes, although
it was only in a minor feat of gymnastics. But greater things were yet to come.
The run from Marathon was felt by all the Greeks to be the principal event of the games.
National pride would have been deeply touched at losing it. Some of those who had practised
this run in anticipation would have been almost, if not quite, content to reach the goal, and like
the ancient runner on the day of the great battle, shout out with their remaining breath, chairete
nikomen, and die.
For this run there were eighteen entries, twelve of them Greeks. Germany, France, Hungary, the United States, and Australia were also represented. Stories were circulated regarding
the prowess of the Australian and the American, who had come in first and second in the ,500
meter race. A mile run, to be sure, was a dierent thing from coursing that long road from
Marathon. Still the Greeks were anxious. The men started from Marathon at two oclock on Friday, to run into the Stadion to a string stretched out at the Sphenodone, a distance of forty kilometers, or about twenty-five miles. The one hundred thousand people waiting for them in and
about the Stadion could know nothing of the stages of the contest, how three foreigners, the
dreaded Australian and the dreaded American, and even before them, the Frenchman, took the
lead and held it up to a point within a few miles of Athens; how they one by one then felt the
awful strain of the agony, and at last succumbed easily to anyone who seemed to have retained
more strength than they; and how others, fiercely laboring, came one by one into the first
places stages afterward so graphically told by those who watched them.
Shortly after half-past four a cannonshot, the signal that the leading runner was approaching electrified the mass. The pole vaulting could not go on. After awhile a man wearing the Greek
colors, light blue and white, was seen struggling towards the Stadion amid the yells of myriads
of throats, Elleen! Elleen! (A Greek! A Greek!), and as he made his way through the Stadion
the crowd went mad for joy. The stalwart Crown Prince, the president of the games, and the
still more stalwart Prince George, the referee, led or rather almost carried, this victor before the
royal seat in the Sphenodone, and the usually quiet king himself had meanwhile nearly ripped
o the visor of his naval uniform cap in waving it wildly in the air. Pity it would have been had
a foreigner won this race. None felt this more keenly than the foreign athletes themselves. All
who were present will remember this commotion of the crowd in the Stadion in that moment
of victory as one of the greatest scenes of their lives. In the gentle light of the sun of Attica, as
it inclines toward the horizon, a light not known elsewhere in the world, the magnificent gift of
Avero, the new Stadion and yet the old receives its real dedication. Athletics were crowned
in it as never before in modern times. Here was an inspiration for a painter.
The one coveted honor of the games was fairly won by the Greeks, and held almost beyond
the reach of envy. Shortly after the winners arrival came two other Greeks, and then an Hungarian. The next five in order were also Greeks. It was a Greek victory with a vengeance.
The winner, who accomplished the run in the remarkably short time of two hours, fiftyeight minutes and fifty seconds, is Spyridon Loues, a well-to-do farmer, twenty-four years old,
from Marousi, a village on the road from Athens to Kephissia, and near to the latter place. He
was one of the latest entries for the race. Just before going out to Marathon on Friday he is said
to have taken the sacrament from the priest of his native village, saying that he wished to invoke
the aid of heaven in his great struggle.
It is dicult to ascertain just what Loues has been doing since the race. A cycle of myths
is already growing up about him. It is not uninteresting to be present at this genesis of myths
in which the newspapers play a considerable part. It was reported of Loues that he declined all
gifts oered him, and declared that all he wished was the royal clemency for his brother, who
was in prison. But since he has asserted in print that he has no brother in prison, and since others have asserted for him that he has no brother at all, that myth is for the present disposed of
52
as far as Athens is concerned; but who can stop a fiction that is gone out into all the earth? The
same may be said of another story published in the papers here in regard to Garrett, to the eect
that after his victory in putting the shot he send home to Princeton this telegram, Guskos conquered Europe, but I conquered the world. A newspaper man subsequently confessed that this
telegram was a fiction of his, but he took great pride in it; for he said it was what Garrett ought
to have sent. It was also reported in the papers that the American athletes just before running
and jumping bowed their heads and said American prayers.
But to return to Loues, what seems to be known about him is that while everybody in Athens
wanted to get hold of him and give him something watches, suits of clothes, freedom of barber shops and cafs for life, in short, to spoil him he hurried away to his native village to share
his happiness with his most intimate friends. On Sunday, dressed in fustanella, he took breakfast at the royal palace with the other athletes and members of the committee in charge of the
games and bore himself with becoming modesty, but with composure, even in the presence of
the King. As he went out he was met at the door by his father, who, as they drove slowly through
the streets, enjoyed his sons glory so visibly that one hoped it might be as continuous as that of
one of the old Olympic victors, and that he might remain also as modest as before the victory.
If he does fulfil the latter wish his victory in this will be even greater than that already won. Of
course he has not been able to prevent cafs from being named after him, but has refused an
oer of 25,000 drachmas from one man and 00 drachmas a month for life from another, partly,
at least, from a desire to keep his amateur standing as an athlete, and perhaps run again from
Marathon in 900.
The thorough and unquestioned amateur spirit of the whole contest is most conspicuously
shown in this case of Loues; but besides this a charge made in one of the papers that a German,
Schumann, who won the wrestling match, was a professional, was thoroughly sifted and disproved. The entire absence of betting also is another pleasant feature in which the games diered
from many other athletic contests of the modern world. Athletics moved on a high plane, and
were carried on with a dignity that ought not soon to be forgotten.
The amateur spirit of the occasion was emphasized again at the final scene, the distribution of the prizes. Although the bestowal of a prize can never equal in interest the winning of
it, still an enormous crowd had gathered in the Stadion on Wednesday morning after the disappointment of Tuesday. It was the gala day of the festival, with no anxious straining of mind
or muscle, but pervaded by general gladness. The prizes looked very simple, the committee having decided to award no prizes of value. But there lay one prize which an Olympian might well
covet, branches of wild olive, fresh from Olympia, to be given to each victor along with his medal
and diploma. Those who had won two contests received two branches. When the king had
given to each victor his prizes with fitting words and smiles, the crowd appropriated the remainder of the pile of branches. Every twig and every leaf was treasured up as a souvenir of the occasion.
The Crown Prince had oered a silver cup to the victor with the discus. The king for a
moment gave place to the Crown Princess, the sister of the Emperor of Germany, who presented
this beautiful cup to Garrett. Loues also must needs have something more than the corruptible
crown. He received the magnificant silver cup given by the Frenchman Breal, as well as an ancient
vase portraying a race, which he afterwards, with rare good sense, presented to the museum. The
appearance of Loues was again the signal for the crowd to turn frantic with joy. Greek flags
appeared everywhere, from the big one at the masthead to the little ones carried up into the air
by numerous doves. Flags and flowers literally filled the air.
As the participants and patrons of the games reflect over the events of the ten days their
unanimous feeling is well expressed in the phraseology employed by one of their number. I am
an optimist, said he, and I always expected a success but I never expected such a success. Greece
53
has not only won the Marathon run, but it has gained a standing among the nations of the world,
whose delegates will never forget their reception here. It is a small and poor kingdom, but like
ancient Hellas, great in qualities of soul.
During and since the games events have in one way taken an unexpected turn. So elated
were the Greeks with the happy way in which everything was going that they early began to
think of having the next meet also at Athens. The thought perhaps did not originate with them.
It was reported at first as a suggestion of England, coming as an expression of the Prince of Wales.
Nobody seems to have thought of the incongruity of England, which was hardly represented in
the present contest, being the proposer; but the proposal was eagerly caught up. King George
was only voicing the sentiment of which the air was full, when, at the breakfast given to the athletes at the palace, he expressed the hope that, in view of the success of the games the strangers
who have honored Greece with their presence, and who have been so cordially received, will fix
upon our country as a European meeting-place of the nations, as the continuous and abiding
field of the Olympic Games. This utterance was seconded a few days later by the following
memorial, drawn up and signed by all the American athletes:
To His Royal Highness, Constantine, Crown Prince of Greece.
We, the American participants in the International Olympic Games of Athens, wish to
express to you, and through you to the Committee and to the people of Greece, our heartfelt
appreciation of the great kindness and warm hospitality of which we have been continually the
recipients during our stay here.
We also desire to acknowledge our entire satisfaction with all the arrangements for the conduct of the games.
The existence of the Stadion as a structure so uniquely adapted to its purpose; the proved
ability of Greece to competently administer the games; and above all, the fact that Greece is the
original home of the Olympic Games; all these considerations force upon us the conviction that
these games should never be removed from their native soil.
This memorial, signed also by many resident Americans, had all the more significance from
the fact that America had already been designated by the International Athletic Committee as
the place for the games in 904.
But this movement was especially unwelcome to the French, who had counted upon having the games as an ornament to their great exhibition at Paris in 900. Baron Coubertin, the
member of the International Committee for France, and perhaps more than any other one man
the originator of the whole project of the revival of the Olympic Games, was too good a diplomatist to give up this great advantage without an eort. In a semi-ocial conference with the
Crown Prince he proposed what he wished to have regarded as a compliance with the general desire: that Athens should have its quadrennial games, and that foreign athletes should
be invited to take part in them; but that these games should be called the Athenaia, as a
more suitable name, and that they should take place in 898, 902 and so on. That the International Games already projected should be held according to the programme orignially
drawn up by the committee: in Paris, in 900; in America, in 904; Stockholm 908; London
or Berlin being suggested as the next place, all the great capitals to have their turns sooner or
later.
It did not require much perspicacity on the part of the Greeks to see that this was only a
seeming compliance, and that the Athenaia would be overshadowed by the games at the great
capitals which would bear the name Olympic Games. With them it was Aut Csar, aut nullus.
While Coubertin falls back on an international agreement, the Greeks plead that not only
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is a neutral country the natural gathering-place, but that contrary policy is confronted by a danger threatening to shipwreck the games so successfully launched, viz., that if the games are held
in Paris in 900, Germany will never tolerate waiting twelve years longer for her turn, will perhaps even take umbrage at France being preferred for the first place.
From all this it seems clear that the Olympic Games, wherever they are to be held and
this rests with the International Committee have become the prize in an international contest, and that it is extremely doubtful whether America secures that prize in 904.
Scribners Magazine 20, 3 (September 896): 267286
THE OLYMPIC GAMES BY A COMPETITOR

