First Olympic Games. Olympic Games

Greetings, my inquisitive readers! All of you, of course, know from the Olympic Games, even from time to time, I'm sure, you cheer for our Russian athletes in front of the TV screens. But has anyone wondered why these sports competitions are so named, where they took place for the first time and how old they are?

I think everyone can give a short answer to one or two questions. Well, so that you can freely talk about the history of the Olympics, I propose to get acquainted with the topic called "The first ever Olympic Games" closer.

Lesson plan:

How it all began?

Ancient history will always remain a mystery to us, which even historians are unable to fully reveal. So it is in this matter. There is no reliable information about who actually and when founded the first Olympic Games in the history of mankind. Everything related to ancient times is always shrouded in myths.

The king of the small country of Elis, named Ifit, was preoccupied with one question: how to save his people from robberies and war, and came to the soothsayer for advice. The oracle's answer was a little strange: "We need to found games that are pleasing to the gods!" And Ifit went to his neighbor - the ruler of Sparta, announced a prediction, agreed on peace and, in gratitude, promised to organize athletic competitions.

The ancient Greek rulers established the order of the games and entered into a sacred alliance. Established competitions were to be held every four years in the ancient Greek town of Olympia. So the competition got its name Olympic.

There is another version of the appearance of the Olympic Games, according to which they began to be held thanks to the son of the god Zeus - Hercules, who brought the sacred olive branch to Olympia, marking the victory of his father over his ferocious grandfather.

According to other information, the same Hercules, with the help of athletic competitions, immortalized the memory of King Pelops for his victory in chariot races.

Which version do you prefer?

Organization of the first games

Whatever myth about the appearance of the first Olympic Games we no longer tend to, according to the documents, the date when they took place for the first time is attributed to 776 BC. On the bronze disc of King Ifit, the rules of the competitions were written down and a clause on a mandatory military truce for the duration of their holding was introduced. The words of the text of reconciliation are inscribed around the disk.

The venue for the competition, Olympia, was declared sacred, where one could enter only without weapons. Anyone who encroaches on the shrine, holding a sword in his hands, was proposed to be considered a criminal.

It was decided to hold competitions between harvest and grape harvest, in the sacred month, which began after the summer solstice. At first, the sports festival lasted one day, then the competition time was extended for five days, and later they began to compete for a month.

A specially created commission appointed the day of the beginning of the Olympic Games, and messengers traveled from Elis in different directions to announce the beginning of the truce and the date of the holiday. A month before the start of the competition, athletes from various ancient Greek states came to Olympia to train. Envoys of warring states Ancient Greece come together to negotiate peace and resolve conflicts.

Who could participate in ancient Greek competitions?

In order to apply for participation in the Olympic Games, one could not be a slave, or a barbarian, or a criminal. The ancient Greeks considered everyone who was not a citizen of their state barbarians. There was no age limit for the participants in the competition - both an adult man and a young man under the age of 20 could become one.

At first, only athletes from Elis took part in the competition. After a dozen games, residents of other cities of Ancient Greece were allowed to participate in the number of participants, and then athletes from the ancient Greek colonies joined them.

Olympic sports

In the programs of the Olympics of Ancient Greece, various sports were included gradually.

At first, only running was included in the competition of athletes.

These were short-distance competitions, when athletes ran from one end of the stadium to the other. Subsequently, a double run was added, when the distance included the way there and back. The fifteenth Olympic Games included long-distance running in their program. The sixty-fifth competitions were distinguished by a running competition with weighting - shields, helmets, leggings were hoisted on the athletes.

In the second decade of the Olympic years, chariot riding was included in the competition program, as well as pentathlon, which included wrestling, running, long jump, javelin and discus throwing.

During the thirty-third Olympiad in ancient Greece, such a sport as pankration appeared - martial arts with kicks and hands, suffocating techniques. By this time, the athletes had already skillfully competed in fisticuffs, for participation in which they protected their heads with a bronze cap, and their hands with leather belts with metal tips. Around the same time, horse racing was added to the Olympic program.

Ancient Greek Olympic winners

Why did the athletes try so hard, enduring physical exercise and exercising every year? Of course, for the sake of glory, to glorify both themselves and the city they came from!

The tradition that existed in ancient Greece to carve the names of the winners of the Olympics on marble columns that were installed along the banks of the Alpheus River played an invaluable role - the name of the first winner has come down to the present. They became a cook from Elis named Koreba.

All the winners of the competitions were called Olympionists. For their victory, the athletes were rewarded with a wreath of olive leaves and money.

But the most important reward awaited them at home, in their city, when the heroes received various privileges. They gained fame throughout ancient Greece and were honored at the level of great warriors. If an athlete won the Olympic competition three times, then in the city of residence he was given a bust and entered in the book of outstanding citizens.

If you already know such philosophers as Pythagoras and Plato, then it will be interesting for you to know that at one time the first was a champion in fisticuffs, and the second in pankration.

Why is it over?

The Olympic Games in ancient Greece began to lose their significance in the 2nd century BC. They began to turn into ordinary local competitions.

The reason for this is the conquest of the country by the Romans, who did not care about sports spirit, they saw only a spectacle in the games. The change of religion to Christianity put an end to the Olympics. Many scholars say it was the Roman Emperor Theodosius who officially banned the competition in 393 AD with his code of laws against paganism.

Only after centuries, in 1896, the Olympics was revived again thanks to the initiative of the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin.

5 Interesting Facts About the Ancient Olympic Games

1. Women were not allowed to the Olympic Games, not only as participants, but also as spectators. An exception was made only for the priestess and chariot drivers.
2. All athletes participating in the first Olympic Games performed completely without clothes. Yes, yes, they ran naked!
3. An athlete who violated the rules in pankration competitions was beaten by a judge with a stick.
4. The Olympic Games were to be repeated after 1417 days. This period of time was called the "Olympic year".
5. It is noteworthy that the athletes used dumbbells for the distance of the jump from a place. Apparently, they jumped into the distance more confidently.

And in 1978, an animated film was shot about how the Cossacks became Olympians. Do you want to see it? Then run turn on the video)

Here is such an interesting sports history. Now you can easily show off your knowledge in the classroom. I look forward to seeing you again on the ShkolaLa blog, check back for new interesting stories.

Good luck in your studies!

Evgenia Klimkovich.

When and where did the Olympic Games appear? And who is the founder of the Olympic Games, you will learn from this article.

Brief History of the Olympic Games

The Olympic Games originated in Ancient Greece, because the athleticism inherent in the Greeks became the reason for the emergence of sports games. The founder of the Olympic Games is King Enomai, who organized sport games for those who wished to take his daughter Hippodamia as a wife. According to legend, he was predicted that his son-in-law would be the cause of death. Therefore, young people who won in certain competitions died. Only the cunning Pelops overtook Oenomaus in chariots. So much so that the king broke his neck and died. The prediction came true, and Pelops, becoming king, established every 4 years to organize the Olympic Games in Olympia.

It is believed that in Olympia, the place where the first Olympic Games were held, the first competitions took place in 776 BC. The name of that who was the first winner of the games in ancient Greece - Koreb from Elis, who won the race.

olympic games in ancient greece sports

For the first 13 games, the only sport in which the participants competed was running. Then there was the pentathlon. It included running, javelin throwing, long jump, discus throwing, wrestling. A little later, a chariot race and fisticuffs were added.

The modern program of the Olympic Games includes 7 winter and 28 summer sports, that is, 15 and 41 disciplines, respectively. Everything depends on the season.

As soon as the Romans annexed Greece to Rome, the number of nationalities that could take part in the games increased. Gladiator fights have been added to the program of competitions. But in 394 AD, Emperor Theodosius I, an admirer of Christianity, canceled the Olympic Games, considering them entertainment for the pagans.

The Olympic Games have sunk into oblivion for as long as 15 centuries. The first who took a step towards the revival of forgotten competitions was the Benedictine monk Bernard de Montfaucon. He was interested in the history and culture of ancient Greece and insisted that excavations should be carried out in the place where the famous Olympia once stood.

In 1766, Richard Chandler found the ruins of unknown structures of antiquity near Mount Kronos. It was part of the temple wall. In 1824, Lord Stanhof, an archaeologist, began excavations on the banks of the Alpheus. In 1828, the baton of the excavations of Olympia was picked up by the French, and in 1875 by the Germans.

Pierre de Coubertin, the French statesman insisted that the Olympic Games should be restarted. And in 1896, the first revived Olympic Games were held in Athens, which are still popular today.

We hope that from this article you have learned where and when the Olympic Games originated.

The first Olympic Games took place in Olympia in 776 BC. This date has survived to this day thanks to the custom of the ancient Greeks to engrave the names of Olympic champions (they were then called Olympionists) on marble columns that were installed on the banks of the Alpheus River. The marble preserved not only the date, but also the name of the first winner. It was Koreb, a cook from Elis. The first 13 games involved only one type of competition - running for one stage. According to Greek myth, this distance was measured by Hercules himself, and it was equal to 192.27 m. Hence the well-known word "stadium" came from. Initially, athletes from two cities took part in the games - Elisa and Pisa. But soon they gained immense popularity, spreading to all Greek states. At the same time, another remarkable tradition arose: throughout the Olympic Games, the duration of which was constantly increasing, there was a "holy truce" for all the fighting armies.

