The first modern Olympic Games were held in the Greek city of Athens from April 6 to April 15, 1896.

The decision to hold the First Olympic Games

June 23, 1894, Paris, Sorbonne University - 1st Congress of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was held. initiated an event to announce a project to revive the Ancient Greek Olympic Games. At the suggestion of the writer and translator Demetrius Vikelas (who later became the First President of the IOC), a decision was made to hold new Olympic Games in the city of Athens (Greece). According to the organizers of the Olympics, such a decision would indicate the continuity of the Olympic Games with modern traditions Ancient Greece and, besides, the city had the only large stadium in all of Europe. Unfortunately, the idea of ​​holding the Games in Olympia had to be abandoned due to the enormous costs of reconstructing the stadium.

Opening ceremony of the First Olympic Games

On Easter Monday of Christianity (Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism) and, moreover, on Greek Independence Day, April 6, 1896, the opening ceremony of the First Summer Olympic Games of our time took place. On the day of the ceremonial start of the competition, more than 80 thousand spectators were present at the stadium in Athens. The ceremony was also attended by the Greek royal family. King George I from the rostrum solemnly declared the First International Olympic Games in the city of Athens open.

From this day on, the first Olympic traditions were born: the head of the state where the competition is taking place opens the Games, and the Olympic anthem is played at the Games ceremony. True, such Olympic traditions as the fire lighting ceremony, the parade of participating countries, and the recitation of the oath have not yet been established.

Participants of the First Olympic Games

More than two hundred and forty male athletes took part in the first Olympic competitions. Forty-three sets of Olympic medals were played in the following Olympic sports: wrestling, athletics, cycling, swimming, shooting, artistic gymnastics, tennis, fencing, weightlifting.

According to the IOC, representatives of fourteen countries participated in the First Olympics of our time, their athletes were delegated by: Australia, Bulgaria, Austria, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Izmir, Italy, Denmark, USA, Chile, France, Sweden and Switzerland .

But the administration of Athens and the Greek government expressed doubts that the necessary funds would be allocated to hold competitions of this rank. The government motivated this attitude by the fact that Athenians are poorly versed in sports and that the city does not have the necessary sports facilities, and the financial situation of Greece does not allow inviting representatives from many countries to the Olympics. Many prominent government and political figures supported the government's statement. For example, the influential politician Stephonos Dratomis wrote that Greece was not able to implement the magnificent idea of ​​​​Pierre de Coubertin and the Games would best be postponed until 1900, as component World Exhibition in Paris.

But Pierre de Coubertin, as well as the Greek Crown Prince Constantine, who supported him, believed that they could only count on help from private individuals. The Crown Prince created a special commission to facilitate the holding of the Olympic Games. He appointed the former mayor of Athens Philemon general secretary commission, and also appealed to the people to donate funds to the Olympics preparation fund. Money began to come not only from the residents of Greece, but also from London, Marseille, Istanbul (Constantinople) and other cities where rich Greek colonies existed. With funds received from Alexandria from Georg Averoff, the ancient Olympic stadium was restored. A velodrome and a shooting range were also built in Athens. Tennis courts are located in the city center. Athletes were provided with pavilions with boathouses and locker rooms for rowing competitions.

The preparation of the Olympic facilities was carried out by the Greek National Olympic Committee, which managed to complete everything preparatory work in one year. The International Olympic Committee and national committees of other countries selected participants for the Games, which turned out to be a difficult task. Here is what Pierre de Coubertin wrote about this: “ Most of gymnastic associations of Germany, France and Belgium are filled with the consciousness of their own exclusivity: the members of these associations do not intend to tolerate in the program of the Games those sports that they do not cultivate. They especially hate the so-called “English” sports... Other associations were ready to send their representatives to Athens only after providing them with information regarding the interest the planned sports festival was arousing... The German press, to top it all off, declared, that the Olympics are an exclusively Franco-Greek enterprise. Meanwhile, Mr. Kemen in Hungary, Major Balck in Sweden, General Butovsky in Russia, Professor Sloan in the USA, Lord Ampthill in Great Britain and Dr. Gut-Jarkovsky in Bohemia (modern Czech Republic) did everything possible to create interest in the upcoming competitions."