AND PRIZE WINNER
G. S. Robertson
To those who followed closely the preliminaries to the revival of the Olympic Meeting, it
appeared certain that the games would be a disastrous failure. This was not the case, though the
nature of the success obtained can scarcely have corresponded with the expectations of the promoters.
These games diered from other athletic meetings in one most important feature they
did not stand or fall with the excellence of their athletics. Their promoters obviously expected
that prodigious athletic results would be obtained, they expected to see the best athletes of the
world perform the toilsome journey to Athens to win the olive branch of victory. It was apparently forgotten that few athletes are classical scholars, and that still fewer have either the time
or the money to make so long a voyage. Then, too, what we may call the international perspective of the committee was at fault. They seemed to suppose that the participation of all nations
was of equal importance to the success of the games. They did not consider, or, if they did, they
gave no indication of having done so, that every nation except England and America is still in
an absolutely prehistoric condition with regard to athletic sports. Unless England and America
took a large share in the Olympic meeting, it was bound to be an athletic failure. In this matter the committee pursued the suicidal policy of devoting the greater share of their attention to
Continental athletes. The original programme and book of rules was printed in French. Later
on there appeared an edition in German. This, however, was disowned as unocial by a member of the committee to the present writer, though as a matter of fact it had been sent to the
Cambridge Athletic Club as an ocial document. It diered in some not unimportant particulars from the French edition. But the really notable point is, that no edition of the rules was
ever issued in English till very shortly before the games, when a private firm produced one. This,
when we consider the importance of English and American athletes to the success of the enterprise, is really an extraordinary fact. It seems as though in the committees eyes true internationality in athletics was equivalent to international mediocrity.
Of all Anglo-Saxon athletes those at present in residence at Oxford and Cambridge were
the most likely to be able to take part in the meeting. The Easter Vacation was exactly suited
for a visit to Athens, and the English University man would, of all men, require the least pressure to induce him to pay a visit to Greece. What was done to persuade Oxford and Cambridge
men to compete in the Olympic Games? Practically nothing. Two Englishmen represented England on the international committee, but neither of them had any present connection with the
Universities. An obscure notice, indeed, was posted up in Oxford and a paragraph inserted in
Summary Articles (Robertson)
55
an unimportant Oxford journal, but it was not till March, so far as can be ascertained, that any
direct appeal was made to the Presidents of the University Athletic Clubs. Even then the inducements and persuasion directed to them were of the mildest nature. It is, therefore, unjust to blame
English athletes in general and University athletes in particular for not having taken part in
greater numbers in these games. When an athletic meeting is scarcely advertised at all, and when
an invitation to competitors from a certain district is markedly omitted, it is only fair that they
should conclude, firstly, that the meeting is unimportant, and secondly that their presence at it
is not desired. Of the method in which the committee dealt with the athletes of America, we
are not in a position to speak. The manner in which American athletics are organized, and the
system by which athletic teams form part of great social clubs enabled a fully equipped team of
American athletes to visit Athens. The Boston Athletic Club furnished the greater portion of
the team, and there were also two or three excellent athletes from Princeton College. We may
venture to say, however, that the eort which this American team made to come to Athens, was
not due to any overwhelming persuasion on the part of the international committee, but to the
natural enterprise of the American people and to the peculiarly perfect method in which athletics are organized in the United States.
English athletes, seemingly, waited to be invited to go to Athens and consequently, never
went. Those, who did go, did not go as representatives of any club, but, for the most part as
private pleasure-seekers. They won the 800 and ,500 meter races, the single-handed weightlifting, the single and double lawn tennis, a victory in mousik, and a second place in several events.
Their total number was six, of whom one was resident in Athens. The bulk of the competitors
was, therefore, Greek and Continental, and it may be safely asserted that their performances were
not of the highest class. In fact, wherever an Anglo-Saxon appeared as a competitor, he defeated
his foreign opponents in practically every case. The French, who, we fear, were largely responsible for the mismanagement of the international arrangements, sent several athletes, who were
lamentably unsuccessful. In the 800 meters race Lermusiaux, the only even passable runner
among them, contrived to win a heat in very poor time, but none of their other runners did anything. Their successes were confined to bicycling and fencing, the latter a form of sport in which
they have long excelled, the former a kind of exercise, by many scarcely admitted to the domain
of sport, in which they are rapidly conquering a kingdom. The French, in fact, have not progressed so fast in the cultivation of athletics as other Continental nations, who have adopted the
practice of them. The reason is somewhat hard to discover, but is probably to be found in a certain inpatience and lack of necessary physique.
The Germans wisely confined themselves for the most part to those gymnastic exercises in
which they are so extraordinarily proficient. Three of their party competed in other forms of
sport; of these Hofmann of Giessen was a good second in the 00 meters, while Schumann, a
little, elderly man, seemd to compete in every event. On the strength of this we have seen him
termed the best all-round athlete at the games, but, in reality, he would have served his reputation better, had he refrained from exhibiting himself in many of the events in which he competed. His victory in the wrestling, however, was gained by sheer pluck and presence of mind,
and his gymnastic performances were excellent.
Here we may notice incidentally another fault in the organization of the meeting. This arose
from a incorrect idea of the relative importance of *dierent branches of athletics. It may be
replied that, if any event is once admitted into the programme of the games, it should be treated
as on an equality with all other events. We do not agree with this view. The climax was perhaps
reached in connection with the vaulting horse. There were two olive branches, medals and diplomas granted for this exercise, one for leaping the horse, the other for maneuvering upon a horse
with pommels. The exercises performed in the first of these divisions seemed to the athletic and
ungymnastic eye to be puerile, and those in the second division little less so. One would at least
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have expected to see some fine running vaulting from a springboard, as in the English gymnasiums. Yet the winners received the same olive branch as the winner of the 00 meters; even the
seconds in these absurd gyrations gained the same laurel branch as the second in the Hurdles.
They were proclaimed Olympian victors, they returned to their native Germany and Switzerland with a halo of glory, while the second in the ,500 meters, for instance, a fine runner though
quite untrained, had to recross the Atlantic bearing with him the consciousness of merit alone.
Of course there can be no graduation of prizes for single events; a winner is a winner, however
unimportant be the feat which he has accomplished. But we would suggest that at the next meeting several of these gymnastic and other events should be combined, and a prize awarded for an
aggregate of marks. An Olympic wreath is far too precious a thing to be squandered on good
form on hopping over a horse or swarming up a rope.
The Germans displayed magnificent style in their squad exercises in the horizontal and parallel bars. In the former case they won without contest; indeed opposition would have been hopeless. In the latter set of exercises, they were opposed by two Greek teams, which performed what
may be described as kindergarten evolutions, in perfect time. It seemed to us that any ordinary
body of men could have done as well with two days practice. The Germans, on the other hand,
performed dicult exercises in beautiful style, but naturally with a few mistakes. They were at
once awarded the prize. The Greek public then, perhaps on this one occasion only, forgot its
good manners, and displayed its ignorance of gymnastics, by greeting the decision with yells of
adika.
The Hungarians were the only nation, except the Americans, which attempted to send an
all-round team. They certainly possess the art of self-advertisement to a very high degree. They
and their blue and white ribbons seemed to be ubiquitous; if one did not meet them driving in
a cab with the Hungarian flag at mast-head, one found them blocking the trac in a compact
line stretched across the Rue de Stade. In company with the Philharmonic Society of Coreyra
they laid a solemn wreath at the foot of M. Avero s statue on the Sunday before the games.
Unfortunately their athletic performances did not justify their conspicuousness, scarcely indeed
their visit. They won one or two second places in the heats, and one of them finished fourth in
the Marathon Race, but, as a matter of fact, their only good performer was a swimmer, who
seemed to be really first-class. Wonderful tales had been told of their high jumper, but he did
not appear. It is noticeable, by the way, that the German high jumper stood at attention for half
a minute after each jump, apparently supposing that it was more important to appear to be undisturbed after a jump than to clear a respectable height.
We have not yet described the doings of the English athletes. Mr. Flack, an Australian member of the London Athletic Club, carried o the 800 and ,500 meter races without any diculty.
He runs with the most perfect ease, and with a stride of superlative length; indeed the Greek
journals described his lower limbs as superhuman. Mr. Goulding, of Gloucester, was undoubtedly a better hurdler than the American who beat him. His defeat was due partly to the fact that
the race was run upon cinders, in the American style, to which he was unaccustomed, and partly
to a mistake at the start, which lost him at least two yards. He was only beaten by a foot. Mr.
Elliott won the single-handed weight-lifting without trouble, but in the double-handed lift he
was defeated by an extraordinarily good performer, Jensen, of Denmark. Mr. Gmelin, of Oxford,
entered at the last moment for the 400 meters, and gained second place. In the bicycle race from
Marathon we were represented by a servant of the British Embassy at Athens. It seems that he
would have won had not he collided with a fellow-servant who was accompanying him. A Greek
then proved the victor. We are sorry to have to record that it was previously attempted to exclude
these two Englishmen from amateur games at Athens on the ground that they were servants,
though no one could cast the slightest slur upon their amateurism. This was the more discreditable in the light of their success when they were finally admitted. Mr. Boland, of Christ Church,
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Oxford, who happened to be in Athens as a visitor, purchased all requisites on the spot, and was
victorious in the single, and, in company with a German, in the double lawn-tennis.
The record of the doings of the American team is practically an account of victory unrelieved by defeat. They were, as they should have been, invincible. Not only did they win almost
every event for which they entered, but they also succeeded in gaining second, and sometimes
both second and third places in addition. Mr. Garrett, of Princeton, won the Disc and the
Weight; Mr. Burke, of Boston, the 00 and 400 meters; Mr. Clark, of Harvard, the high and
long jumps. Mr. Hoyt, of Harvard, the pole-jump, Mr. Curtis, of Boston, the Hurdles, and Mr.
Connolly, of Suolk, the triple jump. In the pole-jump and ,500 meters they gained second
place, and in the high and long jumps both second and third places. It must be remembered
that the team was formed solely to compete in track and field athletics, though one member
entered for the swimming, in which he was not successful. Two Americans at large, the brothers Paine, accomplished striking performances in the revolver shooting, winning two events
with scores of 442 in each as against scores of only 205 and 285 made by a Greek and a Dane.
The other foreign countries sent few athletes of note. A Swiss, resident in Greece, was victorious on the vaulting horse with pommels, an Austrian won the 500 meters swimming race,
and a Dane the two-handed lifting of weights. The only Italian competitor, who walked from
Milan to Athens, in order, as he supposed, to get himself into proper training, was disqualified
on his arrival.
It now remains for us to discuss the most interesting point of all the form shown by the
Greeks themselves. It seems to be an undoubted fact that, except for throwing a primitive discus, a primitive hop, step and jump, and a modicum of lawn-tennis, athletics were absolutely
unknown to the Greeks till two years ago. Then the nation was seized with a remarkable fit of
athleticism. A number of clubs were started, and athletics have been pursued with unabated
vigour ever since. At the present moment one sees athletics being practised almost at every street
corner. Sometimes one discovers infants putting a rude weight, some six times too heavy for them;
at other times one finds every man and boy in a quarter of the town long-jumping, with a
policeman and a soldier to keep the course clear. And there seems to be every likelihood that
the enthusiasm will continue. The result so far has been that the Greeks have obtained a very
notable degree of success, considering the shortness of their training. This is the more remarkable if we consider the disadvantages against which they have had to contend. Their physical
gifts do not favour athletics, their disposition is on the whole opposed to active exercise, and
their climate renders violent exertion dicult. The great danger is lest they may be led to suppose that they are already a great athletic nation, and do not any longer need elaborate training.
It might be thought that their defeats in the Stadium would have persuaded them that they are
not yet far advanced in athletic skill, but popular enthusiasm is never logical. Their journalists
tend to encourage any nascent feeling of conceit which they may possess. They would not admit
for a moment that a Greek over middle height is an exception, that Greeks are usually short and
slightly corpulent in figure, and that they perhaps require more training than most nations to
induce in them an athletic habit. In fact it is a commonplace for them to compare a well-built
Greek to the Hermes of Praxiteles. No modern Greek could possibly resemble Praxiteles Hermes in the least.
We must give Greece full credit for what she has already accomplished in athletics, but it
would be fatal to forget to qualify our admission by remembering that her progress is only great
in comparison to the shortness of the time which it has occupied. To deal with their performances in detail they won undoubted victories in the rings and rope-climbing, in which their
champions easily distanced their rivals, and in the weight putting Gouskos made a very good
appearance. It was interesting to see how his style improved during the competition, owing to
his careful imitation of his American rival. The latter only won by an inch, but was putting two
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or three feet below his proper form. This was due to the size of the square, which had sides of
two meters, and therefore corresponded with no known rules. The blunder was the more remarkable as this event purported to be held under English rules.
In the Disc-throwing the Greeks were beaten, contrary to all expectation, by Mr. Garrett,
of Princeton. It is true that he only won by a few inches, but it is not true that he was not the
best disc-thrower in the contest. The Greeks had practised with the disc for a considerable time,
and indeed it is an ancestral sport of theirs. The American, whether he had practised with anything resembling a disc before or not, undoubtedly had never seen a disc like that with which
he threw till the morning of the contest. What, then, is the explanation? Simply this the best
of the Greek throwers was not really good at all. 95 feet is an absurdly short distance to throw
a flat missile of under four and a half pounds. Had English or American athletes practised the
sport, the records would have been nearer 30 feet than 95 feet. The American won simply
because he was accustomed to the throwing of weights, and knew how to bring his strength and
weight to bear on the missile. The Greek had brought the knack of throwing to greater perfection, but one could see that he did not know how to apply any large portion of his strength to
the throw.
We now come to the great glory of the Greeks the victory in the Marathon Race. This
event was reckoned the chief feature of the meeting, and in many ways it deserved its position.
It possessed greater historical interest than any other of the competitions, and was, no doubt,
also the greatest criterion of endurance. The race was won by a Greek, who had hitherto no reputation. The second was a Greek, who had already won one of the trial races. It certainly seemed
to the impartial spectator that the winner was nothing of a runner. He arrived in the Stadium
with a stride of a foot or so, but apparently not much exhausted. The second man arrived in
excellent style, seven minutes behind him. We can only explain the fact by supposing that the
winner succeeded by monumental perseverance at a moderate speed, though, strangely enough,
his time for the distance was really first-rate. It must be remembered, however, in comparing
his time with the track-record, that a road course is very favourable to fast times the remarkable performances recorded in the Eton Mile are sucient proof of this. Now we do not wish
to minimise the Greek victory, but only seek to regard it fairly. A statement was made in a daily
journal not long since, by one who writes in true Greek style under the initials J.G., that the
well-trained English and American athletes had been defeated by the Greeks who had had no
real training. This is an absurd misrepresentation. Does J.G. really suppose that the English
system of training cannot render a man capable of finishing in a race of twenty-five miles along
a road, but that that feat is reserved for the heaven-gifted and nature-nursed Greek athlete? As
a matter of fact, the Englishman arrived in Athens ten days, the American five days before the
race. Neither of them did anything which could possibly be termed regular training during their
stay, neither of them had seen the course till they drove to Marathon the night before the race,
and certainly neither of them had ever run over it. Their lack of training was shown in the fact
that the Englishman ran in splendid form till six kilometers from home, when he broke down
entirely; the American had given up a little earlier. The Greeks, on the other hand, had practised over the course for months, and had all been engaged in trial-races over the distance. Every
cross-country runner must know the inestimable value of such experience. Let, then, the Greeks
have every credit for their diligence in training, and the excellent form which they showed, but
let them not be led by irresponsible journalists to claim a measure of credit which is not due to