Not every athlete could become a participant in the games. The law forbade slaves and barbarians from performing at the Olympics, i.e. foreigners. Athletes from among the free-born Greeks had to sign up with the judges a year before the opening of the competition. Immediately before the opening of the Olympic Games, they had to provide evidence that they had been preparing for the competition for at least ten months, keeping fit with daily exercises. Only for the winners of the previous Olympic Games, an exception was made. The announcement of the upcoming Olympic Games caused an extraordinary stir among the male population throughout Greece. People flocked to Olympia. True, women were forbidden to attend the games under pain of death.

ancient olympics program

Gradually, more and more new sports were added to the program of games. In 724 B.C. diaul was added to the run for one stage (stadiodrome) - a run for a distance of 384.54 m, in 720 BC. - dolichodrome or running on the 24th stage. In 708 BC The pentathlon was included in the program of the Olympic Games, consisting of running, long jump, wrestling, discus throwing and javelin throwing. Then the first wrestling competitions took place. In 688 BC the program of the Olympics included fisticuffs, after two more Olympics - a chariot race, and in 648 BC. - the most cruel type of competition - pankration, which combined the techniques of wrestling and fisticuffs.

The winners of the Olympic Games were revered as demigods. Throughout their lives, they were given all sorts of honors, and after the death of an Olympionist, they were ranked among the host of “small gods”.

After the adoption of Christianity, the Olympic Games began to be perceived as one of the manifestations of paganism, and in 394 BC. Emperor Theodosius I banned them.

The Olympic Movement revived only at the end of the 19th century, thanks to the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin. And, of course, the first revived Olympic Games were held on Greek land- in Athens, in 1896.

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not victory, but participation, just as the most important thing in life is not triumph, but struggle,” such an Olympic principle was defined in 1896 by the founder of the modern Games, Pierre de Coubertin. Exactly 120 years ago, on April 6, 1896, in Athens, the first modern Olympic Games were held, which became the largest sporting event that has ever taken place since ancient Greece.

On November 25, 1892, at the Sorbonne University in Paris, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who from his youth was actively involved in sports and studied ancient Greek culture and the experience of English colleges in which sports disciplines were taught, which led him to think about great importance physical education of young people, gave a lecture “The Revival of Olympism”, in which he called for the restoration of the Olympic Games and making them international. A brilliant orator and a talented organizer, Coubertin managed to captivate many politicians and public figures with his idea. On June 16-23, 1894, the first congress of the International Olympic Committee was held at the Sorbonne (Paris University), which convened Coubertin in order to announce his project to revive the Olympic Games. The idea of ​​holding such events was not new; during the 19th century, several local sports events were held in various European countries, organized on the model of the Ancient Olympic Games.

The Olympic Games of Ancient Greece were a religious and sporting festival held at Olympia in the Peloponnese. Information about the origin of the games is lost, but several myths have survived that describe this event. They were established by Hercules, who restored the games in honor of Pelops, dedicating them to Zeus, although it is known that the games were held before. According to another legend, in this place Zeus himself fought with Kronos for power on Earth, and the third myth adds that after this battle, the first Olympic Games were held in honor of the victory of Olympian Zeus. Apollo, who allegedly was the winner at the Olympic Games, was also considered the founder of the games in Olympia: he defeated Hermes in the run, and defeated Ares in a fistfight. The fact remains that Pythian flutes were played during the long jump competitions. The flute was dedicated to Apollo. According to another legend, Ifit, the king of Elis, the very one where Olympia was, worried about constant hostility and disgusting wars, decided to go to Delphic Oracle in order, according to his predictions, to protect his people from attacks and robberies. The answer was given to him: "Your people will be saved by rival games pleasing to the gods!" Then the smart ruler goes to his neighbor, the king of warlike Sparta, Lycurgus, and tells him about the predictions of the Oracle, and the Spartan sovereign not only agrees with this prophecy, but also takes Olympia under the protection of Laconia, declaring it a neutral land. So, according to their decision, agreed with the rulers of other small fragmented states, the Olympic Games are established, dedicated to the main Olympian god Zeus. At the time of the Games, a sacred truce (έκεχειρία) was declared, at which time it was impossible to wage war, although this was repeatedly violated. According to the Eleatic calendar, the ekcheria usually lasted two months, which were called Apollonium and Parthenium. At this time, not only Olympia, but the whole of Elis was proclaimed a “peace zone”, where everyone could arrive without fear for their lives, since there were almost no cases of violation of the truce, and those who dared to violate this rule were punished - a huge fine and a ban to participate in the Olympics.

The first documented celebration dates back to 776 BC. The champion of the first games was a young baker from Elis named Koreb (in some sources his name sounds like Korib, Koroib, Koroibos), who managed to win the 190-meter race. By the way, running was the only type of competition for the first 13 games, then double-distance running (384 meters) was added. Then, in 720 BC. the so-called "dolichodrome" was added - running to the 24th stage. At the 18th Olympiad, the pentathlon appeared, including running, long jumps, javelin throwing, discus throwing and wrestling itself. In 688 B.C. fisticuffs were added, and then a chariot race. The original Olympic Games lasted only one day. Later, the program was extended to five days and enriched with many sports and festive events accompanying the festival, where numerous athletes and spectators flocked. Athletes had to train in the gymnasium in Elis (a region in the northwest of the Peloponnese) for 10 months preceding the Olympic Games. A month before the opening of the games, the athletes arrived in Olympia and, under the guidance of experienced coaches, prepared for the competition.

On the first day of the games, the athletes (participants) swore and made sacrifices to the gods. Hellanodic judges, who were chosen from the citizens of Elis, also swore that they would judge honestly. The next 3 days were competitions. The main event is the pentathlon. The pentathlon always started with running, then long jumps (long jumps were very difficult, since the weights were clamped in the hands of the jumper.) Javelin throw - the third and Discus throw - the fourth, and the fifth was a fight in which it was necessary for the opponent to hit on the ground three times. Chariot races were perhaps the most anticipated spectacle: in two places there were pillars that all participants tried to get around closer, but, alas, turned over. From the 37th Olympiad (632 BC), teenagers also take part. Damiscos of Messinia wins the race for the 103rd Olympiad (368 BC) at the age of 12. From the 5th century BC e. Poets who read their works became participants in the Olympics. Among the participants and winners of the Olympic Games were famous scientists and thinkers, in particular Demosthenes, Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras of Samos, Hippocrates. Pythagoras, who once said about the significance of the Olympics in the life of the ancient Greeks, that “life is like games: others come to compete, others to trade, and the happiest ones to watch,” was a champion in fisticuffs, and Plato (a student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle ) - in pankration, i.e. fights without rules.

According to legend, the authors of pankration (ancient Greek πανκράτιον ← πᾶν - everything + κράτος - strength, power) are Hercules and Theseus. The first, thanks to this technique, overwhelmed the Nemean lion, and the second laid down the Minotaur, becoming king (13th century BC) created the Isthmian games, the program of which included martial arts. But for the Olympic Games, they still came up with rules. Even two. You can not bite and scratch out the opponent's eyes. Well, and another rule for judges: beat with a stick for violation. The winners in pankration became folk heroes. The best girls of Greece were honored to crown the winner of the Olympic Games with a laurel wreath. Such winners were entered into special lists. In the 2nd century BC e., that is, for almost a thousand years of the existence of the Olympic Games, such a list consisted of only 9 names. The ancient Greek athlete Arrichion from Phigalia, who several times became the Olympic champion in pankration, he won his last victory when he was already dead: in the final battle, the opponent held him in a chokehold, while Arrhichion managed to twist his opponent’s toe, which eventually surrendered from -for terrible pain, but at that moment Arrhichion finally suffocated, and when he was declared the winner, he was already a corpse. The period of decline of pankration began with the victory of the Roman army over the Greeks in 146 BC. e. The fights of pankration were replaced by fights of armed gladiators. By the way, pankration still exists today. And not only in the dark doorways. There are even world championships. In 1999, the International Sports Federation of Pankration (I.F.P.A.) was established. Panagiotis Koutrumpas, Greece was elected President of the Federation. But the IOC, for many years now, has flatly refused to include the ancient wrestling in the Olympic sport. Even during the revival of the Olympic Games, pankration did not receive the status of an Olympic sport. Back in 1895, the Cardinal of the city of Lyon, announcing his official verdict regarding the restoration of sports to Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the Modern Olympic Games, said: "We accept everything except pankration."

The ancient Greek Olympic Games were national in nature. Only Greeks were allowed to participate in them. Moreover, only free-born Greeks had the right to participate and attend the Games. Women were also not allowed to compete, either as participants or as spectators. In his book Description of Hellas, Pausanias writes that near Olympia, on the banks of the Alpheus, there was a huge rock, on which women who tried to enter the sacred Games were supposed to be brought and thrown from there. Most likely this was due to the fact that all ancient Greek Olympic competitions provided for the complete nakedness of athletes. The very name of the modern word "gymnastics" comes from the ancient Greek "gymos", that is, "naked", "naked". According to legend, during one of the races, a participant's loincloth fell off, but he did not stop, but continued to run. When the athlete finished first, the Greeks decided that this was a signal of the gods, and decided to compete naked in the future. The first person to perform naked at the games was Orsippus, a military leader of the Megarians, who participated in the running competitions. Pausanias writes that at Olympia, Orsippus "deliberately let his belt slip, because he knew that it was easier for a naked man to run than a man with a belt." Somehow, they still tried to dress the athletes, but this innovation did not take root. Those athletes who wanted to emphasize their modesty wore special bandages (kynodesme), tying this rope to the top of the penis, and then tying another part of the bandage around the waist. This prevented the exposure of the foreskin, which was still considered not very decent. Only one woman was allowed to attend the Olympic Games - the priestess of the temple of the goddess Demeter. She was given a special place in the stadium. However, this does not mean that women have always remained on the sidelines. They had their own games, which were held in the city of Gerea in honor of the goddess Hera. Competitions were in charge of 16 elected citizens, whose duties also included the preparation of robes for the goddess. Girls of three different ages competed in running, but their treadmill was 1/6 less than the men's, due to the fact that the women's step is 1/6 less than the men's. By the way, they also competed completely naked. But men were allowed to watch the competition in order to choose their future wife. The winner was given not only an olive wreath, but also meat (probably in order to feed her chosen one). Pausanias tells interesting facts about women from Sparta who participated in chariot riding competitions. He writes about the daughter of Tsar Archidamus Kiniska, who “indulged herself in Olympic competitions with the greatest passion and was the first woman to keep horses for this purpose and the first of them won the Olympic Games.” After Kiniska, other women from Lacedaemon achieved victories at Olympia, but none of them was as famous in ancient Greece for their victories as Kiniska.

