The Revival of the Ancient Olympics

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The Revival of the Ancient Olympics
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From Ancient to Modern

• 776 B.C. First Ancient Olympic Games
• 393 A.D. Last Ancient Olympic Games
• 1827 Greek Independence from the Ottoman Empire
• 1896 First Modern Olympic Games (in Athens)

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Call for Revival of the Olympics Games

• in a poem by Alexandros Soutsos
• in 1833
• in a newspaper called Helios

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Soutsos Poem

• If our shadow could fly to your earth it would
  daringly shout to the Ministers of the
  ThroneLeave your petty politics and vain
  quarrels.Recall the past splendour of
  Greece.Tell me, where are your ancient
  centuries?Where are your Olympic Games?Where
  your Panathenaic Games? Your majestic
  celebrations and great theatres? Where are your
  sculptures and busts, where are your altars and
  temples?Every city, every wood and every temple
  was filled before with rows of silent marble
  statues. Foreign nations decorated your altars
  with offerings, gold jars from Gygas. Kraters,
  silver plates and precious stones from Croesus.
  When the glorious Olympic festival opened, large
  crowds gathered to watch the games where athletes
  and kings came to compete.Ieron and Gelon and
  Philip and others before forty thousand bedazzled
  Greeks. Herodotus presented in his elegant
  history their recent triumphs. Thucydides
  listened to the beautiful harmony of his prose
  and prepared to meet him in competition as a
  worthy rival.
• (G. Dolianitis, Vikelas, First I.O.C. President,
  International Olympic Academy, S.Y.)

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Evangelis Zappas 1800-1865
Inspired by Soutsos poem Finances games of
1859 Left fortune for future games
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The Zappian Games

• 1859 / 1870 / 1875 / 1889
• Track and running events
• Cash prizes
• Trend from worker/athletes in 1859 to university
  athletes in 1889
• Ceremonies, uses of medals and organization paved
  way for IOC

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Zappian Games of 1859

• Held in Athens in a public square
• Large crowds
• Participants from spectators
• Mixed competition of agricultural, industrial and
  athletic events
• Criticized by press for poor organization

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Zappian Games of 1870

• Use of ancient Panathenaic Stadium

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Zappian Games of 1870

• Program and rules announced in advance
• Athletes chosen in advance, mostly Greek
• 30000 spectators
• Monetary and symbolic prizes
• Extremely successful

Giorgos Akestoridis, winner at the event of rope
climbing in the 2nd Zappian Olympic Games.
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Zappian Games of 1875

• Organized by Ioannis Phokianos, director of
  Public Gymnasium
• Strongly gymnastic
• Heavily academic
• General public banned from competition

Medal from the third Zappian Olympic Games in
1875 with the bust of king George I.
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Zappian Games of 1889

• Organized by Phokianos again
• Heavily gymnastic
• Held in Gymnasium, not stadium

The catalogue of exhibitors at the 4th Zappian
Olympic Games.
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International Olympic Committee (IOC)
The first Session of the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) was held in Paris on 18-23 June
1894. It was during the first Session that the
city of Athens was selected for the Games of the
I Olympiad.
The first Olympic Committee meets in 1896 Baron
de Coubertin is the second from left.
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1896First Modern Olympics
The first Session of the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) was held in Paris on 18-23 June
1894. It was during the first Session that the
city of Athens was selected for the Games of the
I Olympiad.
The cover of the book by Charles Beck about the
1896 Olympic Games became the first Olympic
poster.Hellenic Olympic Committee.
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Scenes from Athens 1896
100 metre race
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Some Stats 1896

• All 295 athletes were male.
• The American Thomas Burke won the 100-meter dash
  in 12.0 seconds.
• 10-year old Dimitrios Loundras of Greece finished
  third in the parallel-bars competition, becoming
  the youngest athlete to finish in top three.
• Carl Schuhmann of Germany was one of the most
  versatile athletes. He won the super heavyweight
  Greco-Roman wrestling and the long horse vault.
  He also competed in long jump, triple jump and
  shot put.

Spyros Louis, The first Marathon winner Last
torch bearer at 1936 Olympics
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The U.S. Team 1896
Several members of America's first Olympic team.
Standing T.E. Burke, Thomas P. Curtis, Ellery H.
Clark. Seated W.W. Hoyt, Sumner Paine, Trainer
John Graham, John B. Paine, Arthur Blake.
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1st Modern Olympic Champion

• James Connolly (USA-athletics) won the triple
  jump on 6 April 1896, and thus became the first
  Olympic champion since the Ancient Games. He also
  finished second in the high jump and third in the
  long jump. He left Harvard University to travel
  to Athens on a cargo ship and then by train to
  compete.

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Modern Olympic Movement

• MISSIONSWhat is the goal of the Olympic
  Movement? According to the Olympic Charter,
  established by Pierre de Coubertin, the goal of
  the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building
  a peaceful and better world by educating youth
  through sport practised without discrimination of
  any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which
  requires mutual understanding with a spirit of
  friendship, solidarity and fair
  play.Essential missions of the Olympic
  Movement Choice of the host city
  Organisation of the Olympic Games Equality in
  sport Promotion of women in sport
  Protection of athletes Human development
  assistance Protection of the environment
  The Olympic Truce

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Baron de Coubertin1863-1937
The man most responsible for the revival of the
modern Olympic Games was a French nobleman,
Pierre de Fredi, known as Baron de Coubertin.
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The Modern Olympic Ideal
"The idea of the revival of Olympic Games was not
a passing fancy it was the logical culmination
of a great movement. The 19th century saw the
taste for physical exercises revive everywhere
... At the same time the great inventions, the
railways and the telegraph have abridged
distances and mankind has come to live a new
existence the peoples have intermingled, they
have learned to know each other better and
immediately they started to compare themselves.
What one achieved the other immediately wished
also to endeavor universal exhibitions brought
together to one locality of the globe the
products of the most distant lands Literary or
scientific congresses have brought together, into
contact, the various intellectual forces. How
then should the athletes not seek to meet, since
rivalry is the basis of athletics, and in reality
the very reason of its existence?" (Baron Pierre
de Coubertin, 1896)