The competition was originally planned to take place in the stadium at Olympia, site of the Ancient Greek Olympic Games. But this idea had to be abandoned because the stadium needed serious restoration. It was decided to hold the Games at the Athens stadium, where athletes competed in ancient times. The opening of the Games took place on April 6 at the Marble Stadium in Athens; the opening ceremony was watched by about 80 thousand spectators (a record figure before the 1932 Olympic Games). After the King of Greece announced the Games of the First Olympiad, a choir of 150 voices performed the Olympic Ode, written especially for this occasion by the Greek composer Samara.

311 athletes from 13 countries took part in the competition: Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Denmark, USA, France, Chile, Switzerland, Sweden. However, more than 70% of the participants competed for Greece. The teams of Germany (21 athletes), France (19), and the USA (14) were quite representative.

Russian athletes were actively preparing for the Olympics, but due to lack of funds, the Russian team was unable to attend. Several athletes from Odessa, eager to participate in the Games, decided to travel to Athens on their own, but due to financial problems they had to return back. Kiev resident Nikolai Ritter, however, managed to get to Athens and even applied to participate in wrestling and shooting competitions. But he did not compete, later withdrawing his application.

Only men took part in the competition.

The program of the first modern Olympic Games included competitions in Greco-Roman wrestling, cycling, gymnastics, athletics, swimming, shooting (bullet), tennis, weightlifting, and fencing, in which 43 sets of medals were competed. Rowing competitions were also planned, but due to a lack of applications they did not take place.

By ancient tradition The athletes started the games. The first Olympic champion was the American athlete James Connolly, who won the triple jump with a score of 13 m 71 cm. The champion was a full meter ahead of his closest rival Alexandre Tuffer from France. Harvard University student Connolly arrived at the Olympics without official permission from the administration; moreover, professors and teachers disapproved of the willfulness of the future champion. But after James returned with an Olympic gold medal, the pundits changed their anger to mercy. He was later even awarded an honorary doctorate from Harvard. Connolly became famous not only in sports, becoming the first Olympic champion of our time, but also in journalism, he also has 25 popular novels to his credit.

The second gold medal was also won by the American athlete, discus thrower Robert Garrett, who literally snatched the highest Olympic award from the hands of the Greek Panagiotis Paraskevopoulos. This circumstance shocked the Greek fans - after all, the Greeks were considered beyond competition in discus throwing!

The happy American told the startled journalists an entertaining story of his victory. While a student at Princeton University, Garrett learned that the Games program included discus throwing, and decided to take part in it. Since in America they knew about this sport only by hearsay, he decided that at the Olympics they would use the same discus that ancient athletes used.

After delving into books, Garrett ordered a similar disc for himself and, having familiarized himself with the technique, began training. Already in Athens, he discovered that modern equipment was so much lighter and more convenient that it was not difficult for him to beat the favorites with a score of 29 m 15 cm.

The next day, fortune once again smiled on the lucky American: in the absence of the main contender, world record holder Dennis Horgan (Ireland), Garrett won another gold medal in the shot put with a result of 11 m 22 cm. Garrett went down in the history of the Olympic Games by paying trip of three athletes of their team.

The central competition was the marathon. The winner, the Greek postman Spyridon Louis, became a national hero and received high honors. In addition to the Olympic awards, he received a gold cup established by the French academician Michel Breal, who insisted on including marathon running in the program of the Games, a barrel of wine, and a voucher for free food for a year, free tailoring of dresses and use of hairdresser services throughout life, 10 quintals of chocolate, 10 cows and 30 rams.

Pierre de Coubertin described the victory of Spyridon Louis this way: “When Louis appeared at the stadium, the 60 thousand spectators who were waiting for him jumped out of their seats, overcome with extraordinary excitement. A flock of pigeons released from cages took off again... Some spectators, who were closest to Louis, tried to make their way to him in order to carry him out of the field in triumph. Louis would have been strangled in his arms if the Crown Prince and Prince George had not escorted him from the arena.”

