RRI Sports Club – The Olympic Games

Today we look at the first modern edition of the Olympic Games held in Athens 124 years ago, more precisely in April 1896

Florin Orban, 21.04.2021, 13:45

The opening ceremony took place on Sunday, April 5, when both the Catholic and
Orthodox Christians were celebrating Easter. The number of spectators attending
the ceremony was estimated at 80 thousand.

Competitions started on April 6 on the Olympic
Stadium which was built from scratch by the Greek authorities on the location
of an ancient arena. 241 athletes from 14 countries took part in the Olympic
Games. This was the largest international participation in a sports event up to
that moment.

In the spirit of the ancient Greek Olympic
tradition and especially at the insistence of the French baron Pierre de
Coubertin, the participation of women in the Olympic Games was forbidden. It
was only in Paris, in 1900, that women were allowed to compete in the Olympic
Games.

The first sports event held at the Athens
Olympics was the 100 meters race and the first Olympic medalist was the
American Francis Lane who ended the race in 12.20 seconds. Besides athletics,
the Olympic Games in Athens also included cycling, fencing, gymnastics,
shooting, swimming, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.

The marathon race took place on April 10 on
the same route, which the Athenian soldier Philippides had covered more than
2,300 years before, to deliver news of the victory of the battle of Marathon
over Persia. The winner of the marathon race was the Greek athlete Spiros Louis
who thus became a national hero.

The competition ended on April 15. The first
place in the nations’ ranking was held by the US with 11 gold medals out of a
total of 20 medals won at the Olympic Games. Greece obtained 46 medals, of
which 10 gold. (translation by L. Simion)