them. The honour they have gained by the progress made in so short a time is great enough to
enable them to dispense with false claims to distinction.
Our criticism of the athletic performances from a national standpoint has already shown
in part that they did not reach a very high standard. The 800 meters race, for instance, equivalent to five and a half yards less than half a mile, was only accomplished in two minutes eleven
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seconds. The ,500 meters, one hundred and twenty and a half yards less than a mile, occupied
four minutes thirty-three and one-fifth seconds. We should have expected a half-mile in an international meeting to have been run at least well within the two minutes, and 800 meters, therefore in four-fifths of a second or so less. ,500 meters ought not to have occupied more than
four minutes eight seconds. The 400 meters (437 yards) occupied fifty-four and one-fifth seconds a moderately good time would have been fifty-one seconds. But in the times made in
the longer races, two considerations have to be taken into account, one of which applies also to
the shorter races. In the first place, the track was not in a satisfactory condition. The English
ground-man, who was responsible for it, naturally found it dicult to obtain the necessary materials in Athens, and, as a result, the track was not laid down suciently long before the meeting to enable it to be brought to proper perfection. Even after it was completed diculties still
had to be faced, especially the insuciency of the water supply. At the time of the games, therefore, the track seemed to be over-hard underneath, while it was loose and treacherous on the
surface. The ground man is not to be blamed at all for this; his energy and devotion did all that
was possible to do for the success of the meeting. In the second place, the shape of the track rendered fast times impossible. In ancient times, when the two limbs of the track were practically
parallel, and the runners had to turn round a sharp corner at either end, fast running must have
been even more dicult. Even in the present Stadium, where the track has been laid out in a
more gradual ellipse, we calculated that the runners lost two seconds in every round, owing to
the turns, in the two longest races, and three seconds in the 400 meter race. Thus we must make
an allowance of four seconds in the 800 meters, and eight seconds in the fifteen hundred. The
three seconds in the 400 meters is not at all an excessive allowance. The runners literally seemed
to come to a standstill as compared with their previous pace, when they arrived at the bends.
The record of twelve seconds for 00 meters (09.3 yards) was only average. Mr. Burke, who has
competed against us with great success in America, could do much better under more favorable
conditions. A fortnights travelling does not produce a good state of training. The 0 meters
(20 5 yards) Hurdle Race took considerably longer than one would have expected, judging from
the excellence of the competitors; the result may have been due in some measure to the unusual
arrangements of the hurdles.
The results obtained in the disc-throwing and weight-putting we have already criticized
suciently. The jumping was the most satisfactory portion of the athletics. The triple jump is
not customary in England, but to the unaccustomed eye Mr. Connollys performance seemed
as good as it could be. For the pole-jump America had sent over two of her best performers, and
the height cleared, 0 ft. 93 4 in., does not compare unfavourably with the record of ft. 5 in.
for this style of vaulting (without climbing). Mr. Clark, of Harvard, peformed splendidly both
in the high and long jumps; in the former he cleared 5 ft. 4 in., 6 inches more than his opponents, in the latter 20 ft. 93 4 in. The latter performance is not remarkably good on the face of
it, but Mr. Clark in reality jumped a great deal further. Unfortunately the committee were
under an extraordinary delusion, which is not unknown in England, as to the manner in which
a long jump should be judged. They attempted to decide after each jump, whether the competitors toe had projected over the take-o board, and consequently disqualified Mr. Clarks
best jumps. Everyone ought to know that the only criterion of a competitor having passed the
board is failure in his jump. No one who passes the board can make a good jump. Even if it were
possible, which it is not, to judge whether half an inch or his toe projects beyond the board, it
stands to reason that he has taken fairly o the board, if his jump succeeds; and therefore it should
be allowed. The results of this absurd judging was that the American competitors were forced
for safety to jump from six inches or even a foot behind the line.
We may now turn from the athletic results of the games to the organization, and first to
the organization of the athletics themselves. It was only to be expected from the inexperience of
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the committee that mistakes would be made. Mistakes were made, but they were not very serious. The greatest uncertainty was always allowed to prevail as to the events which would take
place on any particular day, and as to the order in which they would take place. Competitors,
had, as a rule, to rely upon the slippery authority of the Greek newspapers. Again, the committee had a firm belief in the inspired character of its own programmes. It desired them to be
regarded as absolutely unalterable, and, when any impossible arrangement which they had made
was pointed out to them, they required unlimited persuasion before they could be induced to
alter it. For instance, the 800 and ,500 meter races were to have been run in the heats (the former was actually so run, though there were only nine competitors), and the finals of both were
fixed for the same day as the final of the Marathon Race. An Englishman was engaged in all three
races, won two of them, and made a bold bid for victory in the third. It is needless to say that, had
the committee been allowed to persevere, he would probably only have been able to run in one.
Much time was wasted in the drawing of places for heats and other purposes. The competitors were expected to attend at the general oce for an unlimited period over and over
again. Time is of little value in Greece. There was considerable delay between the various competitions in the Stadium, and in the course of the competitions themselves. This was due, to
some extent, to the distance of the dressing-rooms from the arena, fully 200 yards, and to the
lack of accommodation for competitors in the arena itself. The high and pole-jumps commenced
at ridiculously low heights, and became inexpressibly tedious. The latter, indeed, lasted no less
than an hour and three-quarters.
All these were, after all, minor blemishes, which were inseparable from the holding of a
colossal meeting like the Olympic games in a hitherto unathletic country. Some of the confusion arose from the co-existence of two committees, the Greek organizing committee and the
international athletic committee. The former had general superintendence before and during the
games, the latter was confined to judging the contests. It was inevitable that the two committees should clash now and then and interfere with one anothers arrangements, but such collisions were infrequent. The English and American competitors owe a great debt to Messrs. Finnis and Wheeler, their representatives on the committee, for the admirable way in which they
protected their interests when it was necessary.
But we are anxious to admit that the Greek organizers dealt with foreign athletes throughout in the most sportsmanlike way. Exceptions were very few, though in one instance we cannot but maintain that the right course was not pursued. A trial race had been held to select the
Greeks who should compete in the race from Marathon. The race was run and the team selected.
Entries for the Olympic Games closed, for Greeks, a fortnight before their commencement. A
few days only before the games the Greek authorities seem to have become alarmed at the
prospect of foreign competition in the Marathon Race, and especially at the fame of Mr. Flack,
and, like Nicias before the last sea-fight at Syracuse, thought that perhaps they had not yet done
all that was possible. They held another trial race, selected a second team, which included the
ultimate winner, and made a post-entry of it. We fail to see how this proceeding can possibly
be justified. Such an action as this, however, was quite exceptional; as a rule, the treatment of
foreign competitors by the Greek committee and the Greek people was extraordinarily liberal.
While the organization of the actual athletics was, with the above-mentioned exceptions,
wonderful under the circumstances, the organization of the meeting generally seemed to us to
be very nearly perfect, and in connection, with the organization as a whole, we should not omit
to mention the untiring eorts of the three eldest Princes, whose absolute devotion for we can
call it nothing less was of supreme importance to the general result. The Stadium holds something over sixty thousand spectators and on two occasions it was full to the uttermost corner.
Yet we never observed any confusion or disagreeable incidents of any kind. There is no doubt
that the Greeks are a patient people and allow themselves to be organized. The committee were
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fortunate in not having to deal with a north-country football crowd. The Stadium was divided
into blocks and tickets were obtainable for a particular block. Within that block no definite seats
were reserved, and consequently to obtain a good seat in ones block it was necessary to arrive
in the Stadium at a very early hour. But, inasmuch as the Athenian public, like the visitors at
Bayreuth, lived for nothing but the games so long as they lasted, this expenditure of time was
no great disadvantage. Perhaps, however, it may be permissible to suggest that on the next occasion the tickets for a particular day should be on sale a little earlier, and also that it would bring
the games more into touch with ancient custom if the upper portion of the seats at least were
not charged for.
The behaviour of the crowd under very trying circumstances was most exemplary. The
Greeks suered one disappointment after another. Yet even when they lost the Disc, they showed
no vigorous signs of disapproval. This may have been partly due to their temperament, which
is not in the least emotional, but must also be attributed to a great extent to gentlemanly feeling. A still greater trial of their patience came when the Greeks number was hoisted by accident
as winner in putting the weight, soon to be replaced by that of the American.
But as the public seemed disinclined for vigorous expressions of disapproval, so it also was
incapable of expressing very great enthusiasm. Much has been written in the papers about the
tremendous scene at the conclusion of the race from Marathon. The coup doeil indeed was surpassingly fine, but the outward expression of emotion really amounted to very little. It seemed
to us that the five thousand people who were present at the conclusion of the Oxford and Yale
sports in 894, displayed, proportionately, much more outward enthusiasm than the one hundred and twenty thousand people who witnessed the termination of the Marathon race in 896.
Yet the whole scene can never be eaced from ones memory.
It was expected in Athens that swarms of foreign visitors would grace the games with their
presence. The committee appointed Messrs. Cook their agents for foreign parts, and apparently
thought that this alone was sucient to ensure an enormous concourse of foreigners. This turned
out to be a very unfortunate mode of procedure. The price at which the agents advertised rooms
in Athens was so preposterous, that many persons, who intended to visit Athens at the season
of the games, abstained from going. We can vouch to having found several parties in Italy, who
were intentionally delaying their visit to Athens till after the termination of the games. The audience, then, in the Stadium was almost exclusively composed of Greeks. The newspapers, both
in Greece and England, continued even after the end of the meeting, to estimate the number of
foreigners present at twenty thousand. As a matter of fact, there can be no doubt that one thousand would be a large estimate. Foreigners may have won the greater part of the events, the sports
may have been veritably international, but the body of spectators was not international at all. If
Olympic in the modern sense means international, this audience was not an Olympic audience. The fact cannot be denied, the reason is not far to seek. The organization which failed to
attract foreign competitors also failed to attract foreign spectators. The so-called agents of the
committee only provided information if applied to, and even then the intelligence given was very
meagre. If one wrote to the central committee one was liable to be told that all information could
be obtained by subscribing a considerable sum to the journal of the committee. Apparently the
committee did not think it its duty or its advantage to supply information without immediate
reward. The lack of foreign attendance at these games was peculiarly unfortunate because it may
prevent their success from becoming duly spread abroad, and so may stand in the way of a
favourable issue on the next occasion.
We have called the games successful, but it may be thought that our comments hitherto
point rather to failure than to success. What then was the peculiar triumph of these games? The
triumph which was inseparably connected with them, the triumph of sentiment, of association
of distinction of unique splendour.
62
The Stadium was till very recently a scene of desolation. It became the property of the King;
he, assigned by German advice, commenced the task of revealing its ancient glories. Much had
been done towards restoring its original features, when the notion of an international athletic
assembly was first suggested. An international committee was formed in Paris, mainly under the
patronage of Frenchmen, and the international games were decided upon. It was then that M.
Bikelas, the leader of modern Greek literature, suggested Greece as the scene of the first meeting. Olympia was out of the question as the place of contest, and all eyes were turned upon the
Stadium at Athens. It was found that the configuration of the ground permitted the restoration
of the edifice to something of its ancient magnificence with no very great expenditure. At this
moment patriotism, as it has so often done in the history of modern Greece, came to the assistance of the nation. M. Avero, of Alexandria, professed his readiness to bear the cost of the
restoration, and even, like a second Herodes Atticus, to restore the whole building in Pentelic
marble. The genius of M. Metaxas, the architect, carried the work to a temporary termination.
The Stadium is not yet completed in marble; that task is already being performed and will be
ended by the next Olympiad; but the whole stands even now in all essentials the same as in the
third century of our era. Twice was the vast arena filled to the uttermost with its sixty thousand
eager watchers, twice the expectant throng completely hid M. Avero s marble and its wooden
substitute from the eye. On one side of this vast area rises a peaked hill, gently sloping at the
angle of the seats; on this was packed an even denser mass, numbering perhaps some twenty thousand. All round the upper rim of the Stadium another crowd was closely pressed, resting at the
extreme ends of the line, where the Stadium projected from its guardian hills, upon a narrow
ledge backed by a sheer fall of forty feet or more. Before the broad entrance, on the level road
without, was another crowd, eager as the others, but entirely shut out from any view of the contests; it extended for fifty yards in either direction from the barrier and may be estimated also
at twenty thousand.
On every day of the meeting the crowd present was enormous, but the two central moments
were the conclusion of the Marathon Race and the presentation of the prizes. Then every available inch of space was occupied. The onlooker could think of nothing but that he had before
him a serried throng of humanity, greater than any that had been marshalled before mans sight
hitherto. The competitor, as he hurried through the gloom of the ancient tunnel, the Crypte,
which led from his quarters on the hill behind to the arena, if he possessed a particle of imagination, felt himself now to be a Phayllus or a Phidippides, about to accomplish feats to excite
the amazement, and arouse the suspicions, of all future times, now a martyr of the early Christian ages, whom a lion or bear awaited where the gloom gave way to the sunlight. The spectator, on the one side, gazed towards the temple of Zeus Olympius and the Museum Hill, and
further to the north, where the Acropolis shut o the Sacred Way, on the other side he looked
towards Marathon and upon so much of Lycabettus as the committees great panorama of lath
and plaster permitted him. Behind all rose crimson-tinted Hymettus, and, beyond it, purple Pentelicus smiled upon its ospring. Over all was the friendly sun and the delicate air. Such was
the scene, unsurpassed and unsurpassable. Who, who was present there, does not wish that he
may once again be permitted to behold it? After the ode had been recited and the olive-branches
presented, everyones first desire must have been for a repetition of the whole. The feeling of
absolute entrancement with the beauty of the sight, the rapture of sensations, and the joy of recollection, which overmastered all who shared in this spectacle, found vent in ardent wishes that
the Olympian games should be reserved to dignify Athens and to be glorified by her glory. No
one, while under the glamour of the moment, could have ventured to oppose this suggested reservation, and even now, when the splendour has somewhat faded from the mind, it is dicult to
criticize this impulsive proposal. Yet it has great practical diculties to face. In the first place,
it would have to meet French opposition of the most forcible kind. The French regard themselves
63
as the nursing-fathers of the first Olympic games. They consider the permission granted to
Greece to hold the first meeting at Athens as a special favour, which is bound up inseparably
with the stipulation that the next Olympic Games shall be held in Paris in 900. It seems likely
that Greek enthusiasm, aided by considerations of sentiment and propriety, might under ordinary circumstances carry the day against French contentions. The Greeks would be supported
by the whole body of scholars and lovers of antiquity and by most educated athletes. Unfortunately the French have a most powerful ally to support their claims their great Exhibition. Even
supposing that the Greek arguments prevailed, we cannot doubt that Paris would hold a rival
international meeting. In that case we much fear that Paris and modern display, within a moderate distance of Central Europe, would prevail against Athens and the soberness of antiquity
in the remoter East. The opposition between the claims of utility and of taste and sentiment in
this matter seems to be irreconcilable: on the one side we have the probability of a truly representative international meeting, conducted on purely modern lines, in a modern arena unconnected with the memories and glories of the age which has provided models of grace and strength
for all time, on the other we find the possibility of non-representative competitions, held in a
spot which, with every beauty of form and position, is connected undyingly with all the magnifence of that golden age of athletics, whose ideals it should be the object of these international
gatherings to promote. The opposition is so sharp that it would be fair to describe it by asserting that these games, if held at Athens, would be Olympic but, we fear, not international; if held
elsewhere than at Athens, international but not Olympic.
Fortnightly Review 354 ( June 896): 944957
896 Olympic Games

