The First Modern Olympic Games

On 6–15 April 1896, Athens hosted the first modern Olympic Games, revived by Pierre de Coubertin. About 240 athletes from 14 nations competed; Greek water-carrier Spyridon Louis won the first marathon.

The revival grew out of an international meeting in Paris in 1894, where the International Olympic Committee was established and Athens was chosen to stage the first Games. Holding the competition in Greece connected the new organisation to the ancient festival that had inspired it. The restored Panathenaic Stadium provided a striking setting, with marble seating and a large crowd at the opening ceremony.

The programme brought together 241 male competitors from fourteen countries for forty-three events. On 6 April, the American athlete James Connolly won the triple jump and became the first champion of the modern Olympic Games. The competition was much smaller than the international event familiar today, but it established a model that could be repeated in later host cities.

The marathon gave the Greek crowd a particularly memorable victory when Spyridon Louis finished first. The race helped link the new sporting festival to stories of ancient Greece. Athens demonstrated that athletes from different countries could gather for a shared programme under a continuing international organisation. The Games became the starting point for a modern Olympic cycle, rather than simply a single celebration of the past.