1896 Olympics Facts: Find Out How It All Started!

One event that never fails to connect us with our country is the Olympic games.

Whatever be your inclination to sports, this international competition will surely pull you towards it. Moreover, when you see the athletes of your country performing brilliantly in any of the events, you feel the victory yourself.

As you may know, the Olympic history is of ancient Greek origin, when the sporting event used to take place in Olympia. The modern Olympic games are a rendition of the ancient tradition and everything started with the establishment of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894.

Keeping in mind the roots, the first-ever game was hosted in Athens, Greece.

The games that we see right now and the way the events happen are a bit different from how it all started. Hence, we thought of giving you a glimpse of how the major sport event took place in 1896.

So, keep on reading to find out all the interesting facts about the inaugural year.

If you enjoyed this article, why not also read about 1936 Olympics facts and 2012 Olympics facts here at Kidadl?

Fun Facts About 1896 Olympics

When a major international event is held for the first time, there have to be some fun facts, so we have compiled some of them for you.

The opening ceremony was held on April 6, 1896, on a Monday. Currently, the opening ceremonies are usually held on a Friday.

However, the day itself was quite significant, being the anniversary of Greece's independence as well as the day of Easter for both the Western and Eastern Christian Churches.

Spyridon Samaras was the one to compose the Olympic Hymn based on the words written by Kostis Palamas and it was performed by nine bands along with 150 choir singers during the event.

The closing ceremony was held on Wednesday, April 15, after being postponed from Tuesday due to unprecedented rains. The King of Greece was present in the event and it started with the national anthem of Greece.

Moreover, the King was the one to present the gifts to all the winners. The person that came first in an event received a silver medal along with an olive branch and a diploma. On the other hand, the runner-ups got a copper medal and a laurel branch along with the diploma.

Unlike today, there were no bronze medals for the third position. The Olympics ended when the King declared so and it was closed with the Greek national hymn.

There is a dispute in calculating the number of nations that participated in the 1896 Olympics. For instance, at that time Australia was a bunch of colonies rather than a complete nation.

But, currently, it is in fact considered as a separate state. Similarly, Chile persists that they were a part of the games, and even went ahead to employ police into proving the fact.

Luis Subercaseaux is the athlete that is claimed by Chile to have participated in the 1896 Olympic games. Some even dispute the presence of Bulgaria in the competition.

Having said that, the number varies between 12-14 based on the acceptance. The nations included Australia, Austria, Germany, the USA, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland.

On top of that, one of the team sports like tennis doubles could include individuals from different nations, so IOC gives it the label of a mixed team. Belgium and Russia did show interest in participating in the 1896 Olympics but later backed out.

Four podium sweeps took place in the 1896 Olympics in the events of Men's long jump (the USA), Men's 200 m military rifle (Greece), Men's high jump (the USA), and Men's sailors 100 m freestyle (Greece).

The last event of Men's sailors 100 m freestyle was specifically held for the Greek Royal Navy and the event was won by the only three Greek athletes who participated in it.

The day after the official marathon was over, a woman, Stamata Revithi took the initiative of completing a 24.8 mi (40 km) course within five hours and thirty minutes. She ended her run at the Panathinaiko Stadium.

The reason behind this move was that the committee did not allow her to participate in the 1896 Olympics as it was exclusively held for the men.

Only the countries of Greece, Great Britain, France, Switzerland, and Australia have maintained being a part of all the modern Olympic games held till 2020 since 1896. This is indeed a fun fact for all of the Olympics.

Facts About First Olympics Games In Greece

As you may know that the beginning of the first Olympic game in 1896 was a way to commemorate the ancient Olympic Games that were held in honor of the Greek gods.

Having said that, similar events such as the Olympic games did take place, especially in Europe. Among the first being the Cotswold Games or Cotswold Olimpick Games that took place in Chipping Campden, located in England.

Robert Dover was the one to organize it between 1612-1642. Apart from it, the L'Olympiade de la République was also a similar event organized in Revolutionary France between the years of 1796-1798.

It even included several sports events that were part of the ancient games. Olympiska spelen i Ramlösa was an Olympic-like event organized in Sweden in 1834 and 1836 which was attended by 25,000 spectators.

There was also the Wenlock Olympian Games, which initially William Penny Brookes held at Much Wenlock, in Shropshire, England.

The games are still held to date. Before the modern Olympic games started, the Grand Olympic Festival was held at Liverpool between 1862-1867.

Devised by the duo John Hulley and Charles Melly, the game had an international approach and much of the 1896 event was based on the former game. In 1865, the trio, Hulley, Brookes, and E.G.

Ravenstein founded the National Olympian Association which would precede the British Olympic Association. This gave way to the establishment of the International Olympic Charter and the organization of the national Olympic Games in 1866 in Great Britain.

Talks of reviving the Olympic games started to make rounds with the Greek War of Independence in 1821 when they got freedom from the Ottoman Empire.

The poet, Panagiotis Soutsos first wrote about it, but Evangelos Zappas was a philanthropist who went ahead and told King Otto of Greece in 1856 about funding the Olympic games. He did in fact fund the first Olympic Games held in 1859 at Athens city square, and the event is also known as the Zappas Olympics.