Analysis and Summaries
Dates:
Site:
Ocial Opening By:
Countries Competing:
Athletes Competing:
Sports:
Events:
65 April 896 [Julian calendar (Greece): 25 March3 April 896]

Athens, Greece
King Georgios I
51*
ca. 245 [245 Men0 Women]
9 [9 Men0 Women]
43 [43 Men0 Women]
Members of the International Olympic Committee in 896

(Years on IOC in brackets)
Argentina
Belgium
Bohemia
France
Germany
Great Britain
Greece
Hungary
Italy
New Zealand
Russia
Sweden
United States
Jos Benjamin Zubiaur [894907]

Count Maxime de Bousies [89490]
Dr. Jir Guth-Jarkovsky [894943]
Ernest Callot [89493]; Treasurer
Pierre Frdy, Baron Pierre de Coubertin [894925];
Secretary-General
Karl August Willibald Gebhardt [896909]
Arthur Oliver Russell, Lord Ampthill [894898]
Charles Herbert [894906]
Demetrios Vikelas [894897]; President
Dr. Ferenc Kmny [894907]
Duke Riccardo dAndria Carafa [894898]
Leonard Albert Cu [894905]
General Aleksey Butowsky [894900]
Major Viktor Gustaf Balck [89492]
Professor William Milligan Sloane [894924]
*See Notes on pages 2425.
896 Organizing Committee

President:
Secretary-General:
Treasurer:
Secretaries:
Members:
Crown Prince Konstantinos

Timoleon J. Filimon
Paulos Skouzes
Georgios Melas
Georgios Streit
Konstantinos Th. Manos
Alexandros Mercatis
Nikolaos Deligiannis
Leon Delygeorgis
Alexandros Zamis
Pyrros Karapanos
Nikolaos K. Metaxas
Kyriakos Mavromikhalis
Alexandros Skouzes
Georgios Typaldos-Kozakis
Georgios K. Romas
Alexandros D. Soutsos
Th. Retsinas
896 Organizing Sub-Committees

Committee for Nautical Events President: HRH Prince Georgios. Secretary: Paulos A.
Damalas. Members: Dimitrios Kriezis, K. Sakhtouris, Georgios Kountouriotis, Dimitrios Argyropoulos, Konstantinos Kanaris, K. Argyrakis.
Committee for the Rifle Range President: HRH Prince Nikolaos. Secretary: Ioannis Frangoudis. Members: Dimosthenes Staikhos, Alkibiades Krassas, Ioannis Konstantinidis, Ath.
D. Botsaris, Ath. N. Pierrakhos, Georgios Antonopoulos, Stefanos Skouloudis, Alex. Kontostavlos.
Committee for the Preparation of Greek Athletes President: Andreas Psyllas. Secretary: Spiridon Lambros. Members: Ioannis Khatzidakis, Ioannis Fokianos, Khristos Koryllos, I. Nyder, A.
Gerousis, G. Papadiamantopoulos, Konstantinos Papamikhalopoulos, Konstantinos Lomvardos,
A. Diomides Kyriakos, A. D. Themistaleas.
Committee for Athletic Events and Gymnastics President: Ioannis Fokianos. Secretary: Georgios Streit. Members: Ioannis Genisarlis, Loukas Belos, Nikolaos Politis, Charles Waldstein,
Dimitrios Aiginitis, Dimitrios Sekkeris, Spiridon Koumoundouros, Konstantinos Manos, Spiridon Antonopoulos.
Committee for Fencing President: Meleagros Athanasiou. Secretary: St. Rallis. Members:
Paulos Skouzes, Khr. Rallis, Epaminondas Ebairikos, Nikolaos Pyrgos, Ekhtor Romanos, Ioannis Delaportas, Konstantinos Komninos-Miliotis, Petros Kanakis, Georgios Kolokhotronis.
Committee for Cycling Events President: Nikolaos Vlangalis. Secretary: K. Vellinis. Members: Spiridon Mauros, Nikolaos Kontogiannakhis, Mar. Filipp, Iak. A. Theofilas.
Committee for Athletic Games (Lawn Tennis, Cricket, etc.)President: Ferdinand Serpieris.
Secretary: Iakh. Negrepontis. Members: Alexandros Rangavis, Petros Kalligas, Alexandros
Merkatis, Leon Melas, Konstantinos Manos, Charles Merlin, Pyrros Karapanos.
Committee for the Preparation and Renovation of the Panathenaeic Stadium President: An.
Theofilas. Secretary: P. Kavvadias. Members: Wilhelm Drpfeld, C. J. Richardson, Cecil H.
Smith, Ant. Matsas, Fok. Negris, Oth. Lyders, Anastasios Metaxas, L. Pappagos, Th. Limbritis,
Alexandros Ambelas.2
Reception Committee President: If. Kokkidis.3 Secretary: Mikh. Lambros. Members: Mikh.
Paparrigopoulos, Markos N. Dragoumis, Periklis Valaoritis, Nikolas Louriotis, Khr. Vournazos,
Dimitrios Silyvriotis, Ioannis Doumas, Khr. Khatzipetros. Georgios Valtatzis, Perikhlis Ieropoulos, Ang. Metaxas, Georgios M. Averof, Dimitrios M. Kallifronas, Lambros Kalliphronas, Konstantinos Koutsalexis, Nikolaos D. Zakharias, Anastasios Khristomanos, Zaf. Matsas, Trif. Moutsopoulos, Nikolas Khantzopoulos, P. Zafeiriou, L. Feraldis.
The Sorbonne Congress and the

Renovation of the Olympic Games
The Modern Olympic Games were revived by a Frenchman, Pierre Frdy, the Baron de Coubertin. Numerous attempts at revival, usually of a local or national nature, had taken place in
the 9th century, but Coubertin first publically broached the idea of a revival at a sporting congress held in Paris on 25 November 892, which celebrated the 5th anniversary of the founding
of the Union des Socits Franaises de Sports Athltiques (USFSA). He received little acclaim
or support for this idea, but he ended the speech with one of his most famous statements, Let
us export rowers, runners, and fencers; there is the free trade of the future, and on the day when
it is introduced within the walls of old Europe the cause of peace will have received a new and
mighty stay. This is enough to encourage your servant to dream now about the second part of
his program; he hopes that you will help him as you have helped him hitherto, and that with
you he will be able to continue and complete, on a basis suited to the conditions of modern life,
this grandiose and salutary task, the restoration of the Olympic Games.4
Coubertin wrote of the frosty reception he received, Naturally I had foreseen every eventuality, except what actually happened. Opposition? Objections, irony? Or even indierence?
Not at all! Everyone applauded, everyone approved, everyone wished me great success but no
one had really understood. It was a period of total, absolute lack of comprehension that was about
to start.
And it was to last a long time.5
But he plotted in his mind, not giving up the idea. He noted, The winter of 892-893
went by without the idea causing any stir among the general public. I decided to keep the idea
of a Congress, but to use a little deception. Amateurism, an admirable mummy that could be
presented as a specimen of the modern art of embalming. Half a century has gone by without
it seeming to have suered in any way from the unceasing manipulations to which it has been
submitted. It seemed intact. Not one of us expected it to last so long.6
Coubertin travelled to the United States in the fall of 893, looking to organize support for
his Olympic idea. He found a kindred spirit in Professor William Milligan Sloane, a professor
of history at Princeton University, but otherwise received little popular support. He also used
the trip to study American educational systems and, in particular, sporting organizations. Upon
his return to France, he began to organize another sporting congress, this time to be held in 894.
Adolphe de Palissaux had previously suggested a conference on amateurism, and a preliminary
program had been approved by the ocers of the union on August 893.7,8
Coubertin designed a circular announcing that a congress was to be held from 6 to 24 June
894. The circular contained a list of ocers for the congress and a ten-point program set forth
for discussion of the various problems of amateurism. The last points for discussion in the suggested program appeared under the subtitle, Olympic Games, as follows:

VIII. Possibility of restoring the Olympic Games. Advantages from the athletic,
moral, and international standpoints Under what conditions may they be restored?
IX. Conditions to be imposed on the competitors Sports represented Material organization, periodicity, etc.
X. Nomination of an International Committee entrusted with preparing the
restoration.9,10
Mandell, MacAloon, and Lyberg state that points 80 were included on the program prior
to the Sorbonne Congress. However, Prof. David Young disagrees,11 stating that the program
which was sent out prior to the Congress contained only point VIII above, and that the last two
points were added only after the Congress, and published in the first Bulletin du Comit International des Jeux Olympiques.12 But Tidning fr Idrott for 26 April 894 listed the full program
and included points IX and X.13
In January 894, Coubertin sent the circular to all the athletic clubs abroad for which he
had addresses. The text of the invitation read (translation by MacAloon14):
We have the honor to send you the program of the International Congress which
will meet in Paris on June 7 next, under the auspices of the French Union of Athletic Sports Clubs.15 Its aim is twofold.
Above all, it is necessary to preserve the noble and chivalrous character which distinguished athletics in the past, in order that it may continue eectively to play the
same admirable part in the education of the modern world as the Greek masters
assigned to it. Human imperfection always tends to transform the Olympic athlete
into a circus gladiator. We must choose between two athletic formulae which are not
compatible. In order to defend themselves against the spirit of lucre and professionalism that threatens to invade their ranks, amateurs in most countries have
drawn up complicated rules full of compromises and contradictions; moreover, too
frequently their letter is respected rather than their spirit.
Reform is imperative, and before it is undertaken it must be discussed. The questions which have been placed on the Congress agenda relate to these compromises
and contradictions in the amateur regulations. The proposal mentioned in the last
paragraph would set a happy seal upon the international agreement which we are as
yet seeking not to ratify, but merely to prepare. The revival of the Olympic Games
on bases and in conditions suited to the needs of modern life would bring the representatives of the nations of the world face-to-face every four years, and it may be
thought that their peaceful and chivalrous contests would constitute the best of
internationalisms.
In taking the initiative which may have such far-reaching results the Union is not
trying to usurp a position of precedence which belongs to no country and to no club
in the republic of muscles. It merely thinks that the clarity of its principles and its
attitude, together with the high friendships both in France and abroad upon which
it prides itself, justify it in giving the signal for a reform movement the need for which
is becoming daily more apparent. It does so in the general interest and without any
hidden motive or unworthy ambitions.
Coubertin received solid support from within France but otherwise had a variable response.
He received no answers from Switzerland or the Netherlands. His relations with German sporting organizations were strained at best. The German Turner societies were the best organized
sporting groups in the world, but their philosophy of physical education was dierent from the
cosmopolitan and elitist attitude espoused by the English, which Coubertin favored.
Coubertin contacted the German military attach in Paris, Colonel Ernst von Schwartzkoppen. At the latters recommendation, invitations were sent twice to the president of the Union
Sportsclub in Berlin, Viktor van Podbielski. He acknowledged receipt of the invitation, but discarded it.16 But before the Germans could respond, the leader of the Union des Socits Gymnastiques declared that if the Germans were invited, he would support a withdrawal of the
French gymnasts. Eventually a German living in London, Baron Christian Eduard von
Rieenstein, attended the congress, but as an unocial observer, which enabled several French
ocials to participate without loss of face. Germany was not the only nation which caused Coubertin problems in organizing the 894 congress. The Belgian gymnastic societies denounced
Coubertins plans in circulars which they sent all over Europe.17
Somehow, on Saturday, 6 June 894, at 65, the congress began in the grand amphitheater of the new Sorbonne with 2,000 in attendance. The meeting is now usually termed The
Sorbonne Congress by the Olympic family, but the formal term in the invitations and program
was Congrs International de Paris: pour le rtablissement des jeux olympiques.
There were, in all, 78 delegates from 49 societies in countries Australia, Belgium,
Bohemia, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the
United States.18 Coubertin later noted that he wished to please and impress the delegates and
that he wished not to convince, but to seduce. Accordingly, he was meticulous in creating an
atmosphere that would lead the delegates to believe that they themselves were making history.19
Baron de Courcel, the French ambassador to Berlin, opened the proceedings with a short,
formal speech. Then, after several inspiring speeches came the pice de rsistance, a performance
of the Delphic Hymn to Apollo. MacAloon described it well:
In 893, the French School in Athens had discovered tablets inscribed with the
ode and what turned out to be musical notation. Theodore Reinach, who was present this evening to provide a commentary, translated the verses, and the celebrated
composer Gabriel Faur wrote a choral accompaniment to the ancient melody. Earlier in the year, the composition had been performed to great acclaim in Athens, Constantinople, Brussels, and Paris. For Coubertins occasion, Faur outdid himself. To
the rich background of harps and a great choir, Jeanne Remacle of the Opera sang
the ode. According to Coubertin, the eect of these magic harmonies echoing
through the amphitheater was immense:
The two thousand persons present listened in a religious silence to the divine
melody risen from the dead to salute the Olympic renaissance across the darkness
of the ages.
The sacred harmony plunged the great audience into the ambiance hoped for. A
sort of subtle emotion flowed as the ancient eurythmy sounded across the distance
of the ages. Hellenism thus infiltrated the vast enclosure. In these first hours, the
Congress had come to a head. Henceforth I knew, consciously or not, that no one
would vote against the restoration of the Olympic Games.
The London Times concurred. The plaintive beauty of the chords of the Greek
Hymn coming at the close of such constant references to the race that cultivated
rhythm and music to the point of excellence beyond the achievement of all others
served no doubt as the most constraining of all arguments in favor of the idea on
which this Congress is engaged.20
Early in the proceedings the congress divided into two committees, in one of which sports
administrators discussed amateurism. The other commission, on Olympism, was titularly headed
by Demetrios Vikelas (835908), the delegate from Athens. Like Coubertin and Sloane, he
was a historian, and also a novelist. Sloane was the vice-chair of the committee on Amateurism.
In actuality, Coubertin had already published an article, Le Rtablissement des jeux