The Greeks were very fond of sports. And the Olympic Games were only one of the four pan-Hellenic agons, which were called the Pan-Hellenic Games. Initially, the Panhellenic Games consisted of the following stages:

• The Olympic Games are the most significant competitions held once every four years in Olympia in honor of the god Zeus. The Olympic winners were awarded wreaths of olive branches.
• The Pythian Games were held once every four years at Delphi in honor of Apollo. The winners received laurel wreaths, as the laurel was considered the sacred tree of Apollo.
• Isthmian Games - held every two years near Corinth in honor of Poseidon. The winners were presented with a palm branch and a wreath, which in ancient and imperial times was woven from elderberry, later from fir or pine branches, and in the classical era from celery.
• The Nemean Games were held once every two years near Nemea in honor of Zeus. The winner's wreath was made from olive branches or celery.

The winner in each sport in all four games received the honorary title of periodonic. Later, in the era of Hellenism, competitions of local significance began to be called pan-Hellenic games.

In 1901, an ancient mechanical device was found near the island of Antikythera, called the Antikythera Mechanism. Several attempts were made to unravel its purpose, and in the end, scientists were able to do it. It turns out that the device is a complex mechanical calculator capable of calculating the position of planets and stars, predicting lunar and solar eclipses. It is believed that the main purpose of this mechanism is to calculate the date of the Olympic Games. In 1959, an article by the English physicist and historian of science Derek de Saul Price, entitled "The Ancient Greek Computer", dedicated to the Antikythera Mechanism, was published in the journal Scientific American, which became an important milestone in his research. Price suggested that the Antikythera Mechanism was created around 85-80 BC. However, radiocarbon analysis (1971) and epigraphic studies of the inscriptions pushed back the estimated time of its creation to 150-100 years. BC.

Theodosius I

The Olympic Games essentially lost their importance with the advent of the Romans. After Christianity became the official religion, the games began to be seen as a manifestation of paganism, and in 394 A.D. e. they were banned by Emperor Theodosius I. The last Olympic champion and the only foreigner who became an Olympionist was the king of Greater Armenia Arsakiadis Artavazd (or Varaztad). Shortly after the ban on the Olympics, all temple and sports facilities were burned by order of Theodosius II (in 426 AD), and a hundred years later they were completely destroyed by strong earthquakes and river floods.

Zappeion

The Olympic idea did not disappear completely even after the ban on ancient competitions. For example, in England during the 17th century, "Olympic" competitions and competitions were repeatedly held. Later, similar competitions were organized in France and Greece. However, these were small events that were, at best, regional in nature. The first true predecessors of the modern Olympic Games are the Olympia, which were held regularly during the period 1859-1888. The idea of ​​reviving the Olympic Games in Greece belonged to the poet Panagiotis Sutsos, who brought it to life public figure Evangelis Zappas, also known for the fact that in 1888, together with his cousin Konstandinos Zappas, he built in Athens for the opening of the fourth Olympia in Greece, the so-called Zappeion.

In 1766, as a result of archaeological excavations in Olympia, sports and temple facilities were discovered. In 1875, archaeological research and excavations continued under German leadership. At that time, romantic-idealistic ideas about antiquity were in vogue in Europe. The desire to revive the Olympic mindset and culture spread fairly quickly throughout Europe. The French baron Pierre de Coubertin, reflecting subsequently on the contribution of France, said: “Germany unearthed what was left of ancient Olympia. Why can't France restore its old grandeur? According to Coubertin, it was precisely the weak physical condition of the French soldiers that became one of the reasons for the defeat of the French in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. He sought to change the situation by improving the physical culture of the French. At the same time, he wanted to overcome national selfishness and contribute to the struggle for peace and international understanding. The Youth of the World was to face off in sports, not on the battlefield. The revival of the Olympic Games seemed in his eyes the best solution to achieve both goals.

It was Coubertin who, on the last day of the congress, was the first to propose making such Games traditional, international and combining competitions in many different sports. Coubertin was going to hold the Olympic Games in 1900 in Paris and coincide with the World Exhibition, which was scheduled for this time. However, the news about the upcoming revival of the Olympic Games has already hit the press and was widely discussed in society. The organizers decided that a six-year wait for the Games might reduce interest in them, and the delegates agreed to hold the 1st Games in 1896. For some time, London was considered the new venue for the Games. However, a friend of Coubertin, the Greek poet, writer and translator Demetrius Vikelas, invited to the congress with a report on the tradition of the Ancient Olympic Games, unexpectedly proposed Athens as the venue for the new Games, which would symbolize their continuity with the games in Ancient Greece. Congress approved this proposal, and Vikelas himself was elected president of the International Olympic Committee, since according to the charter this position could only be held by a representative of the country hosting the Games. Pierre de Coubertin became general secretary.

The news about the revival of the Olympic Games excited the world community. In Greece, with particular enthusiasm, they expected the start of the competition. However, serious difficulties that the organizers of the Games had to overcome soon became apparent. Holding competitions of such a high level required substantial financial costs, while an economic and political crisis was raging in the country. The current prime minister, Charilaos Trikoupis, was strongly opposed to Coubertin's idea. He considered the costs necessary for holding such a grandiose event to be unbearable for the state, and the very holding of the Games was untimely. Opposition leader Delianis took advantage of this to reproach the prime minister for lack of patriotism and political and social pessimism. The press was also divided into two camps - in support of the Games and against them. Coubertin had to hold many conversations and meetings with politicians, officials, businessmen, journalists in order to win them over to his side.

Prince Constantine in 1896

To demonstrate the importance of his project, its modernity, relevance and national prestige, as well as the reality of its implementation, Coubertin presented a letter from the Hungarian representative of the IOC Kemeny, which said that in the event of Athens' refusal, Hungary would willingly host the first Olympics as part of the festivities on the occasion of the millennium its statehood. At this time, King George I was in St. Petersburg, but Coubertin managed to get an audience with his heir, Prince Constantine, and convince him of the advisability of holding the Games. Upon his return, Georg supported his son. At the end of 1894, the forecasts of skeptics came true - the organizing committee announced that the costs of the Games were actually three times higher than the estimated amount named before the start of the construction of sports facilities. An opinion was expressed about the impossibility of holding the Games in Athens. Trikoupis gave the king an ultimatum - either he or the prince. The king was adamant, and on January 24, 1895, the prime minister resigned. It seemed that the Olympic Games were not destined to take place. Then Prince Constantine personally took the helm organizing committee, which in itself has already caused an influx of investment. The prince reorganized the committee, removing all opposition from it, carried out a series of measures to attract private capital, and thereby saved the situation. It is noteworthy that despite the acute shortage of funds, the committee accepted donations only from Greek citizens, thereby maintaining the status of the Olympic Games as a national idea. After some time, the fund for the Games was already 332,756 drachmas, but this was not enough.

Despite these troubles, the Organizing Committee sent out invitations to many countries:
"On June 16, 1894, the International Sports Congress took place at the Paris Sorbonne, which decided to resume the Olympic Games and scheduled the 1st Games in Athens for 1896.
In accordance with this decision, which was received with great enthusiasm in Greece, the All-Athenian Committee, under the chairmanship of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent of Greece, sends you this invitation to the opening of the competition, which will take place from 6 to 15 April 1896 in Athens. At the same time, the conditions of the competition are sent.
This invitation is sent according to the authority received from the Paris-based International Olympic Committee. We hope for your prompt reply.
Athens, September 30, 1895.
Timoleon Philemon, Secretary General of the Hellenic Olympic Committee

To raise funds, a series of Olympic-themed stamps was issued. She gave the commission's budget 400,000 drachmas. In addition, 200,000 drachmas went into the fund from ticket sales.

Panathinaikos

The businessman and philanthropist Georgios Averoff, at the request of the royal family, restored the ancient Panathinaikos Marble Stadium (in ancient times the stadium was the venue for the Panathenaic Games, dedicated to the patroness of the city, the goddess Athena), donating almost 1,000,000 drachmas. After that, nothing prevented the first modern Olympic Games from being held. In honor of Georgios Averoff and in memory of his grandiose contribution, on the eve of the opening ceremony of the Games, a statue was erected in front of the Marble Stadium, which still stands there today. All of these extra funds helped make the first Games happen.

