Overview
Held in the city of Athens in Greece between the 6th and 15th of April 1896, the Summer Olympics of 1896 was the first Olympic Games that were held in the Modern era. Officially known as the “Games of the I Olympiad”, they were held in Athens because ancient Greece was the birthplace of the Olympic Games.
Pierre de Coubertin, a famous French historian and pedagogue, organized a congress in the year 1894, in which Athens was chosen as the host city. The same congress also happened to witness the birth of the International Olympic Committee.
Being the first Olympic Games after a massive gap of 1500 years, the 1896 Summer Olympic faced numerous setbacks and challenges. However, it was still regarded a huge success because it managed to obtain the biggest international participation in any sports event up to that date. The crowd that came to watch the Olympics at the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens was the largest ever. The Greeks were overjoyed because their compatriot, Spiridon Louis managed to win the marathon. German gymnast and wrestler was the most successful athlete in the games, winning 4 gold medals.
Organizing the Games
When it was announced that the Olympics will return to the Greek mainland, the media, the Greek royal family and the public welcomed the news with great joy. Constantine I, the crown prince of Hellenes was overjoyed at the prospect and conferred his patronage in the hosting of the games along with his father. He later went on to become the president of the organizing committee for the 1896 games.
Due to political instability and financial crisis, there arose a situation where the prime minister of Greece declared that the country wouldn’t be able to host the games. When this was announced, Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrius Vikelas started a campaign in order to keep the Olympic movement active. Their combined efforts bore fruit on the 7th of January 1895, when Demetrius Vikelas and Pierre de Coubertin announced that Constantine I would be the president of the Organizing Committee. He also said that it would be Constantine’s responsibility to raise the necessary funds in order to hold the Olympics. Constantine’s enthusiastic approach and the patriotism of the Greeks resulted in the accumulation of a large number of funds. The total amount of money required to host the games was 3740000 gold drachmas.
The grassroots level efforts by Constantine brought in 330000 drachmas. Sales of tickets resulted in an additional 200000 drachmas. Constantine commissioned the circulation of a new set of Olympic postage stamps and their sales amounted to 400000 drachmas. Greek entrepreneur George Averoff donated 920000 drachmas at Constantine’s special request. In order to pay a tribute to Averoff’s generosity, Constantine constructed a statue of him outside the Panathinaiko Stadium, which was unveiled on the 5th of April 1896.
It was also decided that the athletes had to arrange for accommodation on their own. Therefore, the participating athletes were mostly those people who were in Greece at that time. For example, employees of the British Embassy participated for their country. It wasn’t until the Summer Olympics of 1932, that a separate Olympic Village was provided for the participants to live in.