olympiques, in the Revue de Paris on 5 June 894 that is, during the same time as the congress was held. The specific recommendations that the committee on Olympism eventually
agreed upon were these, labelled as points VIIIXIV in the Bulletin21:
VIII. There is no doubt that there exist advantages to reestablish the Olympic
Games, based on athletic, moral, and international considerations, provided that they
conform to modern conditions.
IX. That, except in the case of fencing, only amateurs would be allowed to compete.
X. The International Committee will be responsible for organizing the Games,
and will have the right to exclude persons whose previous acts may damage the good
name of the institution.
XI. No nations had the right to compete using athletes other than its own nationals. In each country, elimination events to choose their Olympic athletes should be
held, so that only true champions should take part in each sport.
XII. The following sports ought to be represented, if possible: Athletic sports
(track & field), Aquatic Sports (rowing, sailing, and swimming), Athletic Games
(football, lawn tennis, paume, etc.), Skating, Fencing, Boxing, Wrestling, Equestrian sports, Polo, Shooting, Gymnastics, and Cycling.
There should also be instituted a general athletic championship under the title of
pentathlon.
At the occasion of the Olympic Games, an alpinism prize should be awarded to
the most interesting climb accomplished since the last edition of the Games.
XIII. The modern Olympic Games should take place every four years. After
Athens in 896 and Paris in 900, they should be organized in a new city every fourth
year.
XIV. As the Olympic Games can only be successfully organized with the support
of governments, the International Committee should make arrangements to see that
such assistance is given. 22
The Vikelas committee was also charged with forming an International Olympic Committee. Coubertin, Sloane, and Vikelas were, of course, to be members. To fill the roster of members of the first IOC, Coubertin provided a list of suitable candidates. The following 3 members formed the first International Olympic Committee: President Demetrios Vikelas (GRE),
Secretary-General Pierre de Coubertin (FRA), Treasurer Ernest Callot (FRA), Aleksey de
Butowski (RUS), Viktor Balck (SWE), Jir Guth (BOH), Leonard A. Cu (NZL), William
Sloane (USA), Charles Herbert (GBR), Lord Ampthill (GBR), Ferenc Kemeny (HUN), Jos
Zubiaur (ARG), and Mario Lucchesi Palli (ITA). A presence in Paris or even an interest in the
committee was not a necessary prerequisite for eligibility, and only six of these individuals actually were present: Vikelas, Coubertin, Callot, Sloane, Herbet, and Lucchesi Palli.23 Coubertin
informed the others by mail. Some of the members were wealthy men who did not contribute
much to the IOC, and later Coubertin called them une faade.24
Near the end of the Congress, the committee members took it upon themselves to select
the host city for the first Olympic Games. For some time Coubertin had rather expected and
had led everyone to believe that the first Games of the modern era would take place in Paris in
900 as part of the Universal Exposition. The conference had gone well, but there was concern
that waiting the six years that remained until the Universal Exposition in Paris might cause the
Olympic Idea to lose momentum.
It was proposed to hold the first Games in 896. Balck had oered Stockholm as the site
of the Games, but not necessarily the first. Many members had proposed London as a possible
host city. But perhaps it would be best to consider the original home of the Olympics, Greece.
Apparently on 8 or 9 June, Coubertin discussed this possibilty with Vikelas. The two men held
a hurried conversation, and Coubertin then arose to make the formal proposal, and the assembly approved it unanimously. Athens would be the site of the first Modern Olympic Games in
896. The king of Greece had already sent Coubertin a telegram dated 2 June 894, thanking
the members of the congress for the reestablishment of the Olympic Games.
Pierre de Coubertin seems himself to have been transported into a euphoric state by the
atmosphere he created. The final dinner was held in the Jardin dAcclimatisation on 23 June 894.
Coubertin closed the congress which had re-established the Olympic Games with the following
speech:
We have been brought together in Paris, this grand metropolis, whose joys and
anxieties are shared by the whole world to such an extent that one can say that we
meet at the nerve center of the world. We are the representatives of international
athletics and we voted unanimously (for it appears that the principle is scarcely controversial at all) for the restoration of an idea that is 2,000 years old. But this idea
still quickens the hearts of men in whom it stimulates the instincts that are the
most noble and the most vital. In a great temple of science, our delegates have heard
the modern echo of a melody which is also 2,000 years old and was resurrected by
a scholarly archaeologist who based his work upon that of preceding generations.
And this evening electricity transmitted everywhere the news that the Olympism of
ancient Hellas has re-emerged in the world after an eclipse of many centuries.
Some of the adherents of the old school wailed that we held our meeting openly
in the heart of the Sorbonne. They knew full well that we are rebels and that we
would climax our proceedings by bringing down the structure of their worm-eaten
philosophy. That is true, gentlemen! We are rebels and that is why the members of
the press, who have always supported beneficial revolutions, have understood us and
helped us, for which, by the way, I thank them with all my heart.
I astonish myself and apologize, gentlemen, for having employed rhetoric like this
and for having taken you to such lofty heights. If I were to continue, the champagne
might evaporate, leaving boredom. Therefore I hasten to propose a toast again. I raise
my glass to the Olympic idea which, like a ray of the all-powerful sun, has pierced
the mists of the ages to illuminate the threshold of the twentieth century with joy
and hope.25
After 6 centuries, the Olympic Games were once again a reality.
The Organization of the Games of the st Olympiad

On 3 July 894, Vikelas received a telegram from Lieutenant-Colonel Sapuntzakis, an aidede-camp of Crown Prince Konstantinos. The duke of Sparta has noted with great pleasure that
the Olympic Games will be inaugurated in Athens. I am certain that the King and the Prince
will accord the celebration of these Games their patronage.26 But Coubertin and Vikelas soon
found themselves buried in diculties. While the Greek nation as a whole enthusiastically
embraced the idea of the Games, the Greek political hierarchy was not so moved. Greece was
then embroiled in political turmoil and on the verge of bankruptcy, which led the politicians to
be more concerned with matters political and financial and less with matters sportive.
At the time Greece was serving as a political battlefield between Charilaos Trikoupis and
Theodorus Deligiannis, who for almost 5 years had alternated as prime minister of Greece. In
894, Trikoupis held the post, and while he did not actively oppose the Olympics, neither did
he actively support them.
Vikelas and Coubertin found that an Athenian family named Zappas had left a considerable bequest for the purpose of erecting and administering a large building to be known as the
Zappeion, in which athletic demonstrations and contests could be held. As the directors of the
Zappas estate were citizens of considerable prominence in Athens, this group was an admirable
nucleus around which to build the Organizing Committee, especially since they had control over
the Panathenaic Stadium. Vikelas arranged for a meeting of the commission, but before it could
convene he was called back to Paris because his wife was dying.27 With Vikelas back in Paris,
Coubertin had to act on his own.
Immersed in his project of reviving the Games, Coubertin thought that the people of
Athens would leap at the prospect of being first to revive an event that reflected so much credit
on their ancestors. He turned the project over to the directors of the Zappeion and settled back
to watch his dream come true. Things began to happen right away, but they were not exactly
what Coubertin had anticipated. Imagine his embarrassment when he discovered that the directors of the Zappeion were not major supporters of the Olympic revival.28
They were led by Etienne Dragoumis, a political ally of Trikoupis. The Zappeion group
seemed favorably inclined toward the Games, but Trikoupis seemingly influenced them otherwise. When Vikelas returned to Paris, the directors of the Zappeion met and in his absence dispatched the following letter to Coubertin:
Athens, Nov. , 894
My dear Baron:
I wish to thank you for the communication you have sent regarding the international Olympic Games.
The choice of Athens for the first celebration of the Games could not fail to produce a feeling of satisfaction and fond recollections in Greece. It is no less true, however, that the choice of our people because of their illustrious past constitutes for
these descendants of the ancient founders of the Games a heavy responsibility concerning which I doubt their ability to acquit themselves with the degree of success
warranted by this great world celebration voted by the Paris Athletic Congress. Since
his recent stay in Athens M. Vikelas has taken note of the hesitation we have felt
since the idea of holding the first Games here was known and the ocial announcement made.
I do not wish to insist on a matter in which our government is particularly interested. How can it think of placing itself at the head of this movement, send out invitations, take the initiative necessary to guarantee success to such a great international
festival at a moment when it finds itself facing a great economic crisis at home and
facing foreign complications of the most grave nature? The duty that is incumbent
upon the government to watch over the dignity of its country and the solicitude it
feels toward the great cause we are all so anxious to see revived will probably call for
an attitude of extreme reserve.
One could be accused of false pride if he did not admit that in a new country
where there still remains much to be accomplished before it attains suitable conditions for the actual existence of a civilized people, the exact thing that you call ath-
letic sports does not exist. It is exactly to such a country that, because of its past
history, you wish to award the responsibility of presiding over the first celebration
of these Games which are founded upon a new and extremely complicated basis and
set of regulations.
The great international fair announced as planned for 900 in France undoubtedly oers much greater possibilities, should you consider holding the first Olympic
Games at that time and place. At Paris, with her tremendous resources, the nearness of centers of population and of world tradition, aided by the strongly organized
sports societies, the Games would be certain of success. Would it not be prudent to
set back the opening date of these peaceful modern struggles? The new Olympics
would undoubtedly have the clat gained by a more significant date of launching,
the opening of a new century.
I have given you, my dear Baron, a summary of the opinions expressed at the meeting of our committee. We trust you will understand how great is our regret at being
forced to decline an honor so graciously oered our country and at the same time
to deprive ourselves of the opportunity to be associated with the high type of men
who will preside over the revival of such a beautiful and historic institution as the
Olympic Games. Knowing the feebleness of the means at the actual disposal of the
Greek people and convinced that the task exceeds our strength, we are left without
choice in the matter.
With assurance of highest consideration and my best personal regards, I remain,
Sincerely yours,
Etienne Dragoumis29
Having been warned by Vikelas that such a response might be forthcoming, Coubertin made
appropriate plans. He ensured that the Olympic Games would be held somewhere in 896 by
communicating with Ferenc Kemeny, the Hungarian IOC member, and making contingency
plans to switch the Games at a later date, if necessary, to Budapest. Such an event in 896 would
celebrate the ,000th anniversary of Hungarys existence as a state. But Coubertin also made plans
to make a personal visit to Athens to head o, if possible, Dragoumis attempts to reject the 896
Olympics.30
As the Dragoumis letter made its way to Paris, Coubertin found two messages waiting for
him once he arrived in Athens. One was from Dragoumis, and that letter informed Coubertin
that Greece was declining the honor of holding the Games. The other was from Ferenc Kemeny,
and it gave his assurances that, if necessary, the Hungarians could host the Games.31
Coubertin responded promptly to Dragoumis and noted that he was doubting the correctness of the resolution passed by his colleagues and expressing the sentiment that only a misunderstanding of the intentions of the International Olympic Committee was responsible. Coubertin closed by asking that the Zappeion directors meet once more and reconsider their
decision.32 Coubertin did not receive his requested meeting, but instead Prime Minister Trikoupis paid him a personal visit. Trikoupis was friendly but essentially informed Coubertin that
you will be convinced that it is impossible.33
But Coubertin quickly decided that despite the financial and political situations, the citizens of Athens were wildly enthusiastic about the return of the Olympic Games. Not only did
a few trips about the city assure him that the necessary sporting facilities were available to stage
the Games, but everywhere he went he heard the wish expressed that the Olympics should be
held. The strongest adherents of the Olympic Idea were the common people, the small shopkeepers, the taxi drivers, the everyday Athenians. According to Coubertin, while he was riding
with Georgios Melas, son of the mayor of Athens and the Barons new ally, the coachman
10
suddenly climbed down and addressed Coubertin, Mr. Georgie, Im going to explain to you
how your friend must deal with Trikoupis.34
But Coubertin was not content with the support of the common folk. He wanted it to be
unanimous. He took the opportunity to address a meeting of the Parnassus Literary Society to
strongly advocate the Games. His speech was well received; he ended it by noting, We French
have a proverb that says that the word impossible is not in the French language. I have been
told this morning that the word is Greek. I do not believe it.35
Convinced that he had the support of the public and the neutrality, at least, of Trikoupis,
and feeling that, under such conditions, the directors of the Zappeion would be at his command,
Coubertin boldly addressed a letter to the press announcing that the Games would be held in
Athens and that an organizing committee would promptly be formed to take over their management.
Coubertins courageous enthusiasm and his absolute refusal to let anything stand in the way
of the success of his project swept everything before it. When he found that the directors of the
Zappeion were still afraid to call a meeting for the organization of the Games, Coubertin called
the meeting himself, and thanks to the support of Crown Prince Konstantinos, who accepted
the presidency of the Organizing Committee, it proved successful. A tentative program including not only track and field athletics but also gymnastics, cycling, yachting, and fencing, was
drawn up; and Coubertin left for France certain that his troubles were over.
But soon after he left Greece, the Organizing Committee began to fall apart. One of the
four vice-presidents, Commandant Etienne Skouloudis, a close friend of Minister Trikoupis,
called a meeting of the leaders of the Committee, to which the younger and more enthusiastic
supporters of the Olympics were not invited. He convinced the group that Coubertin had underestimated expenses, intimated that the government would not support the lottery which had been
proposed to raise money for the Games, and finally decided to submit the whole sad situation
to the Crown Prince for his decision. At the same time, Trikoupis brought the question before
the government, and it appeared that, after all, Coubertins visit to Athens had borne little
fruit.36 Vikelas returned from Paris after his wifes funeral.
The credit for saving the 896 Olympic Games for Athens belongs mostly to Vikelas and
Greek Crown Prince Konstantinos. When the Committee, headed by Skouloudis, gave him
their unfavorable report, the Prince met the members with a smile, accepted the report, thanked
them, dismissed them, but noted that he would read the report at his leisure. His courageous
action, or lack thereof, allowed the public and the press to make their sentiments known.
Based on Vikelas advice and backed by strong popular approval, the Crown Prince reorganized and enlarged the committee, moving its headquarters into the Royal Palace. He also
installed Timoleon Filimon, a former mayor of Athens, as its general secretary, and by his personal example united the Greek people in an enthusiastic movement to ensure the success of the
Games.37
The enthusiastic Greeks poured thousands of contributions into a fund to finance the
Olympic Games, eventually raising 330,000 drachmas. The Crown Prince appealed by letter to
Georgios Averof, a wealthy Greek citizen who lived in Alexandria, asking him to pay for the
restoration of the ancient Panathenaic Stadium, the cost of which was estimated at 580,000
drachmas. The letter was delivered to Averof personally by Secretary-General Timoleon Filimon.
Averof agreed to pay for the restoration, which eventually cost 920,000 drachmas, stipulating
that his money should be used to refinish the ancient Panathenaic Stadium at Athens in native
marble. A set of postage stamps with Olympic themes was also produced and enthusiastically
purchased by the Greek people, producing 400,000 drachmas for the Organizing Committee.
Sales of tickets and commemorative medals raised 200,000 drachmas.
With the financial success of the Games now assured and enthusiasm in Greece running
11
high, there was still no time for Coubertin to rest. The success of the Olympic Games depended
on more than popular enthusiasm and adequate finances, as other factors would eventually contribute to their ultimate success.
There was first the many details of the organization. Most modern Greeks were not familiar with the ancient Olympic Games, and were much less familiar with the sports of the modern world, which would be essential to the success of any modern Olympic Games. Second, there
was the question of foreign participation. The Greeks had few athletes, and without foreign athletes the Games would fail miserably. Since to this time the Games had existed only in the mind
of Pierre de Coubertin, it was expected that he would have to deliver the athletes and solve the
multitudinous problems.
Coubertin was overwhelmed by the thousands of details, such as the invitations, the design
of the medals, the rules to be used, the prizes to be distributed, and many others. In addition
to these questions there were also the problems of national jealousy, and the various sporting
bodies also began to stake out their claims of dominance.38
Coubertin himself drew up the ocial invitations to the Games. The organizing committee was unable to settle on a design and on how to build a bicycle track, so Coubertin obtained
the plans of the velodrome of Arcachon and sent them to Athens. But the committee instead
copied the plans of the bicycle track at Copenhagen, which they had obtained from another
source. No sooner had Coubertin had the invitations printed than the organizing committee
wished to know exactly how many participants to expect despite the fact that the Games were still
almost years o. There were only a few nations that even knew of them at that point.39
But Athens continued to prepare. The well-known Greek architect Anastasios Metaxas led
the reconstruction of the Panathenaic Stadium. To preserve the antiquity but at the same time
incorporate newer building methods, Metaxas consulted with archeologists from Germany and
France. Reports dier, but the seating capacity was between 50,000 and 70,000. The cinder track
was constructed with the help of Charles Perry, a groundskeeper from London. This constant
work in the heart of the city stirred the interest of the Athenians about the forthcoming Olympic
Games.
Meanwhile, the members of Coubertins International Olympic Committee were spreading the word to their own nations and trying their best to interest their leading athletes in competing in the first Olympics. Sweden and Hungary, led by committee members Balck and
Kemeny, probably displayed the most enthusiasm for the idea. In the United States, Professor
Sloane organized a team of four college students from Princeton and six Boston athletes to represent the United States in track & field athletics. A French team was organized under the leadership of Raoul Fabens, but the French shooters refused to participate. The riflemen expressed
surprise that the Olympic Games should imagine that the French Shooting Federation would
consent to become an annex of their Committee.40
In Great Britain the Games were still eyed rather coldly, the newspapers printing Coubertins
appeal for participation without enthusiasm and several of them suggesting that Pan-Britannic games be organized instead.41 The London magazine The Spectator noted, It is impossible
to get honestly interested in the revival of the Olympic Games. We can see nothing classical about
the celebration nor can we recognize in the presence of a number of Greek princes, American
sightseers, or British sporting men anything particularly Greek.42
There was a strong German interest in the Olympics, and this was augmented by the nexus
between the royal families of Germany and Greece. For some time it looked as though the Germans would organize a strong team to participate in Athens, but near the end of 895, an ocial
announcement was made that Germany would not participate. This aront was based upon a
supposed interview in which Baron de Coubertin had been quoted as expressing pleasure that
the Germans had not been at the Sorbonne Congress and that they would not be at Athens.43
12
Coubertin denied the statement, and was supported by Baron van Reienstein, Germanys
unocial Congress participant. A strong feeling against Coubertin and the Games swept across
Germany, and because of the close relationship between Germany and Greece, it found a foothold
among the Greeks. Henry described it well: The German Olympic Committee under Dr.
Willibald Gebhardt absolved Coubertin of any blame in the matter, and Germany finally did
compete; but a few politicians and editors in Athens, now assured of the success of the Games
and more and more convinced that the Games were theirs by right of inheritance, seized upon
this pretext to ignore Coubertin despite the eorts of the Crown Prince to pay him the credit
due him for his eort in reviving the historic contests.44
And so it came to pass that as the days for the first celebration of the Modern Olympic
Games approached during the warm spring of 896, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, by whose sole
eort the Olympic Games had been revived, and upon whose shoulders the entire initiative of
the organization of the first Games had fallen, found himself ignored by the very people to
whom he had restored their inheritance. Further insult would come at the end of the first
Olympic Games themselves.45
The Greek politicians could ignore him, but they could not kill either his enthusiasm for
the Games or his interest in their success. He went to Athens early in the spring and kept in constant communication with the other members of the International Olympic Committee, and
remained ready to help at all times. No better testimony to his enthusiasm can be found than a
letter written by Coubertin from Athens on the eve of the Games:
Athens.
March 26, 896
The Athenian spring is double this year. It warms not only the clear atmosphere
but the soul of the populace. It pushes up sweet-smelling flowers between the stones
of the Parthenon, and paints a happy smile on the fiery lips of the Palikares. The
sun shines, and the Olympic Games are here. The fears and ironies of the year just
past have disappeared. The skeptics have been eliminated; the Olympic Games have
not a single enemy.
They have spread to the breezes the flags of France, Russia, America, Germany,
Sweden, England The soft breezes of Attica joyously lift their folds, and the citizens in the street of Hermes rejoice at the spectacle. They know that the world is
coming here, and they approve the preparations that have been made to receive her.
Preparations are comprehensive. Everywhere people are shining up the marble, applying new plaster and fresh paint; they are paving, cleaning, decorating.
The road to the stadium is in full dress with its Arc de Triomphe and its Venetian matting. But this is not the favorite promenade. Interest is elsewhere, on the
shores of the Ilissus, until now disdained. Every evening about five oclock the citizens come here to cast an appraising eye upon the work being done at the stadium.
As usual, the Ilissus is without water, but this passes unnoticed. A monumental
bridge spans the celebrated stream and gives access to the great plain upon which
they are restoring the ancient stadium.
The surroundings of the stadium produce an impression heightened by reflection.
Here we have a tableau that the ancestral Greeks so often witnessed. It has sprung
up before our eyes. We are not accustomed in these days to such constructions, and
its lines are so unfamiliar as to surprise and disconcert us.
The silhouette of the Grecian temple has never been lost, its porticos and colonnades have known 20 renaissances. But the stadia disappeared with the athletes. People knew their architectural peculiarities but never restored them. A living stadium
13
has not been seen for centuries. A few days now and this stadium will be alive with
the animation given such structures by the crowds that fill them. We will see them
again climbing the stairs, spreading out across the aisles, swarming in the passageways a dierent crowd, doubtless, from that which last filled such a stadium, but
animated nevertheless by similar sentiment, by the same interest in youth, by the
same dreams of national greatness.
There is room for about 50,000 spectators. Portions of the seats are in wood, time
having been lacking to cut and place all the marble. After the Games this work will
be completed, thanks to the generous gift of M. Averof; bronze work, trophies, and
columns will break up the severe monotony of its lines. The track is no longer dusty
as of yore; a cinder track has replaced it, built by an expert brought from England
for the purpose. Everyone believes the events will be strenuously disputed by the
Greeks. For here is an interesting fact in this country where physical exercises
have produced few experts, where fencing and gymnastic clubs recently organized
have experienced considerable diculty in recruiting members, it has been necessary only to mention the Olympic Games to create athletes. The young men have
overnight become conscious of the native strength and suppleness of their race; their
ardor has been so great and their training so serious that the visiting athletes will
find in them improvised rivals of veteran caliber.
Already the Hungarians have arrived and they have been given an enthusiastic
reception; speeches have been exchanged and music has been played. Today the
Germans have come, and the Swedes and the Americans. The news that the Municipal Council of Paris has voted a fund for the French representatives came at the
moment when the Organizing Committee was holding a meeting at the Princes
palace, and the Prince is delighted to know that the participation of France is finally
assured.
Baron Pierre de Coubertin46