And yet, the obvious unpreparedness of Greece for serious events of this magnitude affected, first of all, the sports results of the competition, which were low even according to the estimates of that time. There was only one reason for this - the lack of properly equipped facilities. The famous Panathenaic stadium was dressed in white marble, but its capacity was clearly insufficient. The sports arena did not withstand any criticism. Too narrow, with a slope along one edge, it turned out to be ill-suited for athletics competitions. The soft cinder track to the finish line had an increase, and the turns were too steep. Swimmers competed on the high seas, where the start and finish lines were marked with ropes stretched between the floats. In such conditions, one could not even dream of high achievements. In addition, the unprecedented influx of tourists who rushed to Athens revealed the need to adapt the city economy to receive and serve them.

With regard to the accommodation of athletes, the concept of the Olympic Village was embodied much later, at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. At the very first games, the athletes themselves had to take care of their living. Some foreign athletes took part in the Games only because, due to some circumstances, they were in Athens at that time.

Games Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony took place on April 6, 1896. The date was not chosen by chance - on this day, Easter Monday coincided in three directions of Christianity at once - in Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism. In addition, Greece celebrates Independence Day on this day. The opening ceremony of the Games was attended by 80,000 spectators, including almost all The Royal Family- King George I, his wife Olga and their children. After the speech of the head of the organizing committee, Crown Prince Constantine, George I announced: "I declare the first international Olympic Games in Athens open. Long live Greece. Long live her people." A cannon shot rang out, and the sounds of the Olympic anthem shot up, accompanied by the angelic singing of a 150-member women's choir. The echoes of the music that brought fame to the opera composer Spiro Samaras, who wrote the anthem to the verses of Kostis Palamas, echoed far beyond the hills that frame the city. This first opening ceremony of the Games laid two Olympic traditions- the opening of the Games by the head of state where the competitions are held, and the performance of the Olympic anthem. In subsequent years, the organizers of the Games wrote their own anthem, but since 1960, the anthem of Samaras has been heard over the Olympic stadiums, even if sometimes performed in the language of the host country.
Meanwhile, there were no such indispensable attributes of modern Games as the parade of the participating countries, the ceremony of lighting the Olympic flame and the recitation of the Olympic oath, they were introduced later.

According to the calculations of the International Olympic Committee, representatives of 14 countries took part in the Games, however, according to other sources, from 12 to 15 countries participated in the competition. Representatives of some colonies and protectorates spoke not from the mother country, but independently. The exact number of representatives of some countries is also unknown, since it is not known about some athletes whether they took a real part in the competition or were only announced. In addition, international pairs competed in tennis, the results of which were subsequently taken into account by the IOC separately - under the conditional name "mixed team".

1. Australia- despite the fact that Australia was part of the British Empire, the results of the only representative of this country, Teddy Flack, were counted separately.
2. Austria- at the time of the Games, Austria was part of Austria-Hungary, but Austrian athletes competed separately from Hungarian ones at the competitions.
3. Bulgaria- gymnast Charles Champeau was a citizen of Switzerland, but at the time of the Games he lived in Bulgaria, and his results were counted in favor of the national team of this country.
4. Great Britain- Athletes from Ireland also played in the composition, since there was a single United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
5. Hungary- at the time of the Games, Hungary was part of Austria-Hungary, but at the competitions, Hungarian athletes competed separately from Austrian ones.
6. Germany
7. Greece- some athletes, living in other states, played for Greece.

• Egypt- Dionysios Kasdaglis lived in Egypt, but he is considered a Greek athlete. However, when he competed in a doubles tennis tournament with another Greek, their results were attributed to a mixed team.
• Cyprus- Anastasios Andreou, who lives in Cyprus, is considered a Greek athlete, although Cyprus was under the protectorate of Great Britain.
• Izmir- some sources believe that two athletes from the city of Izmir (formerly called Smyrna), which is located in Turkey, which at that time was part of Ottoman Empire, performed separately.

Denmark

Italy

France

Chile- According to the NOC of Chile, 1 athlete from this country, Luis Subercasioux, took part in the competition, but there is no mention of him anywhere else. However, Chile is included in the list of countries participating in the Games.

Switzerland

Sweden

Russia I was going to send my athletes to the Games. In the International Olympic Committee, Russia was represented by Major General of the Russian Imperial Army Alexei Dmitrievich Butovsky, who at that time was in charge of projects related to education and physical education in the country. It was he who made a significant contribution to the beginning of teaching physical culture in domestic schools. The lessons were based on army gymnastics, which in those days received increased attention. He met Baron Pierre de Coubertin during a business trip in 1892 in Paris. In those days, Alexei Butovsky made numerous trips abroad in order to get to know each other better and adopt the European experience in teaching physical culture.

Preparations for the Games were going on in many large cities of the Russian Empire: Odessa, Kyiv, St. Petersburg. Lack of funds prevented participation in the Games - only a few athletes left for Athens from Odessa, but all of them could only get to Constantinople, and then returned to Russia, which could not but upset General Butovsky. He later wrote about this in his book Athens in the Spring of 1896, dedicated to his trip to the Olympics. In 1900, having failed to organize the National Olympic Committee (NOC) in Russia, Butovskoy voluntarily left the IOC. But he continued to support the development of physical culture and sports in our country with all his might, subsequently becoming one of the inspirers of the creation of the NOC in 1904.

In 1996, for the opening of the third Goodwill Games and the 100th anniversary of the Olympic movement in St. Petersburg, a monument to Alexei Butovsky was unveiled, who stood next to Pierre de Coubertin. Unfortunately, the monument did not last long in the public domain. Today it is stored somewhere in the storerooms of the Lesgraft Physical Education University in St. Petersburg.

However, this did not stop the enthusiasts. Many wanted to go to Greece at their own expense. But only one person could do it. A collegiate secretary from Kiev, Nikolay Sergeevich Ritter, who in his spare time was engaged in classical wrestling, shooting and fencing, having retired from service in the Kyiv Treasury, got to Athens (in order to have funds for a trip to Greece, he got a job as a correspondent in the newspaper "Kievlyanin" ) and applied to compete in Greco-Roman wrestling, carbine shooting and foil fencing. In his correspondence from Athens, he said: “There are almost no Russians, I am the only one among the participants. I can tell you about myself that I was the first in a trial test in shooting at a moving target and in wrestling: all the bullets successfully hit the targets, and I managed to overcome those who wanted to compete in wrestling ... ". However, on the eve of the start of the competition, he lost his talisman medallion and did not take part in the competition. Returning to Russia, Ritter began to actively promote the Olympic Games. He wrote articles for newspapers and magazines and gave lectures. In February 1897, Ritter submitted a petition to the Ministry of Public Education for the establishment of the Russian Athletic Committee "for bodily education and public health" with the department "Olympic Games and all sports." However, all his projects were rejected due to lack of funding and inertia of officials. On April 9, 1897, he spoke together with P.F. Lesgaft in St. Petersburg with a lecture “Physical perfection of man, bodily development, hunting and sports, the 1896 Olympic Games”. At the invitation of Pierre de Coubertin and E. Callot, N. S. Ritter took part in the work of the II Olympic Congress in Le Havre on July 23-31, 1897. He was elected to several committees of the congress, made a report in which he proposed to allow "... professionals to participation in the Olympic Games and introduce a special category of athletes-professors (teachers in sports)”, who at that time were classified as professionals and were deprived of the right and opportunity to participate in the Games.

Belgium also failed to send its representatives, although it planned to do so.

At the Games, competitions were held in 9 sports (in brackets - the number of medals, a total of 43 sets of medals were played):

• Wrestling (1)
• Cycling (6)
• Athletics (12)
• Swimming (4)
• Artistic gymnastics (8)
• Shooting (5)
• Tennis (2)
• Weightlifting (2)
• Fencing (3)

The IOC Special Commission recommended that at each Games, competitions in rowing, boxing, jeu de paume (an old ball game, a prototype of tennis, in which the ball was broken through a net or rope, initially with hands, then with racket bats), equestrian sports, cricket, sailing, polo and football, but these Games were not held. Demonstrations were not held.

Struggle. In 1896, there were no uniform approved rules for conducting fights, there were also no weight categories. The style in which the athletes competed was close to today's Greco-Roman, but it was allowed to grab an opponent by the legs. Only one set of medals was played among five athletes, and only two of them competed exclusively in wrestling - the rest took part in competitions in other disciplines. The Greek Stefanos Christopoulos and the Hungarian Momchilo Tapavitsa were the first to compete. After a long struggle, the Hungarian finally surrendered. Then there was a duel between the German Carl Schumann and the British Lancheston Elliot. This fight was very short. Since the number of athletes was odd, one wrestler did not get an opponent, it was a Greek Georgios Tsitas. Two Greeks competed for reaching the final - Christopoulos and Tsitas. This made the spectators very angry, as only one of their compatriots could reach the final. However, the fight took place, and it was won by Tsitas, who threw his opponent so hard that Christopoulos was injured and had to spend several days in bed. Schuman advanced to the final without a fight. All competitions were held outdoors and were supposed to take place on the same day, April 10, however, during the final between the German wrestler and the gymnast Carl Schumann and the Greek wrestler Georgios Tsitas began to get dark, and when the audience began to leave the stadium, it was decided to postpone the final to the next day. On April 11, the final duel was continued, Schumann won it.

Cycling competitions at the I Summer Olympic Games were held on April 8, 11, 12 and 13. In total, 6 sets of medals were played - 5 on the cycle track and 1 on the highway. Cycling competitions were held at the Neo Faliron velodrome specially built for the Games. 4 types were won by the French: Paul Masson, who became a 3-time Olympic champion (round from a standstill for 1 lap, a 2 km sprint race and a 10 km race), and Leon Flaman(100 km race).

