First modern Olympic Games

The first recorded Olympic Games were held at Olympia in the Greek city-state
of Elis in 776 B.C., but it is generally accepted that the Olympics were at
least 500 years old at that time. The ancient Olympics, held every four years,
occurred during a religious festival honoring the Greek god Zeus. In the eighth
century B.C., contestants came from a dozen or more Greek cities, and by the
fifth century B.C. from as many as 100 cities from throughout the Greek empire.
Initially, Olympic competition was limited to foot races, but later a number of
other events were added, including wrestling, boxing, horse and chariot racing,
and military competitions. The pentathlon, introduced in 708 B.C., consisted of
a foot race, the long jump, discus and javelin throws, and wrestling. With the
rise of Rome, the Olympics declined, and in 393 A.D. the Roman Emperor
Theodosius I, a Christian, abolished the Games as part of his efforts to
suppress paganism in the Roman Empire.

With the Renaissance, Europe began a long fascination with ancient Greek
culture, and in the 18th and 19th centuries some nations staged informal
sporting and folkloric festivals bearing the name "Olympic Games." However, it
was not until 1892 that a young French baron, Pierre de Coubertin, seriously
proposed reviving the Olympics as a major international competition that would
occur every four years. At a conference on international sport in Paris in June
1894, Coubertin again raised the idea, and the 79 delegates from nine countries
unanimously approved his proposal. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was
formed, and the first Games were planned for 1896 in Athens, the capital of
Greece.

In Athens, 280 participants from 13 nations competed in 43 events, covering
track-and-field, swimming, gymnastics, cycling, wrestling, weightlifting,
fencing, shooting, and tennis. All the competitors were men, and a few of the
entrants were tourists who stumbled upon the Games and were allowed to sign up.
The track-and-field events were held at the Panathenaic Stadium, which was
originally built in 330 B.C. and restored for the 1896 Games. Americans won nine
out of 12 of these events. The 1896 Olympics also featured the first marathon
competition, which followed the 25-mile route run by a Greek soldier who brought
news of a victory over the Persians from Marathon to Athens in 490 B.C. In 1924,
the marathon was standardized at 26 miles and 385 yards. Appropriately, a Greek,
Spyridon Louis, won the first marathon at the 1896 Athens Games.

Pierre de Coubertin became IOC president in 1896 and guided the Olympic Games
through its difficult early years, when it lacked much popular support and was
overshadowed by world's fairs. In 1924, the first truly successful Olympic Games
were held in Paris, involving more than 3,000 athletes, including more than 100
women, from 44 nations. The first Winter Olympic Games were also held that year.
In 1925, Coubertin retired. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the
foremost international sports competition. At the 2000 Summer Olympics in
Sydney, more than 10,000 athletes from 200 countries competed, including nearly
4,000 women. In 2004, the Summer Olympics returned to Athens, with more than
11,000 athletes competing from 202 countries. In a proud moment for Greeks and
an exciting one for spectators, the shotput competition was held at the site of
the classical Games in Olympia.