The festivities began on 5 April 896 (24 March 896*) with the unveiling of the marble
statue of the primary benefactor, Georgios Averof, which had been erected in front of the Panhellenic Stadium. This was on an Easter Sunday, and the day was chosen by Coubertin for its
significance. MacAloon has noted that Coubertin foresaw that in 896 the Christian and Eastern Orthodox Easters would coincide, and thinking of the symbolism of the Resurrection, he
scheduled the resurrected Olympic Games to open on Easter Monday. In addition, the first day
of the Games, Monday, 6 April 896, was the anniversary (25 March*) of Greek independence. 47
That day saw the ocial opening of the Games of the First Olympiad of the Modern Era.
After the arrival of King Georgios and Queen Olga of Greece, Crown Prince Konstantinos gave
an inspired speech. King Georgios I then opened the Olympics with the following words, I
declare the opening of the first international Olympic Games in Athens. Long live the Nation.
Long live the Greek people.
Next came the playing of the Olympic Hymn by nine bands and a chorus of 50. The music
had been composed by Spyros Samaras, and the words came from a poem by the Greek national
poet and novelist Kostis Palamas. This remains the ocial Olympic Hymn, although it was not
*This was the date according to the Julian calendar, then in use in Greece and a few other parts of the world.
14
ocially declared so until the 958 IOC Session. The crowd demanded an encore because of the
impression the hymn made.
The Games and the sporting events then began at 530. The Games themselves were far
from the caliber of sport one would expect today. Only 5 countries participated and many of
the top athletes in the world did not compete, as the Games were not well advertised. As described
above, Coubertin had diculty getting interest in the Olympics among many of the nations of
the world. Certainly, qualifying Olympic trials were conducted only in Greece, contrary to the
wishes of the commission on the Olympics at the Sorbonne Congress.
There were many dierences between the 896 Olympic Games and the Olympics as they
are known a century later. First, it should be noted that there was no such thing as a gold medal.
The winners of the events received a diploma, a silver medal, and a crown of olive branches.
The runners-up in each event received a diploma, a bronze medal and a crown of laurel. The
medals had been designed by the French sculptor Jules Chaplain. Each athlete who competed
also received a commemorative medal, which had been designed by the Greek artist Nikephoros
Lytras. The diplomas had been designed by the famous Greek painter Nikolaos Gyzis. Separate
medal ceremonies were not held. Instead, all of the prizes were given out by King Georgios at a
special ceremony just prior to the closing ceremony on the last day of the Games.
Even the calendar was dierent in 896. In todays terms, the Olympic Games lasted from
6 to 5 April. But at the time, Greece recognized the Julian Calendar, not the Gregorian Calendar used by much of the world then and now used universally. In Greek terms, the Games
were held from 25 March to 3 April 896, a 2-day dierence.
There was also a major absence from the Olympics for the only time in the modern era
there were no women competitors. Coubertin did not approve of the idea of female sports and
resisted female competition throughout his life. In 896, womens sports had little organization
and there was no impetus to include events for women on the program. They were ocially
excluded. Only in the marathon could there be said to have been a female presence. Two women
unocially ran the marathon course at around the time of the ocial race, but neither
Melpomene nor Stamata Revithi competed ocially.
The first event of the modern Olympics was the first heat of the 00 meters, won by Francis Lane, a student at Princeton. But the first championship decided was that of the triple jump,
won by James Connolly, a Harvard student. He became the first known Olympic champion
since Zopyros of Athens in boys boxing and pankration at the 29st Olympic Games in A.D.
385.48
The 00 meter final was won by Americas Thomas Burke, the only American competing
who had been a national champion. He eventually won both the 00 and 400 meters in Athens.
The Americans provided two other double champions in track & field athletics, as Robert Garrett won both the shot put and the discus throw, while Ellery Clark won the high jump and the
long jump.
The top cyclist at the 896 Olympics was the Frenchman Paul Masson. Masson was little
known prior to the Olympics but in Athens he won three championships, triumphing in the one
lap time trial, the 2,000 meter sprint, and the 0,000 meters on the track.
The top medal winner (in modern terms) of the 896 Olympics was the German gymnast
Hermann Weingrtner. The 32-year-old Weingrtner won three titles (horizontal bar and team
championships on both the horizontal bar and parallel bars), was twice a runner-up (rings and
pommelled horse) and also took one third place on the parallel bars. In modern terms, this was
six medals won.
The athlete who won the most events in 896 was also a German, Carl Schuhmann. The
multifaceted Schuhmann won three events in gymnastics (horse vault and both team competitions on the horizontal bar and parallel bars) and also triumphed in Greco-Roman wrestling in
15
a major upset. Schuhmann also competed in track & field athletics (in three events long jump,
triple jump, and shot put) and in weightlifting, where he finished tied for fourth in the barbell
lifting.
In addition to Weingrtner, Schuhmann, and Masson, one other athlete won at least three
events at the 896 Olympics: another German, Alfred Flatow. Flatow was a gymnast who won
the parallel bars and helped Germany win both gymnastics team events on the horizontal bar
and parallel bars. His cousin, Gustav Felix Flatow, also competed in Athens in gymnastics for
Germany, winning two titles in the team events. Both Flatows, of Jewish faith, would later lose
their lives in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
Only one Italian competed, although several entered and one other actually showed up in
Athens hoping to compete. Carlo Airoldi was a distance runner who hoped to compete in the
marathon race. Airoldi arrived in Athens by walking part of the way from Milan. 49 He was feted
in Athens for this accomplishment and received by Prince Konstantinos at the Royal Palace.
There, Airoldi admitted that he had received prize money for running and he was disqualified
as a professional. An appeal by his club (the Societ Pro-Italia in Milan) failed, and he was not
allowed to compete after his titanic trek.
The Americans dominated the athletics events, winning all but the 800 meters, ,500
meters, and marathon. The 800 meters and ,500 meters were won by Edwin Flack, an Australian accountant for Price, Waterhouse who then lived and worked in England, representing the Amateur Athletic Association. He also attempted to run the marathon but did not
finish.
The Olympic marathon race was suggested by Michael Bral of France, a friend of Coubertins who accompanied him to Athens in planning the 896 Olympics. Bral wrote Coubertin
thusly, If the Organizing Committee of the Athens Olympics would be willing to revive the
famous run of the Marathon soldier as part of the program of the Games, I would be glad to
oer a prize for this new Marathon race. The idea was immediately accepted.50
The marathon was based on the legend of Eucles or Pheidippides (alternately, Philippides),
a Greek soldier who purportedly ran from the town of Marathon to Athens in 490 B.C. to
announce the news of the Greek victory in the Battle of Marathon. Upon arriving in Athens, he
supposedly proclaimed Rejoice, we conquer! and then fell dead. The legend is now felt to be
apocryphal, but it was the reason for the creation of the race from Marathon to Athens, a distance of about 25 miles.51
In the marathon, there were several early leaders, notably Flack. But midway through the
race, Spiridon Louis, a Greek water-carrier, took the lead and maintained it to the end. When
he neared the stadium, messengers came into the ancient vestibule and cried out, Hellas! Hellas! (A Greek! A Greek!), sending the crowd into a frenzy. The Olympic pride based on millennia of tradition was then realized by the home crowd, which heretofore had been rather disappointed by the results of the Greek athletes. Louis won the race and became a hero, oered
gifts and riches by many dierent Greek merchants. But he asked only for a cart to help him
carry his water, and he returned to his small town of Amarousi.
The 896 Olympic Games ended with two major festivities. On Sunday morning, 2 April
(3 March), in the ballroom of the royal palace, the King gave a banquet for the athletes and
many of the other dignitaries in attendance. He thanked all responsible for making a success of
the First Modern Olympic Games, notably omitting the names of both Pierre de Coubertin and
Demetrios Vikelas. At the end of his speech, he expressed his desire for all Olympic Games to
remain in Greece: Greece, the mother and the nursery of athletic contests in the Panhellenic
antiquity, undertaking and carrying out these to-day with courage under the eyes of Europe and
of the New World, can now, that the general success has been acknowledged, hope that the foreigners who honoured it will appoint our land as a peaceful meeting place of the nations, as a
16
continuous and permanent field of the Olympic Games. With this wish, Gentlemen, I drink
especially to all those who contributed to the success of this First Olympiad.52
The final ceremonies in 896 were scheduled for Tuesday, 4 April (2 April), but it rained
and washed out the festivities. The first closing ceremonies ocially began at 030 on Wednesday, 5 April 896, when the royal family entered the Panathenaic Stadium. The Greek national
anthem began the ceremony, followed by a Pindaric ode in ancient Greek which was recited
by the British athlete and Oxford scholar George Stuart Robertson, who had composed it especially for this occasion.53
After Robertsons speech, the King proceded to award the prizes to the winning athletes
in all events. Certain special awards were given for some of the events. The winners received
their awards first, with Spiridon Louis being the last of the champions to receive his prizes. In
addition to his silver medal, his diploma, and his crown of olive branches, Louis was given two
special cups, one donated by Michel Bral. The second-place finishers were then recognized.54
After the awards the prize-winning athletes marched around the stadium to the plaudits of
the crowd. They were led by Spiridon Louis. The Olympic Hymn was then played for a final
time, after which King Georgios closed the festivities with the statement, I declare the First
International Olympic Games terminated.55
The competitors in 896 were unanimous in their approval of the first Olympic Games,
and in particular, the American athletes agreed with King Georgios that Athens should be the
permanent site.56 The team wrote a letter to Crown Prince Konstantinos on 4 April 896, which
was published in The New York Times on 3 May, suggesting that all future Olympic Games be
held in Athens. It read as follows:
Athens, April 4, 896.
To His Royal Highness, Konstantinos, Crown Prince of Greece:
We, the American participants in the International Olympic Games at Athens,
wish to express to you, and through you to the committee and the people of Greece,
our heartfelt appreciation of the great kindness and warm hospitality of which we
have been continually the recipients during our stay here.
We also desire to acknowledge our entire satisfaction with all the arrangements
for the conduct of the Games. The existence of the Stadium as a structure so uniquely
adapted to its purpose; the proved ability of Greece to competently administer the
Games, and, above all, the fact that Greece is the original home of the Olympic
Games; all these considerations force upon us the conviction that these Games should
never be removed from their native soil.
John Graham
W. Welles Hoyt
Ellery H. Clark
James B. Connolly
Gardner B. Williams
Thomas P. Curtis
Thomas E. Burke
Arthur Blake
Robert Garrett, Jr.
Albert C. Tyler
Francis A. Lane
H. B. Jamison
17
We, the undersigned, citizens of the United States, who have been present at the
Games, heartily concur in the foregoing.
Eben Alexander
Charles S. Fairchild
Giord Dyer
Benj. Ide Wheeler
George Dana Lloyd
T. W. Heeremance
Eugene P. Andrews
Joseph Clark Hoppin
Corwin Knapp Linson57
But it was not to be. The next Olympics would go to Paris as scheduled. They would be
held alongside the Paris Exposition of 900, and would play second fiddle to that Worlds Fair.
An Interim Olympics was conducted in Athens in 906, which is now no longer considered an
Olympic Games by the IOC. As of 996, no Olympic Games in the regular cycle had returned
to Greece.
SUMMARY STATISTICS
896 Olympic Games Places Won by Countries
st
2nd
3rd
Places
Greece
United States
Germany
France
Great Britain and Ireland
Hungary
Denmark
Austria
Switzerland
Australia
Great Britain and Ireland/Germany
Egypt
Greece/Egypt
Great Britain and Ireland/Australia
10
11
6
5
2
2
1
2
1
2
1
-
16
7
5
4
3
1
2
1
2
1
1
-
19
2
2
2
2
3
3
2
1
45
20
13
11
7
6
6
5
3
2
1
1
1
1
Totals (43 events)
43
43
36
122
Two thirds in 00 meters (athletics men); no third in 0 meter high hurdles (athletics men); two seconds/no third in high jump (athletics men); two thirds in pole vault (athletics men); no third in 00 kilometer race cycling; no third in 2-hour race cycling; two
thirds in foil fencing (men); no third in foil masters fencing (men); no second/third in horizontal bar, team (gymnastics men); no third in parallel bars (gymnastics men); no third in
pommelled horse (gymnastics men); no third in horizontal bar (gymnastics men); no third
in 00 meter freestyle (swimming men); no third in ,200 meter freestyle (swimming men);
and two thirds in tennis mens singles.
18
In 896 mens doubles tennis, Germany and Great Britain and Ireland shared first place,
Greece and Egypt shared second place, and Australia and Great Britain and Ireland shared third
place.
Most Places Won (2 or more) [33]