In the 12-hour race, the Austrian won, overcoming almost 315 km Adolf Schmal, who also took part in fencing competitions.

Aristidis Konstantinides

The group road race, which took place along the route Athens - Marathon - Athens (87 km), was won by the Greek Aristidis Konstantinides.

Track and field competitions, which took place on April 6, 7, 9 and 10, became the most massive - 63 athletes from 9 countries took part in 12 events. The largest number of species - 9 - was won by representatives of the United States. 11 events were held at the Marble Stadium, which turned out to be inconvenient for runners. At the ancient Games, the competitions were not held in a circle, but in a straight line (when running for more than 1 stage, the participants at the opposite end of the stadium turned back). During the reconstruction, the stadium was not expanded, so the circular track turned out to be elongated with very steep turns, which reduced the speed. In addition, the track was too soft.

100m run

American wins 100m and 400m Tom Burke, the only one of the participants who used a low start, which at first caused ridicule from the audience, although the low start technique was used by some runners before him. The idea of ​​a low start, which later became the standard of professional sprinting, Burke came up with on his own, watching the animals that shrink before the throw.

The 800m and 1500m were won by the only Australian at the Games Teddy Flack. In addition to athletics, Flack participated in tennis competitions in singles and doubles (together with Briton George Robertson) tournaments. In singles, he lost in the first round to the Greek Aristidis Akratopoulos. In the doubles, he went straight to the semi-finals, but in it he lost to the Greeks Dionysios Kasdaglis and Demetrios Petrokokkinos, and, together with Robertson, received a bronze medal. After the games, Flack returned to London, and in 1898 returned to Australia. He no longer played for the national team of his country, but continued to play athletics, tennis, and golf, and was a member of several tennis and golf clubs. He also became a member of the Australian Olympic Committee. In addition, he was the director of several companies and firms.

Thomas Curtis

American 100m hurdles won Thomas Curtis, who, as a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, went to the games as part of the Boston Athletics Association. One of Curtis' hobbies was photography and he took many pictures of Athens. Also, he took part in the creation of a toaster.

All jump events were won by the Americans - Ellery Clark(high jump and long jump) Wells Hoyt(pole vault) and James Connolly(triple jump). Triple jump competitions ended on April 6 before other types of the Olympic program, and Connolly became the first modern Olympic champion.

Robert Garrett during discus throw

In discus throwing, which has ancient roots, the Greeks counted on victory: international competitions in it were not held until the 1896 Games, and Greek athletes prepared for several months in a training camp. However, having taken the lead in the last attempt, an American, a student at Princeton University, won. Robert Garrett, who saw the discus throw for the first time a few days before the competition. Having become acquainted with the throwing technique, Garrett ordered a similar disk for himself and calmly trained with it at his home. Arriving in Athens, Garrett found that the modern disc was much lighter and more comfortable in shape. Athletes start So much easier and more comfortable that it was not difficult for him to beat the favorites. He also won the shot put with a score of 11 meters 22 centimeters; taking in addition to this 2nd place in the high jump, he became the most titled athlete of the Games. By the way, Garrett traveled from New York to Greece at his own expense and also paid for the trip of three of his teammates.

Spiridon Louis

Another event took place outside the stadium - a race along the legendary route from the city of Marathon to Athens (40 km), called the marathon. The Greek won Spiridon Louis, a 23-year-old letter carrier (according to other sources, a water carrier) from the village of Maroussi near Athens, who became a national hero in his homeland. April 10 was the culmination of the 1st Olympiad. 24 athletes applied to participate in the marathon race, of which only four were foreigners. 2386 years after the battle with the Persians near the village of Marathon, Greece again expected news of victory. This legend is one of the most remarkable in the history of Greece. " ... In 490 BC. e. ten thousand Athenians under the command of the Greek strategist Miltiades in the Marathon Valley opposed the army of the Persian king Darius, which was many times larger than the Athenian. Excellent tactics, the Greeks managed to inflict a serious defeat on the Persians. The remnants of Darius' army retreated to the sea, embarked on ships and sailed away. And forty kilometers from Marathon, Athens was feverishly waiting for the outcome of the battle. The Athenians looked longingly at the horizon, they were afraid to see the vanguard of the army of Darius - this would mean the end of Athens. Miltiades, of course, knew the condition of his countrymen. He ordered that the soldier Phidipides, who was very popular among the Athenians because of his fast run, be called to him. When Phidipides was brought before the strategist, Miltiades ordered him to flee to Athens and declare victory. Pheidipides, very tired after the battle, took off his equipment, laid down his weapons and rushed quickly, crossing the hills and hills, small streams and copses that separate Marathon from Athens. Forty kilometers is a long distance, and if you consider that on that day there was a terrible heat and the road was not safe - you could meet Persians lagging behind the army of Darius - it becomes clear that Fidipid did not go for a walk. Having broken his legs in the blood, choking, Pheidipides ran into Athens. - Rejoice, we won! These were his last words: He immediately dropped dead. His death became a symbol of the nation". The idea to repeat this race belongs to the French philologist Michel Breal. She was born, as Breal recalled, in 1895. Together with his son, he then climbed Mount Olympus, and he thought: "What a pity that the records of the Olympians of antiquity did not reach us. Only poets wrote about them. We only know for sure about the heroism of the soldier who fled from Marathon to Athens. I wonder if modern athletes will be able to repeat his record?" Michel Breal wrote to Coubertin: "If the organizing committee of the Athens Olympics agreed to resume the famous run of the Greek soldier, I would give the winner of this competition a silver cup."

The night before the competition, the rivals spent in the village of Marathon. The representative of the organizing committee said that tomorrow there will be a strong heat and there is a high risk of getting a sunstroke. Several athletes immediately prudently refuse to participate in the competition and leave the Marathon. The next day, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the athletes gathered at a small bridge, from which in 490 BC. e. Pheidipedes began his run. After a small solemn ceremony, a shot is heard and a group of runners sets off on a forty-kilometer path, surrounded by numerous mounted soldiers, cyclists and gigs. The heat is terrible. About ten kilometers everyone runs in one group. Women, seeing marathon runners running past, are baptized. In Pekermi, the first checkpoint. Everyone is given water and - surprise - wine! Two faint. At about the tenth kilometer, the Frenchman Albin Lermusier takes the lead. Soon he is already thirty meters ahead of his nearest rival - Australian Flack, Olympic champion in the 800 and 1500 meters. Lermusier is fifty meters ahead of the Hungarian Kellner and the American Black. At Karvati, at the exit of the Marathon Valley, Lermusier learns that he is a kilometer ahead of Flack. The Greeks are even further behind, the best of them is three kilometers behind the leader! But on the long climb behind Megalo Revan, the Frenchman's run gets harder. Approaching the plain of Spata, a little further than the thirtieth kilometer of the distance, Lermusier stops at the side of the road. His compatriot Gisel, who is riding a bicycle nearby, rubs his legs with a special ointment. He runs again, but his impulse is broken and the rhythm of running is lost. After two thousand meters, the crash: Lermusier falls and loses consciousness. At the thirty-third kilometer, Flack led the race. After some time, a Greek Spiridon Louis appears a few tens of meters from him. With long strides he overtakes the Australian. Flack, seeing that he is bypassed, cannot withstand the tension of the struggle and falls. The Marble Stadium is already visible ahead. The fact that the Greek runner was in the lead was reported to King George I. A cannon shot is heard. Eighty thousand hearts beat in unison. The complete silence is broken by a cry of relief: Louis, almost black with dust, ran onto the stadium track. The last lap around the stadium is both heaven and hell. Spectators jumped from their seats. The air rang with shouts of jubilation and joy. The judges rushed after the runner and ran to the finish line with him. Two Greeks picked up the winner on their shoulders and carried them to the king. A contemporary describes this event, which adorned the 1st Olympiad, as follows: “Thousands of flowers and gifts were thrown at the feet of the winner, the hero of the 1st Games. Thousands of doves took to the air, carrying ribbons in the colors of the Greek flag. People poured onto the field and began to rock the champion. To free Louis, the crown prince and his brother descended from the stands to meet the champion and took him to the royal box. And here, to the unceasing applause of the public, the king embraced the peasant. Among the numerous prizes, Spiridon Louis received 10 centners of chocolate, 10 cows and 30 rams, as well as a lifetime right to free tailor and hairdresser services. The Olympic Stadium in Athens, the main object of the 2004 Olympics, also held in the Greek capital, is named in his honor. Despite his recognition, Louis returned to his village, where he worked as a shepherd and mineral water seller, and never competed again. He later became a village policeman but lost his job when he was imprisoned on charges of falsifying documents in 1926. He spent over a year in prison before being tried on June 28, 1927, when he was acquitted.

It is worth noting and Carlo Airoldi, an Italian marathoner who ran and walked from Milan to Athens to compete in the Olympic marathon. Airoldi aspired to participate in the Athens Olympics in 1896 and had a good chance of winning. He, however, needed money to get to the Greek capital. He asked for money from the director of the famous magazine of the time - "La Bicicletta" - and said that his trip would be cheap. He had to walk through Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Greece - an adventurous journey, during which he had to walk 70 km a day in order to arrive in Athens on time. The magazine was supposed to document all the stages of his journey and help provide him with the necessary information. The magazine accepted his offer and his journey began. The stage from Milan to Split, passing through Trieste and Fiume, was completed without problems. Airoldi intended to pass along the Croatian coast, that is, through Kotor and Corfu. Unfortunately, before arriving in Dubrovnik, he fell and injured his arm, which forced him to spend two days in a tent. He was opposed to crossing Albania on his feet, so he boarded an Austrian boat that took him to Patras, from where he continued on foot to Athens on the railway sleepers, since there were no ordinary roads. After his 28-day journey, Airoldi was unable to take part in the Olympic marathon. He went to the royal palace to sign up for the games, where he was questioned by the head of the Olympic Committee. He decided that receiving money for winning the Milan-Barcelona race meant that Airoldi was considered a professional athlete and, therefore, could not participate in the Games. Telegrams of protest were sent from Italy, but nothing worked: Airoldi was not allowed to participate. There was a strong belief in Italy that the organizers did not allow a strong competitor to run the marathon because the Greeks wanted to win. Airoldi never acknowledged this decision and challenged Spyridon Louis, the winner of the Olympic marathon. However, the challenge was not accepted.