He was also the one to fund the restoration of the ancient Panathenaic Stadium for holding future Olympic events.

However, when Baron Pierre de Coubertin attended the games held by the Wenlock Olympian Society in 1890 he was inspired to establish the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

He went ahead to work around the ideas of Brookes and Zappas to create the modern Olympics that are rotational and held internationally as well as decided to host it every four years.

He presented the ideas during the committee's first Olympic Congress and they came up with the idea to hold the inaugural games at Athens in 1896.

Moreover, the Greek writer, Demetrius Vikela was chosen as the first president to reside over the IOC. So, Pierre can be regarded as the inventor of the modern Olympics.

However, Heracles or Hercules is said to be the initiator of the ancient Olympics dating back to the sixth century BC.

The Baron was also the one to design the Olympic rings and it was introduced in 1914. The importance of the 1896 Olympic games lies in the fact that sports can bring the world together.

Even the ancient Olympics were held as a religious event for gathering rather than just a sporting competition.

The first modern Olympics was in fact held in the Panathenaic Stadium which Zappas funded to renovate and 14 nations participated in the games. In total, 241 athletes competed amongst each other under 43 sporting events.

The Greek government contributed to the event and funded it by selling tickets as well as special Olympic commemorative stamp sets.

Even though the Greek King and the citizens of Greece wanted Athens to be the permanent spot, organizing the modern Olympics on a rotational basis was favored by the committee. And, it was decided that the 1900 games would be organized in Paris.

Facts About The Events In 1896 Olympics

When it came to the events there were nine main categories for events and 43 total events.

On the very day of the opening ceremony, the games started with two athletic events. In total, there were 12 athletics events. Apart from that, there were six cycling events, five in track cycling, and one in the road category.

Fencing had three events while gymnastics had eight. Five events were held in the shooting. There were four events in the swimming category held in the open sea.

Two events were held for tennis and another two for weightlifting. No weight classes existed in the weightlifting event, hence everyone participated in the same category irrespective of their weight. Similarly, only one wrestling competition was held and the rules weren't quite well defined.

Even though the Panathinaiko Stadium was the main stadium for several events, other locations were also organized based on the need. The Panathinaiko Stadium had a capacity of around 80,000 spectators.

The tennis events were held at Athens Lawn Tennis Club, while shooting was organized in Kallithea. Some cycling events were held in Neo Phaliron Velodrome while others were organized at Marathon. Zappeion served as the base for fencing.

Facts About Winners Of 1896 Olympics

Every year when the modern Olympics is held our eyes are usually glued to the leaderboard to see all the medals that the players have won.

The nation to lead or win the 1896 Olympics was the United States with eleven gold medals. However, during that time the winning athletes were given silver medals while the runner-ups got copper medals.

The Olympic committee did replace the initial medals at a later date. The concept of giving gold, silver, and bronze medals for the first three best performances was introduced in the third modern Olympics.

Having said that, Greece was the nation to win a total of 47 medals, making them leaders in the number of medals.

We do need to remember that around 65% of the athletes taking part in the events were from Greece while the others were mainly Europeans barring the US team. Spyridon Louis became the national hero of Greeks by acing the Olympic marathon event.

The most successful athlete was Carl Schuhmann, a gymnast, and wrestler from Germany who won four events. Moreover, all the participants in the 1896 Olympics were male, and females were only allowed during the games of 1900.

On the other hand, the American athlete Robert Garrett won both the discus and the shot put events, while the Greek athletes took the silver medal. Another US athlete Thomas Burke was the first Olympic champion to finish first in the 100 m and 400 m dash race.

He was also the only one to use the crouch start for the events which were at that point of time thought to be an uncomfortable way of starting.

In the cycling events, Paul Masson from France was to be the Olympic champion for the sprint event and the 10,000 m event.

He also acted as the pacemaker for his compatriot Léon Flameng in the 100 km event which led to a win. On the other hand, Adolf Schmal, an Austrian cyclist, and fencer won the 12-hour cycling event that was only completed by two athletes.

While the Greek athlete, Aristidis Konstantinidis managed to win the road event where he had to cover a distance of 54 mi (87 km) between Athens to Marathon.

Most of the athletes that took part in the 1896 Olympic games were actually amateurs. But, the fencing events were the only place where the professionals were encouraged to participate.

Leonidas Pyrgos who won the masters foil even became the first Greek Olympic champion through the event. The swimming events were held in the open sea because the organizers refused to fund the construction of a stadium.

Around 20,000 people gathered around the Bay of Zea in Piraeus to catch the swimmers in the event.

Alfréd Hajós, a Hungarian athlete went on to win the 100 m and 1200 m freestyle events. Yet, his win was made more significant when he won a silver medal for architecture in the 1924 Olympics making Hajós one of the two Olympians to win both athletic and artistic events.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for the 1896 Olympics facts: find out how it all started!, then why not take a look at 1920s sports facts or ancient Greek sports facts?