Herman Weingrtner (GER-GYM)
Carl Schuhmann (GER-GYM/WRE)
Alfred Flatow (GER-GYM)
Robert Garrett (USA-ATH)
Paul Masson (FRA-CYC)
Edwin H. Flack (AUS-ATH/TEN)
Louis Zutter (SUI-GYM)
Leon Flameng (FRA-CYC)
Ioannis Frangoudis (GRE-SHO)
A. Viggo Jensen (DEN-SHO/WLT)
Adolf Schmal (AUT-CYC)
Holger L. Nielsen (DEN-SHO/WLT)
Conrad Bcker (GER-GYM)
John M. P. Boland (GBR-TEN)
Thomas E. Burke (USA-ATH)
Ellery H. Clark (USA-ATH)
Gustav Felix Flatow (GER-GYM)
Alfred Hajos (HUN-SWI)
Georg Hilmar (GER-GYM)
Fritz Manteuel (GER-GYM)
Karl Neukirch (GER-GYM)
Richard Rstel (GER-GYM)
Gustav Schuft (GER-GYM)
Launceston Elliot (GBR-WLT)
Georgios Orphanidis (GRE-SHO)
Sumner Paine (USA-SHO)
Ioannis Mitropoulos (GRE-GYM)
Dionysios Kasdaglis (GRE-TEN)
Stamatios Nikolopoulos (GRE-CYC)
James B. Connolly (USA-ATH)
Fritz Hofmann (GER-ATH/GYM)
Thomas Xenakis (GRE-GYM)
Sotirios Versis (GRE-ATH/WLT)
st
2nd
3rd
3
4
3
2
3
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
-
2
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
1
1
1
-
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
2
st
2nd
3rd
4
3
3
2
1
1
-
Places
6 [ with 6]
4
4
4 [43 with 4]
3
3
3
3
3
3 [0]
3
3 [28 with 3]
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2 [20]
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2 [30]
2
2
2 [332 with 2]
Most Championships Won (2 or more) [8]

Carl Schuhmann (GER-GYM/WRE)
Hermann Weingrtner (GER-GYM)
Alfred Flatow (GER-GYM)
Places
4 [ with 4]
6
4

Paul Masson (FRA-CYC)
Robert Garrett (USA-ATH)
Edwin H. Flack (AUS-ATH/GYM)
Conrad Bcker (GER-GYM)
John M. P. Boland (GBR-TEN)
Thomas E. Burke (USA-ATH)
Ellery H. Clark (USA-ATH)
Edwin Flack (AUS-ATH)
Gustav Felix Flatow (GER-GYM)
Alfred Hajos (HUN-SWI)
Georg Hilmar (GER-GYM)
Fritz Manteuel (GER-GYM)
Karl Neukirch (GER-GYM)
Richard Rstel (GER-GYM)
Gustav Schuft (GER-GYM)
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
19
2
-
1
-
3 [43 with 3]
4
3
2
2
2
2 [0]
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2 [84 with 2]
Youngest Competitors, Men (0 athletes/5 performances)

Yrs-days
10-218*
16-101
17-101
18-070
18-070
18-097
18-097
18-100
18-101
18-101
18-358
18-358
19-095
19-097
19-099
Dimitrios Loundras (GRE/GYM, Parallel bars [team]NB-3)

Ioannis Malokinis (GRE/SWI, 00 meters for sailors-)
Alexandros Theofilakis (GRE/SHO, Free rifle [300 meters]-ac)
Alfrd Hajs (HUN/SWI, 00 meter freestyle-)
Hajs (HUN/SWI, ,200 meter freestyle-)
Athanasios Skaltsogiannis (GRE/ATH, 0 meter hurdles-ac)
Skaltsogiannis (GRE/ATH, Long jump-ac)
Nikolaos Andriakopoulos (GRE/GYM, Rope climbing-)
Dimitrios Petrokokkinos (GRE/TEN, Doubles-2)
Petrokokkinos (GRE/TEN, Singles-=8)
Gardner Williams (USA/SWI, 100 meter freestyle-ac)
Williams (USA/SWI, ,200 meter freestyle-ac)
Ioannis Persakis (GRE/ATH, Triple jump-3)
Dimitrios Golemis (GRE/ATH, ,500 meters-ac)
Golemis (GRE/ATH, 800 meters-3)
Youngest Top Three, Men (0 athletes/3 performances)

Yrs-days
10-218
16-101
18-070
18-070
18-100
18-101
19-095
Dimitrios Loundras (GRE/GYM, Parallel bars [team]-3)

Dimitrios Petrokokkinos (GRE/TEN, Doubles-2)
Ioannis Persakis (GRE/ATH, Triple jump-3)
*For cases in which exact birth dates are unknown, estimated ages are given in italics; years (and days) are counted using
January for youngest entries and 3 December for oldest.
20

19-097
19-097
19-098
19-099
19-100
19-100
Miltiadis Gouskos (GRE/ATH, Shot put-2)

Lon Flameng (FRA/CYC, 00 km.-)
Pantelis Karasevdas (GRE/SHO, Military rifle [200 meters]-)
Dimitrios Golemis (GRE/ATH, 800 meter-3)
Flameng (FRA/CYC, 0 km.-2)
Flameng (FRA/CYC, 2,000 meters-3)
Youngest Champions, Men (0 athletes/2 performances)

16-101
18-070
18-070
18-100
19-097
19-097
19-098
19-297
19-297
19-349
20-013
20-061

Lon Flameng (FRA/CYC, 00 km.-)
Miltiadis Gouskos (GRE/ATH, Shot put-2)
Pantelis Karasevdas (GRE/SHO, Military rifle [200 meters]-)
Gustav Schuft (GER/GYM, Horizontal bar [teams]-)
Schuft (GER/GYM, Parallel bars [teams]-)
Ioannis Georgiadis (GRE/FEN, Sabre-)
Friedrich Adolph Fritz Traun (GER/TEN, Doubles-)
Eugene-Henri Gravelotte (FRA/FEN, Foil-)
Oldest Competitors, Men (0 athletes/38 performances)

40-010
39-352
39-351
39-350
39-349
36-103
36-102
36-101
36-101
36-100
36-099
34-053
34-052
34-102
34-099
31-226
31-225
31-225
31-225
31-225
31-225
31-225
31-158
31-157
Charles Waldstein (USA/SHO, Military rifle [200 meters]-ac)

Sidney Merlin (GBR/SHO, Free rifle [300 meters]-ac)
Merlin (GBR/SHO, Pistol [25 meters]-dnf )
Merlin (GBR/SHO, Military pistol [25 meters]-dnf )
Merlin (GBR/SHO, Military rifle [200 meters]-0)
August Goedrich (GER/CYC, Road race-2)
Georgios Orfanidis (GRE/SHO, Free rifle [300 meters]-)
Orfanidis (GRE/SHO, Pistol [25 meters]-2)
Orfanidis (GRE/SHO, Free pistol [30 meters]-5)
Orfanidis (GRE/SHO, Military pistol [25 meters]-ac)
Orfanidis (GRE/SHO, Military rifle [200 meters]-5)
Eugen Schmidt (DEN/ATH, 00 meters-ac)
Schmidt (DEN/SHO, Military rifle [200 meters]-=2)
Anastasios Metaxas (GRE/SHO, Free rifle [300 meters]-4)
Metaxas (GRE/SHO, Military rifle [200 meters]-4)
Hermann Weingrtner (GER/GYM, Parallel bars-ac)
Weingrtner (GER/GYM, Horizontal bar-)
Weingrtner (GER/GYM, Horizontal bar [teams]-)
Weingrtner (GER/GYM, Parallel bars [teams]-)
Weingrtner (GER/GYM, Pommelled horse-2)
Weingrtner (GER/GYM, Rings-2)
Weingrtner (GER/GYM, Horse vault-3)
Karl Neukirch (GER/GYM, Parallel bars-ac)
Neukirch (GER/GYM, Parallel bars [teams]-)

31-157
31-157
31-157
31-157
30-130
30-129
30-129
30-129
29-115
29-114
29-114
29-114
29-114
29-113
Neukirch (GER/GYM, Horizontal bar [teams]-)