By the way, despite the fact that women were not allowed to participate in the Games, the Greek Stamata Revihti, nicknamed Melpomene, wanted to participate in the marathon, but she was refused, and then she ran the distance alone the day after the official race. At the end of the run, she ran around the Marble Stadium, as she was even forbidden to run into its territory, as the male participants did.

Swimming. Since there were no artificial pools in Athens, the competitions were held in an open bay near the city of Piraeus; start and finish were marked with ropes attached to the floats. The weather was unfavorable - restless and cold (about 13 ° C) water. There were no scandals either. One of the participants in the competition, a swimmer named Williams from the United States, climbed ashore immediately after the start and said that competitions could not be held in such cold water. The organizers ignored the claims of the American.

The competitions that took place on April 11 aroused great interest - by the beginning of the first swim, about 40 thousand spectators had gathered on the shore. About 25 swimmers from 6 countries took part, most of them are naval officers and sailors of the Greek merchant fleet. The medals were awarded in four types, all heats were held in the "freestyle" - it was allowed to swim in any way, changing it along the distance. At that time, the most popular swimming methods were breaststroke, overarm (an improved way of swimming on the side) and trudgeon style.

The Hungarian architecture student achieved the greatest success Alfred Hayosh, who won two heats - 100 m and 1200 m. All the Greek newspapers of that time wrote a lot about Hayosh. It was called the "Hungarian dolphin". They especially emphasized the fact that he managed to win the "gold" both in the short and in the long run. He received permission to participate in the Games, but not immediately, and therefore, at first, the leaders of the educational institution were unhappy with him. After completing his studies at the University of Budapest, Hajos became a successful architect. He developed projects for residential, public and industrial buildings. But he gave preference to sports facilities. In Paris, for the design of the stadium in the Arts Competition at the 1924 Summer Olympics, Alfred Hajos and his co-author Dejeux Lauber received a silver medal. No gold medal was awarded in the nomination "architecture".

Austrian Jew wins 500m swim Paul Neumann. The advantage of the winners of the 500m and 1200m swims over the closest rivals was overwhelming - more than 1.5 and more than 2.5 minutes, respectively. After the games, Neumann emigrated to the USA, to Chicago. There he entered the University of Chicago and received his doctorate. However, he continued to swim and set world records in swims of 2, 3, 4 and 5 miles. He also won several US and Canadian championships.

At the insistence of the organizers of the Games, an applied type of swimming was included in the program - 100 m in sailor's clothes. Only Greek sailors participated in it; defeated sailor of the Royal Navy Ioannis Malokinis. With a time of 2:20.4, he beat his rivals Spyridon Hasapis and Dimitrios Drivas. His result is almost a minute worse than that of the Hungarian Alfred Hajos in the same discipline.

In gymnastics competitions 8 sets of awards were played. Competitions were held outdoors, at the Marble Stadium.

Hermann Weingertner (right) together with Carl Schumann (center) and Alfred Flatov (left)

Carl Schumann

Alfred Flatov

Herman Weingertner

In gymnastics, the German team was in the lead - she got 5 gold medals, including two in team competitions. The best gymnasts are Herman Weingertner(6 medals, half of which are gold, made him the most productive athlete of the games, and in terms of the number of gold medals he became the second after Schumann), Alfred Flatov and Carl Schumann who have won at least 3 disciplines.

Greeks become other champions in gymnastics Nikolaos Andriakopoulos and Ioannis Mitropoulos, and the only Swiss champion Louis Zutter. The youngest athlete in the history of the Olympics also participated in these Games - Dimitrios Lundras, bronze medalist in artistic gymnastics - he was 10 years and 218 days old.

In shooting competition, held in the city of Kallithea from April 8 to 12, 5 sets of awards were played - 2 in rifle shooting and 3 in pistol shooting. For 5 days, from 8 to 12 April, shooters from 7 countries took part in the competition. The sport was dominated by the Greeks, who won three disciplines, and the Americans, who won two disciplines. Greek champions are Pantelis Karasevdas, Georgios Orphanidis and Ioannis Frangoudis, and American Brothers John and Sumner Payne, who became the best in pistol shooting.

Tennis competition were held on the courts of the Athens Tennis Club. Two tournaments were held - in singles and doubles. The singles tournament took place on 8, 9 and 11 April; due to the small number of participants, the doubles tournament was held on one day - April 11. At the 1896 Games, there was not yet a requirement that all team members represent one country, and some couples were international. 2-time champion became a student of Oxford University John Pius Boland- an Irishman who played for the UK team - he won both in singles and (together with the German Friedrich Thrawn) in the doubles tournament. At the 1896 Games, there was not yet a requirement that all team members represent one country, and some couples were international, and their results were classified as a mixed team.

Weightlifting competitions were held without division into weight categories and included 2 disciplines that were played on April 7. Competitions were held outdoors at the Marble Stadium. In squeezing out with two hands of a spherical bar the Dane Viggo Jensen and Briton Lancheston Elliot showed the same result - 115.5 kg, but the arbitrators (the main one - Prince Georg) considered that Jensen performed the exercise cleaner, and awarded him 1st place. In lifting the dumbbell with one hand, Elliot won - 71.0 kg, almost 14 kg ahead of the closest competitor - Jensen. The champions also competed in other sports: Jensen finished 2nd and 3rd in shooting, Elliot competed in wrestling, and both competed in the gymnastics speed rope climb. After 4 years, at the Summer Olympics in Paris, Jensen participated only in rifle shooting, and Elliot took part in athletics competitions.

fencing competition took place on 7 and 9 April. 3 sets of awards were played, athletes from 4 countries took part.

Fencing became the only sport where professionals were also allowed: separate competitions were held among the “maestro” - fencing teachers (“maestro” were also admitted to the 1900 Games, after which this practice ceased). On April 7, foil competitions were held; French champions Eugene-Henri Gravelot and (among "maestro") Greek Leonidas Pyrgos, famous in Athens, the owner of a fencing school.

Ιωάννης Γεωργιάδης

On April 9, the Greek won the saber competition Ioannis Georgiadis. He did not lose a single fight, having won against all his rivals - the Austrian Adolf Schmal, the Greeks Telemachos Karakalos and Georgius Yatridis, and the Dane Holger Nielsen, having missed 6 injections. Ten years later, Georgiadis competed at the unofficial 1906 Summer Olympics in Athens. He competed in saber and sword competitions. In saber, he placed first in the individual event and second in the team event. In the sword, and in the individual and team events, he took fourth place. Also, Geogiandis took part in the 1924 Summer Olympics. Speaking in individual and team saber tournaments, he stopped at the first rounds.

Closing ceremony of the Games was supposed to take place on April 14, however, due to rain, it was postponed to the next day, to April 15. The ceremony began with the performance of the Olympic anthem and the declaration of an ode composed by Briton George Robertson, who won the third place in tennis. Then George I presented awards to the athletes. The winners of the competition were awarded a diploma (artist - Greek Nikolaos Gyzis), a silver medal, and a wreath of olive branch was placed on their heads. The runners-up received a diploma, a bronze medal (designed by the French sculptor Jules Chaplain) and a laurel wreath Bronze medalists in the current sense (3rd place) were not awarded (the tradition of determining three winners appeared at the III Olympic Games in St. Louis), and only later the International Olympic Committee included them in the medal count among countries, however, not all medalists are accurately determined All athletes who took part in the games were also awarded a commemorative medal (designed by the Greek artist Nikephoros Lytras). Some athletes received additional awards, for example, Spyridon Louis received a cup from the hands of Michel Breal, the man who offered to hold a marathon race. After the presentation, the athletes went through a lap of honor to the anthem of the Games.At the very end of the ceremony, the king solemnly announced the I International the other Olympic Games are closed.

After the awards ceremony, the procession of the winners around the arena, led by Spiridon Louis, took place, and the audience could say goodbye to the heroes. The Olympic anthem sounded for the last time and George I with the words "I declare the I International Olympic Games closed" ended the solemn ceremony. In conclusion, the Greek king embraced the heir to the throne, Prince Constantine, congratulating him on his success. The author of the brilliant idea of ​​reviving the Olympic Games, 33-year-old Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, who was also present here, seemed to be forgotten, which even the local press later drew attention to. But history put everything in its place, and from early childhood we are close and familiar with the name of Pierre de Coubertin - a man who at first was almost considered crazy ...

Controversial issues from the history of the I Olympiad

A lot of controversy among sports historians raises the question of the number of participants in the first Olympic Games. In various sources, the numbers range from 145 to 311. This is mainly due to the fact that the names of some Olympians have not been preserved. There was no statistics system, the principle of national teams as well. Anyone can enter the Games. At the moment, the names of 176 participants are known. According to fragmentary information with a small error, it is possible to establish the participation of 246 athletes. The names of at least 41 competitors in gymnastics, 22 in shooting (military rifle) and seven in swimming have not been preserved.

