After the disappointing and quite obvious rejection, the athletes found that they had to wait another year and a half for the peak moment they were expecting. But did you know that the first games were held in April, to be precise, today 124 years ago?
The first Jewish general. Gymnast Alfred Plato in 1896
The first Olympics in Athens 1896 contained a total of 14 participating countries and 241 athletes. It was first conducted in modern times and lasted only 9 days. Women were not allowed to attend. The event included 43 competitions in 9 different sports. It was Georgius I, King of Greece, who was officially inaugurated at the opening ceremony on April 6.
Already in June 1894 it was decided to establish the International Olympic Committee and the first Olympics. Although the number of participants was smaller than expected, it was the largest sporting event the world had ever known. Many of the top athletes of those days did not actually attend the Olympic Games, which was one of the reasons many Greek athletes were successful in winning competitions.
Japan and the world will wait another year for games
The opening ceremony at the Panathinaiko Stadium was impressive. 80,000 spectators led by the King of Greece, his wife Olga and his sons, attended. The athletes stood on the lawn, divided into states, and after the speech of the organizing committee president, Prince Constantine I, and the singing of the Olympic anthem by 9 bands and 150 choir singers, the games opened.
At the 1894 congress held at the University of Sorbonne in Paris, many sports professions held at the Athens Olympic Games were announced. In the first official announcement of the Olympic Committee, it was decided that the football and cricket industries should be included in the games, a decision that ultimately did not materialize. The rowing competition was also scheduled, but canceled due to strong winds on the day it was supposed to take place. Another profession that was planned but canceled was boating.
So what was it? Athletics, biking, wrestling, weightlifting, gymnastics, tennis, fencing, shooting and swimming. Some Greek achievement in the Olympics was Spiridon Lewis winning the marathon. The first champion in the Olympics was an American athlete named James Connolly, who won the triple jump competition.
Athens 1896 marathon winner, Spiridon Lewis(Photo: AP)
All four swimming sessions were held on the same day, April 11. This hurt Alfred Ehush, a Hungarian Jew, since he was almost unable to recover from the anointing and had to compete in two. Nonetheless, the 18-year-old (the young man in the Olympics) won two gold medals in the 100-meter freestyle ointment and the 1,200-meter freestyle ointment.
At the top of the medal table at the end of the Games was Greece with 46 medals in total, split into 10 gold, 17 silver and 19 bronze, with the United States having one more gold, but it finished with 20 medals (7 silver and 2 bronze). Germany opened the trio with 13 medals (6 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze).
The current Olympic Games opening ceremony still includes ingredients from the first opening ceremony. For example, President of the Organizing Committee of
The games are still responsible for officially opening the games, and the Olympic anthem is still being played. Other elements, such as the presentation of the athletes, the Olympic torch lighting and the Olympic oath were added later.