Neukirch (GER/GYM, Horizontal bar-ac)
Neukirch (GER/GYM, Horse vault-ac)
Neukirch (GER/GYM, Pommelled horse-ac)
Louis Zutter (SUI/GYM, Parallel bars-2)
Zutter (SUI/GYM, Horse vault-2)
Zutter (SUI/GYM, Pommelled horse-)
Zutter (SUI/GYM, Horizontal bar-ac)
Holger Louis Nielsen (DEN/SHO, Free pistol [30 meters]-2)
Nielsen (DEN/SHO, Pistol [25 meters]-3)
Nielsen (DEN/SHO, Military pistol [25 meters]-5)
Nielsen (DEN/SHO, Military rifle [200 meters]-dnf )
Nielsen (DEN/ATH, Discus throw-ac)
Nielsen (DEN/FEN, Sabre-3)
Oldest Top Three, Men (0 athletes/30 performances)

36-103
36-102
36-101
31-225
31-225
31-225
31-225
31-225
31-157
31-157
30-130
30-129
30-129
29-115
29-114
29-113
27-333
27-332
27-164
27-161
27-160
27-099
26-335
26-333
26-333
26-333
26-190
26-189
26-189
26-189
August Goedrich (GER/CYC, Road race-2)

Orfanidis (GRE/SHO, Pistol [25 meters]-2)
Hermann Weingrtner (GER/GYM, Horizontal bar-)
Weingrtner (GER/GYM, Pommelled horse-2)
Weingrtner (GER/GYM, Rings-2)
Karl Neukirch (GER/GYM, Parallel bars [teams]-)
Neukirch (GER/GYM, Horizontal bar [teams]-)
Louis Zutter (SUI/GYM, Parallel bars-2)
Zutter (SUI/GYM, Horse vault-2)
Zutter (SUI/GYM, Pommelled horse-)
Holger Louis Nielsen (DEN/SHO, Free pistol [30 meters]-2)
Nielsen (DEN/SHO, Pistol [25 meters]-3)
Nielsen (DEN/FEN, Sabre-3)
Sumner Paine (USA/SHO, Free pistol [30 meters]-)
Paine (USA/SHO, Military pistol [25 meters]-2)
James Brendan Bennet Connolly (USA/ATH, High jump-=2)
Connolly (USA/ATH, Long jump-3)
Connolly (USA/ATH, Triple jump-)
Tilemakhos Karakalos (GRE/FEN, Sabre-2)
Carl Schuhmann (GER/WRE, Unlimited class-)
Schuhmann (GER/GYM, Horizontal bar [teams]-)
Schuhmann (GER/GYM, Horse vault-)
Schuhmann (GER/GYM, Parallel bars [teams]-)
Alfred Flatow (GER/GYM, Parallel bars-)
Flatow (GER/GYM, Horizontal bar [teams]-)
Flatow (GER/GYM, Parallel bars [teams]-)
Flatow (GER/GYM, Horizontal bar-2)
21
22
Oldest Champions, Men (0 athletes/8 performances)

36-102
31-225
31-225
31-225
31-157
31-157
30-129
27-333
27-160
26-335
26-333
26-333
26-333
26-190
26-189
26-189
26-003
25-216

Hermann Weingrtner (GER/GYM, Horizontal bar-)
Karl Neukirch (GER/GYM, Horizontal bar [teams]-)
Neukirch (GER/GYM, Parallel bars [teams]-)
Louis Zutter (SUI/GYM, Pommelled horse-)
Sumner Paine (USA/SHO, Free pistol [30 meters]-)
James Brendan Bennet Connolly (USA/ATH, Triple jump-)
Carl Schuhmann (GER/WRE, Unlimited class-)
Schuhmann (GER/GYM, Horizontal bar [teams]-)
Schuhmann (GER/GYM, Horse vault-)
Schuhmann (GER/GYM, Parallel bars [teams]-)
Alfred Flatow (GER/GYM, Parallel bars-)
Flatow (GER/GYM, Horizontal bar [teams]-)
Flatow (GER/GYM, Parallel bars [teams]-)
John Bryant Paine (USA/SHO, Military pistol [25 meters]-)
Thomas Pelham Curtis (USA/ATH, 0 meter hurdles-)
Total Known Competitors

AUS
AUT
CYP
DEN
EGY
FRA
GBR
GER
GRE
HUN
ITA
SMY
SUI
SWE
USA
Ath
1
1
3
6
5
5
27
3
1
1
10
Cyc
1
2
2
5
8
1
-
Fen
1
1
4
9
-
Gym
1
1
1
11
9
2
2
1
-
Sho
3
1
2
28
1
1
3
Swi
2
9
1
1
Ten
1
1
1
2
1
6
1
-
Wlt
1
1
1
3
1
-
Wre
1
1
2
1
-
Subtotal
2
4
1
9
1
15
14
24
101
9
1
2
3
2
14
Totals
1
3
1
3
1
13
10
19
98
7
1
2
3
1
14
Total
63
19
15
28
39
13
13
202
177
Nations
11
56
15
Total Estimated Competitors

The above numbers for known competitors are the same for all nations and all sports with
the exception of Greece. Certain Greek athletes in gymnastics, shooting, and swimming definitely
23
competed, but no evidence can be found as to their exact identity. It is also possible that one or
two Greek swimmers may have yet to be identified, but that is less certain.
Ath
Cyc
Fen
Gym
Sho
Swi
Ten
Wlt
Wre
Subtotal
Totals
GRE
27
52
50
15
172
166
Total
63
19
15
71
61
19
13
273
245
Known Competitors by Nation

Subtotal
2-sport
3-sport
4-sport
Total
Australia
Austria
Cyprus
Denmark
Egypt
France
Germany
Great Britain & Ireland
Greece
Hungary
Italy
Smyrna
Switzerland
Sweden
United States
2
4
1
9
1
15
24
14
101
9
1
2
3
2
14
1
1
1
2
2
1
3
1
-
1
1
-
1
1
1
-
1
3
1
3
1
13
19
10
98
7
1
2
3
1
14
Totals
202
12
177
15
15
Nations
Competitors, Nations, and Events by Sports

Cycling
Fencing
Gymnastics
Shooting
Swimming
Tennis (Lawn)
Weightlifting
Wrestling
Subtotals
Multisport Athletes
Totals
Known
Athletes
Estimated
Athletes
Nations
Events
63
19
15
28
39
13
13
7
5
202
63
19
15
71
61
19
13
7
5
273
11
6
4
8
7
4
7
5
4
56
12
6
3
8
5
4
2
2
1
43
17
28
177
245
15
24
Athletes Competing in Two or More Sports in 896 [7]

Four Sports [3]Denmark: Jensen, Viggo. Athletics/Gymnastics/Shooting/Weightlifting.
Germany: Schuhmann, Carl. Athletics/Gymnastics/Weightlifting/Wrestling. Great Britain: Elliot,
Launceston. Athletics/Gymnastics/Weightlifting/Wrestling.
Three Sports [2]Denmark: Nielsen, Holger. Athletics/Fencing/Shooting. Hungary:
Topavicza, Momcsill. Tennis/Weightlifting/Wrestling.
Two Sports [2]Australia: Flack, Edwin Harold. Athletics/Tennis. Austria: Schmal,
Adolf. Cycling/Fencing. Denmark: Schmidt, Eugen. Athletics/Shooting. France: Grisel,
Alphonse. Athletics/Gymnastics. Lermusiaux, Albin. Athletics/Shooting. Germany: Hofmann,
Fritz. Athletics/Gymnastics. Traun, Friedrich Adolf Fritz. Athletics/Tennis. Great Britain:
Robertson, George Stuart. Athletics/Tennis. Greece: Papasideris, Georgios. Athletics/Weightlifting. Petmezas, Aristovoulos. Gymnastics/Shooting. Versis, Sotirios. Athletics/Weightlifting.
Sweden: Sjberg, Henrik. Athletics/Gymnastics.
NOTES
1. Three other nations had athletes entered in events at the 896 Olympics, but these athletes
never competed. The noncompeting nations were Belgium, Chile, and Russia. In addition, both Bulgaria and Serbia are often considered to have been represented at the 896 Olympics. Charles Champaud was a Swiss national who competed in gymnastics in 896, but was living and studying in Sofia,
Bulgaria, at the time of the Olympics. He is often listed incorrectly as Bulgarian. Momcsill Topavicza
competed in tennis (lawn), weightlifting, and wrestling in 896. He was from what is the current
province of Vojvodina within the republic of Serbia in modern-day Yugoslavia. But in 896 this was
a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and considered a part of Hungary.
2. The last three constituted a special committee for handling the funds for the renovation of
the stadium at the indication of the generous donor Georgios Averof.
3. Kokkidis replaced the originally elected Mr. Markos N. Dragoumis, who went abroad.
4. Ian Buchanan and Bill Mallon, Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement (Lanham, Md.:
Scarecrow, 996) p. xxiv.
5. Coubertin, Mmoires Olympiques (Lausanne: Bureau International de Pdagogie Sportive,
93).
6. Ibid., p. .
7. Richard D. Mandell, The First Modern Olympics (Berkeley: University of California Press,
976), pp. 8384.
8. John J. MacAloon, This Great Symbol: Pierre de Coubertin and the Origins of the Modern
Olympic Games (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 98), pp. 6466.
9. Ibid., p. 67.
10. Wolf Lyberg, The History of the IOC Sessions. I. 894930 (Lausanne: International Olympic
Committee, Oct. 994), p. 7.
11. David C. Young, The Olympic Myth of Greek Amateur Athletes (Chicago: Ares, 984), p. 6.
12. IOC, Bulletin du Comit International des Jeux Olympiques (Paris: IOC, July 894), p. 4.
13. Tidning fr Idrott, 26 April 894.
14. MacAloon, op. cit., pp. 66-67.
15. The correct French name was the Union des Socits Franaises de Sports Athltiques
(USFSA).
16. Coubertin, Mmoires Olympiques.
17. Bill Henry, An Approved History of the Olympic Games (New York: G. P. Putnams Sons, 948),
p. 32.
18. Lyberg, op. cit., pp. 90.
19. MacAloon, op. cit., p. 7.
25
20. MacAloon, op. cit., pp. 772, quoting from the Times of London, 8 June 894.
21. IOC, loc. cit.
22. IOC, loc. cit.
23. Ibid., p. 0.
24. Joanna Davenport, Athens 896: The Games of the st Olympiad, in Historical Dictionary of the Modern Olympic Movement, ed. John E. Findling and Kimberly D. Pelle (Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood Press, 996), p. 4.
25. Mandell, op. cit., p. 9, referenced to Coubertin, LIde olympique, pp. 57.
26. Coubertin, Une Campagne de vingt-et-un ans (Paris: 908).
27. Henry, op. cit., p. 37.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid., pp. 3839.
30. Ibid., p. 39.
31. Ibid., pp. 3940.
32. Coubertin, Une Campagne de vingt-et-un ans.
33. Ibid., p. 40.
34. MacAloon, op. cit., p. 85, referencing Coubertin, Une Campagne de vingt-et-un ans, p. 4;
and Mmoires olympiques, p. 26.
35. Henry, op. cit., pp. 404; and MacAloon, op. cit., pp. 8990; referencing Coubertin, Une
Campagne de vingt-et-un ans, pp. 45.
36. Henry, op. cit., p. 4.
37. Henry, op. cit., pp. 442.
38. Ibid., pp. 4243.
39. Ibid., p. 43.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid., pp. 4344.
42. Michael Sheridan, Good Reasons: 00 Years of Olympic Marathon Races (n.p.: 996), p. .
43. Henry, loc. cit.
44. Henry, loc. cit.
45. Ibid.
46. Henry, op. cit., pp. 4446.
47. MacAloon, op. cit., p. 209.
48. Recently discovered evidence of later Olympic champions than the usually listed Varasdates
of Armenia in A.D. 369 comes from U. Sinn, Neue Erkenntnisse zu den letzten Olympischen Spielen in der Antike ein Neufund aus Olympia, Antike Welt 26, 2 (995): 55.
49. Airoldi walked from Milan to Ragusa (present day Dubrovnik), then took a ship from there
to Corfu, and then boarded another ship to Patras. He walked from Patras to Athens, arriving in
Athens in the afternoon of 3 March. From La Bicicletta, 9 April 896.
50. David E. Martin and Roger W. H. Gynn, The Marathon Footrace, pp. 56.
51. Ibid., pp. 34.
52. The Baron de Coubertin; Philemon, Timoleon; Lambros, Spiridon P.; and Politis, Nikolaos G., editors, The Olympic Games 776 B.C.896 A.D.; With the Approval and Support of the Central Council of the International Olympic Games in Athens, under the Presidency of H.R.H. the Crown
Prince Constantine (Athens: Charles Beck, 896), p. 5.
53. Ibid., pp. 5355.
54. Ibid.
55. Ibid.
56. See also the article by Robertson reproduced herein (pages 5463), which strongly supported
keeping the Olympics in Greece in perpetuity.
57. The New York Times, 3 May 896.

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THE 896

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896 Olympic Games Analysis and Summaries

Athletics (Track & Field)

Other Sports and Events

Appendix I: 896 Program

The 896 Olympic Games

Athletics (Track & Field)

Primary Sources from 896

References (with Abbreviations)

Olympic Historical and Statistical Works after 896

Diem, Carl. Ein Leben fr den Sport. Dsseldorf: no year.

References (with Abbreviations)

zur Megede, Ekkehard. Die olympische Leichtathletik. Bands 3. Darmstadt: Justus

References (with Abbreviations)

National Olympic Histories

Summary Articles (Waldstein)

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Waldstein)

The 896 Olympic Games

THE OLYMPIC GAMES OF 896

Summary Articles (Coubertin)

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Coubertin)

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Coubertin)

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Coubertin; Butler)

THE OLYMPIC GAMES

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Butler)

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Butler; Curtis)

HIGH HURDLES AND WHITE GLOVES

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Curtis)

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Curtis; Richardson)

THE NEW OLYMPIAN GAMES

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Richardson)

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Richardson)

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Richardson)

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Richardson)

The 896 Olympic Games

THE OLYMPIC GAMES BY A COMPETITOR

Summary Articles (Robertson)

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Robertson)

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Robertson)

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Robertson)

The 896 Olympic Games

Summary Articles (Robertson)