There is no consensus on the participation of a particular country in the first Olympic Games (see the relevant sections). The International Olympic Committee refers to the fact that there were 14 such countries. Some sources indicate the participation of 12 countries (excluding Chile and Bulgaria), others - 15 countries (including Cyprus). Egypt is also sometimes either included or excluded from the list of participating countries, as there is no single position on the Greek athlete Dionysios Kastaglis, who lived in Egypt. At the moment, the participation of Bulgaria, Chile, Cyprus, Italy, Egypt, Turkey (Izmir) is considered disputable.

Disputes around the participating countries, as well as the lack of clearly defined rules during the competition, give rise to disputes about medals. In statistics, in addition to correlating medals on a country (or national) basis, the question arises with those medals that were won in team competitions, where one team included representatives of several countries (nationalities). At the moment, there is a practice to count such medals in the treasury of the "Mixed team" (Mixed team). If necessary, such points are reflected in the relevant statistical sections of this encyclopedia. For example, gold and bronze medals won in the men's doubles tennis competition are currently credited to the "Mixed Team".

The first Games of our time were a great success. Despite the fact that only 241 athletes (14 countries) took part in the Games, the Games were the largest sporting event ever held since ancient Greece. Greek officials were so pleased that they put forward a proposal to hold the Games of the Olympiad "forever" in their homeland, Greece. But the IOC introduced a rotation between different states, so that every 4 years the Games change the venue. However, the IOC did not object to major international competitions being held in Greece between the Olympic Games. Such competitions were planned to be held in 1898, and then in 1902. However, for organizational and financial reasons, they did not take place. After the first success, the Olympic movement experienced the first crisis. The II Olympic Games of 1900 in Paris (France) and the III Olympic Games of 1904 in St. Louis (Missouri, USA) were combined with the World Exhibitions. Sports competitions dragged on for months and almost did not enjoy the interest of the audience. At the 1900 Olympics in Paris, which became the longest in the history of the modern Olympic Games and lasted from May 20 to October 28, for the first time women and a team took part in it. Russian Empire. Representatives of only 12 countries participated in the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, but mostly American athletes, since it was very difficult to get from Europe across the ocean in those years for technical reasons: due to the high cost of travel. At the Extraordinary Olympic Games of 1906 in Athens (Greece), sports competitions and achievements again came out on top. Although the IOC originally recognized and supported these "Intermediate Games" (just two years after the previous ones), these Games are not now recognized as Olympic Games. Some sports historians consider the 1906 Games to be the salvation of the Olympic idea, as they prevented the games from becoming "meaningless and unnecessary".

The Olympic movement has its own emblem and flag, approved by the IOC at the suggestion of Coubertin in 1913. The emblem of the Olympic Games is the Olympic rings, five fastened rings, symbolizing the unification of the five inhabited parts of the world in the Olympic movement. There is no evidence that Coubertin associated the number of rings with the number of continents, but it is believed that five rings are a symbol of the five continents (Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and America). The blue ring symbolizes Europe. The yellow ring symbolizes Asia. The black ring symbolizes Africa. The green ring represents Australia. And finally, the red ring symbolizes America. The flag of any state has at least one color represented on the Olympic rings. In 1914, at the Olympic Congress in Paris, the Olympic flag was approved - a white cloth, in the center of which the Olympic rings are located, which rises at all the Games, starting from the VII Olympic Games of 1920 in Antwerp (Belgium), where the Olympic oath was also given for the first time.

The text of the oath was proposed by Pierre de Coubertin, later it changed somewhat and now it sounds like this: “On behalf of all participants in the competition, I promise that we will participate in these Olympic Games, respecting and observing the rules by which they are held, in a truly sporting spirit, in the glory of the sport and the honor of our teams.” The oath is also taken by coaches and team officials. Sports referees also take an oath, the text of which is adapted for this purpose. For the first time the Olympic oath sounded in 1920, and the oath of referees - in 1968 in Mexico City. In 2000, at the Sydney Olympics, for the first time, words about the non-use of doping in competitions appeared in the text of the oath.

The Olympic motto consists of three Latin words - Citius, Altius, Fortius. Literally, it means "faster, higher, braver." However, the translation "Faster, higher, stronger" (in English - Faster, higher, stronger) is more common. The three-word phrase was first spoken by French priest Henri Martin Didon at the opening of a sports competition at his college. Coubertin liked these words and he considered that these words reflect the goal of athletes all over the world. The parade of national teams under the flags at the opening of the Games has been held since the IV Olympic Games of 1908 in London (Great Britain). Since 1932, the host city has been building the "Olympic Village" - a residential complex for participants in the games.

The Winter Olympic Games have been held since 1924 as an addition to the Summer Games. Some winter sports were included in the Summer Olympics even earlier, in 1908 and 1920. From 1924 to 1992, the Winter Olympic Games were held in the same years as the Summer ones. Since 1994, the Winter Olympics have been held 2 years apart from the Summer Olympics. The decision to alternate the summer and winter games was made back in 1986. This allowed for even distribution of work, costs and interest in the Games over four years.

The Paralympic Games (Paralympic Games) are international sports competitions for people with disabilities. Traditionally held after the Olympic Games, and starting from the 1988 Summer Paralympic Games, at the same sports venues; in 2001 this practice is enshrined in an agreement between the IOC and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The Summer Paralympic Games have been held since 1960 and the Winter Paralympic Games since 1976. The emergence of sports in which disabled people can participate is associated with the name of the English neurosurgeon Ludwig Guttmann, who, overcoming age-old stereotypes in relation to people with physical disabilities, introduced sports into the process of rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord injuries. He proved in practice that sport for people with physical disabilities creates the conditions for successful life, restores mental balance, allows you to return to a full life regardless of physical disabilities, strengthens the physical strength necessary to manage a wheelchair. The first Games, which became the prototype of the Paralympic Games, were called the 1948 Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Games and coincided with the London Olympics in time. Guttman had a far-reaching goal - the creation of the Olympic Games for athletes with disabilities. The British Stoke Mandeville Games were held annually, and in 1952, with the arrival of the Dutch team of wheelchair athletes to participate in the competition, the Games received international status and numbered 130 participants. The IX Stoke Mandeville Games, which were open not only to war veterans, were held in 1960 in Rome. They are considered the first official Paralympic Games. 400 wheelchair athletes from 23 countries competed in Rome. Since that time, the rapid development of the Paralympic movement in the world began.

Naked Olympics- sports games taking place among naked participants. First held in the 1920s in Europe. The idea of ​​the "Naked Olympics" was born on the eve of the Second World War in Europe. The first such games were held in 1939 in Switzerland, which was then considered the center of European nudism. In the 1970s in the USA. The modern Naked Olympics are held in Australia, the US and the UK. In 1999, the well-known Naked Olympics in Princeton were banned in New Jersey by state authorities. The annual Naked Olympics take place on Australia Day in January at Maslin Beach south of Adelaide in Australia, as well as in Flagstaff in Arizona, USA and DeAnza Springs in California. Games are also held on Alexandria Beach (Noosa, North Queensland, Australia). The program of the Summer Games includes beach volleyball and other sports, while the Winter Games include alpine skiing and figure skating. The winners of the Games are awarded with medals and prizes. The last Games in Australia were held at Maslin Beach in Australia on 3-4 February 2007. The games brought together about a thousand athletes and spectators. Games were planned for August 2007 in Flagstaff, Arizona. The program of the Games includes competitions in sprint, freestyle wrestling, long jump and race walking. In the US, games are usually held in early autumn. DeAnza Springs has hosted games for the 4th year in a row. In 2009, the Naked Olympics are scheduled for September 4-7. At the same time, in DeAnza Springs, not only members of nudist societies participate in this festival, but also invited sports stars. The ideologists of naturism are sure that it is the "Naked Olympic Games" that continue the tradition of the ancient Greek Olympics.

However, "ordinary" Olympic athletes also undress. In the photo, Rebecca Jane Romero is a British rower and cyclist, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist in rowing (pair four) and the 2008 Olympic champion in track cycling (pursuit). Pictures of naked Olympians were used to advertise the sports drink Powerade, which is one of the official sponsors of the Beijing Olympics.

The sexual revolution in German sports was started by Katarina Witt, who turned 39 last December. figure skating first the GDR, and then the united Germany, collected a unique collection of awards: two Olympic gold medals, four for victories in the world championships and six for triumphs in the European championships. For many years she occupied the role in the GDR that belonged to Irina Rodnina in the USSR. We do not know if Irina was followed, but Katarina was "herded" by the Stasi from childhood and collected a dossier into plump 1354 pages. The Ice Queen got acquainted with the filing in 1993. "I was in shock," she recalls. AT this case the sex dossier did not bring Katarina fame. German journalists decided that the star herself collaborated with the Stasi. Yellow publications dubbed the pride of the nation the "red goat", and the Bild tabloid began publishing excerpts from the dossier. Katarina by that time lived in the USA, performed in ice shows, hosted a program on NBC and starred in Hollywood with Tom Cruise and Robert de Niro. However, this is not what most people remember. Absolution and popularity Witt returned naked photo shoot for American Playboy'ya. The Americans instantly recognized her as "their own", and the Germans forgot the old grievances.

Masha Bannova. photographer Mikhail Korolev. Playboy Russia September 2004

Zhanna Pintusevitch-Blok is a Ukrainian track and field athlete, sprinter. World Champion. Amy Lyn Acuff is an American track and field athlete and high jumper. Repeated champion of the country, a participant in four Olympics, the highest achievement in which is 4th place. Susen Tiedtke is a German long jumper and track and field athlete. Participant of two Olympiads, silver and bronze medalist of the World Championships. Tennis player Karolina Jovanovic in Playboy Croatia 10-2010 Australian basketball player Lauren Jackson posed nude in the Australian magazine Black+White along with some of the other participants in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. On the eve of the 2004 Olympics, erotic passions ran high in parallel with sports. The Australian magazine Black + White timed a special issue called "Dreams of Athens" to coincide with the games. The models for this edition were 35 top local athletes who decided to "dream" exclusively in the nude. The 34-year-old veteran of the Australian swimming team Michael Klim was especially delighted with these shootings, who spoke as follows: inexpressible feeling!. You can be sure that he meant men's swimming trunks from the manufacturer, which does not change the essence of the statement. In 2005, Jackson posed for Sports Illustrated magazine. And these girls are dressed. Colombian cyclists, who represented the country at a cycling race in Italy, amazed the world community with their appearance. They came to the competition in a uniform made in the traditional red and yellow colors. However, the blue color, which was also supposed to be present in their costumes, was for some reason replaced by the designers with a flesh color. Because of this, the impression was created that the athletes were naked below the waist. The head of the International Cycling Union (UCI), Brian Cookson, has already called the form in which the Colombian athletes performed unacceptable. “I want to appeal to everyone who raised the issue of the form of the athletes of the Bogota Humana team. We are dealing with this matter. This form is absolutely unacceptable from the point of view of decency,” Cookson quotes the BBC. Photos of Colombian cyclists quickly spread on the Internet. Many fellow athletes criticized them appearance. 2008 Olympian Nicole Cook said: "It's all about making the sport a joke. Girls, protect your dignity - know how to say no." The Olympic mascots first appeared on Summer Games 1968 in Mexico City unofficially. The very concept of the “Olympic talisman” was officially approved at the IOC session held in 1972. According to the Olympic Charter, a person, an animal or a fabulous creature could become a talisman, reflecting the cultural characteristics of the people - the host of the Olympics - and symbolizing the values ​​of the modern Olympic movement. All Olympic talismans, being the property of the organizing committee, began to be positioned as advertising and commercial symbols. In addition to the official emblem registered with the IOC, the organizers of the games use them as a trademark to obtain additional sources of funding. The mascots of the Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro-2016 were the images of the Brazilian fauna and flora. The image of the Brazilian fauna is presented in the form of a yellow animal and symbolizes the brightest and most common representatives of the animal world of Brazil - a monkey and a parrot. The collective image of flora is a blue-green plant, the outline of which resembles both a flower and a tree. The names of the mascots were chosen by vote of the fans. These are the names of famous Brazilian musicians - Vinicius and Tom. The symbol of the fauna will be the talisman of the Olympic Games, and the flora of the Paralympic. The ritual of lighting the sacred Olympic flame comes from the ancient Greeks and was revived by Coubertin in 1912. The torch is lit at Olympia with a directed beam sun rays formed by a concave mirror. The Olympic flame symbolizes purity, the attempt to improve and the struggle for victory, as well as peace and friendship. The tradition of lighting fires in stadiums began in 1928 (at the Winter Games in 1952). The relay race to deliver the torch to the host city of the Games was first held in 1936 in Berlin (Germany). The Olympic torch is delivered to the main stadium of the Games during the opening ceremony, where it is used to light a fire in a special bowl in the stadium. The Olympic flame burns until the closing of the Olympics. The Olympic flame continues to burn in the 21st century! And every four years the words are heard: “Oh sport! You are the world!" - from "Ode to Sport", written by Coubertin himself. Google Doodle 1896 Olympics This summer, from August 5 to 21, the XXXI Summer Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This will be the first Olympic Games to take place in South America. The Olympics has a record number of medal sets (306) and is expected to feature a record number of countries (206), including Kosovo and South Sudan for the first time. Ukraine has won 138 licenses to date, in total it is expected that about 200 domestic athletes will go to Brazil.

BAKU, April 6 - Sputnik. One hundred and twenty years ago, the first modern Summer Olympic Games opened in Athens, Greece. In 1896, the Olympic Games were held from 6 to 15 April in Athens, Greece.

On June 23, 1894, a commission to revive the Olympic Games met in the Great Hall of the Sorbonne in Paris. Baron Pierre de Coubertin became its general secretary. Then the International Olympic Committee (IOC) took shape, which included the most authoritative and independent citizens of different countries.

The first Olympic Games of modern times were originally planned to be held at the same stadium in Olympia, where the Olympic Games of Ancient Greece were held. However, this required too much restoration work, and the first revived Olympic competitions took place in Athens, the capital of Greece.

Already on April 6, 1896, at the restored ancient stadium in Athens, the Greek King George declared the first modern Olympic Games open. The ceremony was attended by 60 thousand spectators.

The date was not chosen by chance - on this day, Easter Monday coincided in three directions of Christianity at once - in Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism. This first opening ceremony of the Games established two Olympic traditions - the opening of the Games by the head of state where the competitions take place, and the singing of the Olympic anthem. However, there were no such indispensable attributes of the modern Games as the parade of the participating countries, the ceremony of lighting the Olympic flame and the pronouncing of the Olympic oath; they were introduced later. There was no Olympic village, the invited athletes provided themselves with housing.

241 athletes from 14 countries took part in the Games of the I Olympiad: Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Hungary (at the time of the Games, Hungary was part of Austria-Hungary, but Hungarian athletes competed separately), Germany, Greece, Denmark, Italy , USA, France, Chile, Switzerland, Sweden.

Russian athletes were quite actively preparing for the Olympics, but due to lack of funds, the Russian team was not sent to the Games.

As in ancient times, only men took part in the competitions of the first modern Olympiad.

The program of the first Games included nine sports - classical wrestling, cycling, gymnastics, athletics, swimming, bullet shooting, tennis, weightlifting and fencing. 43 sets of awards were played.

According to ancient tradition, the Games began with athletics competitions. Athletics competitions became the most massive - 63 athletes from 9 countries took part in 12 events. The largest number of species - 9 - was won by representatives of the United States.

The first Olympic champion was the American athlete James Connolly, who won the triple jump with a score of 13 meters 71 centimeters.

Wrestling competitions were held without uniform approved rules for wrestling, there were also no weight categories. The style in which the athletes competed was close to today's Greco-Roman, but it was allowed to grab an opponent by the legs. Only one set of medals was played among five athletes, and only two of them competed exclusively in wrestling - the rest took part in competitions in other disciplines.

Since there were no artificial pools in Athens, swimming competitions were held in an open bay near the city of Piraeus; the start and finish were marked with ropes attached to the floats. The competition aroused great interest - by the beginning of the first swim, about 40 thousand spectators had gathered on the shore. About 25 swimmers from six countries took part, most of them are naval officers and sailors of the Greek merchant fleet. The medals were played in four types, all heats were held in "freestyle" - it was allowed to swim in any way, changing it along the distance. At that time, the most popular swimming methods were breaststroke, overarm (an improved way of swimming on the side) and "trend-style". At the insistence of the organizers of the Games, an applied type of swimming was also included in the program - 100 meters in sailor's clothes. Only Greek sailors participated in it.

In cycling, six sets of medals were contested - five on the track and one on the road. Track races were held at the Neo Faliron velodrome specially built for the Games.

Eight sets of awards were played in artistic gymnastics competitions. Competitions were held outdoors, at the Marble Stadium.

In shooting, five sets of awards were played - two in rifle shooting and three in pistol shooting.

Tennis competitions were held on the courts of the Athens Tennis Club. There were two tournaments - singles and doubles. At the 1896 Games, there was not yet a requirement that all team members represent one country, and some couples were international.

Weightlifting competitions were held without division into weight categories and included two disciplines: squeezing a ball bar with two hands and lifting a dumbbell with one hand.

In fencing, three sets of awards were played. Fencing became the only sport where professionals were also admitted: separate competitions were held among "maestro" - fencing teachers ("maestro" were also admitted to the 1900 Games, after which this practice ceased).

The culmination of the Olympic Games was the marathon. Unlike all subsequent Olympic competitions in marathon running, the length of the marathon distance at the Games of the I Olympiad was 40 kilometers. The classic length of a marathon distance is 42 kilometers 195 meters. The Greek postman Spyridon Louis finished first with a result of 2 hours 58 minutes 50 seconds, who became a national hero after this success. In addition to the Olympic awards, he received a gold cup, established by the French academician Michel Breal, who insisted on the inclusion of marathon running in the Games program, a barrel of wine, a voucher for free meals throughout the year, free tailoring of dresses and use of hairdresser services throughout life, 10 centners of chocolate, 10 cows and 30 sheep.

The winners were awarded on the closing day of the Games - April 15, 1896. Since the Games of the First Olympiad, a tradition has been established of performing the national anthem in honor of the winner and raising the national flag. The winner was crowned with a laurel wreath, he was awarded a silver medal, an olive branch cut in the Sacred Grove of Olympia, and a diploma made by a Greek artist. The second place winners received bronze medals. Third-place finishers were not counted at the time, and only later were included by the International Olympic Committee in the country medal standings, however, not all medalists were accurately identified.

The greatest number of medals was won by the Greek team - 45 (10 gold, 17 silver, 18 bronze). The second was the US team - 20 awards (11 + 7 + 2). The third place was taken by the German team - 13.