The first serious violation of sports ethics was associated with the marathon. Immediately after the finish, the Hungarian athlete Deze Kellner, who came fourth, protested, demanding the disqualification of the Greek runner S. Vasilakos. Kellner claimed that third-place finisher Vasilakos mysteriously disappeared during the marathon and appeared in front of him a few hundred meters before the finish line. The investigation showed that the enterprising Greek covered almost the entire distance on a cart in order to appear at the finish line in the glory of a winner. The Hungarian athlete received his rightful bronze medal, as well as a gold watch, along with an apology from the organizers.

For fraud, Vasilakos was deprived of the right to wear the national costume, he was publicly condemned and disqualified for life.

The outstanding French athlete Paul Masson turned out to be unattainable in the sprint race on the track, as well as at distances of 2000 and 10,000 m. At the first Games, he won the most gold medals. Another French athlete Leon Flament demonstrated an example of sportsmanship and fair fight. Leading the 100-kilometer race, he suddenly noticed that his main rival Georgios Koletis was forced to stop due to a bicycle breakdown. The Frenchman, as a sign of solidarity, decided to wait for the Greek cyclist and resumed the race only after Koletis was able to continue. And despite the delay, Flamand was the first to reach the finish line. He became not only an Olympic champion, but also one of the most popular athletes of the Olympics.

There was no division into wrestling competitions weight categories. All the more honorable was the victory of the athlete from Germany Carl Schumann, who was the lightest of all the participants. In addition to the victory in wrestling, Schumann won 3 more gold medals in gymnastics competitions - vault, as well as in the team championship in exercises on parallel bars and horizontal bar.

In the weightlifting competition, the Englishman Launceston Elliott distinguished himself with a result of 71 kg in the exercise with one arm and the Dane Viggo Jensen (111.5 kg with both arms).

In the shooting competitions, Greek athletes were out of competition, winning 3 medals in exercises with a military rifle. In Revolver 2 shooting, the Americans won the highest awards.

The Hungarian swimmer Alfred Hajos won a striking victory. In stormy weather, he managed to get ahead of the other contenders and won the 1200 m swim. Hajos remained in the Olympic annals not only as the first swimming champion: 28 years after his victory in Athens, he again took part in the Olympic Games and won a silver medal in the arts competition in the architecture section - for the stadium project.

Of course, not everything at the Games of the 1st Olympiad, despite the enormous enthusiasm and efforts of the organizers, went smoothly. The result would have been more significant if representatives from not 13, but more from 34 invited countries. A number of countries sent weak teams to the Olympic competitions, and some of the strongest athletes did not come to the Games.

However, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of the first international competitions of this scale. Coubertin praised them, noting: “As far as Greece is concerned, the result of the Games seems to be twofold: sporting and political... If we realize the influence that physical education can have on the future of the country and on the spiritual forces nation as a whole, the question involuntarily arises: did not Greece begin in 1896? new era its development? It would be interesting if sport became one of the factors that could influence the solution of the Eastern question!.. These are hypotheses, and the future will confirm or refute the correctness of our forecasts...”

The winners were awarded on the closing day of the Games - April 15. In accordance with the ancient ceremony, the Olympic champion was crowned with a laurel wreath, he was given an olive branch cut from the sacred grove of Olympia, as well as a medal and diploma. Since 1896, the tradition of playing national anthems and raising state flags in honor of the winners has been established.

At the Games of the 1st Olympiad, Greek athletes won the largest number of medals - 46 (10 gold, 19 silver and 17 bronze); US Olympians received 19 medals (respectively, 11, 7, 1); German athletes - 14 medals (7, 5, 2). The Olympians of Bulgaria, Chile and Sweden were left without medals.

After the successful hosting of the Games of the First Olympiad, Greece hoped that subsequent Olympic Games would be held in Athens, which would become a modern Olympia. However, the International Olympic Committee decided to give the Games a truly international character and hold them alternately in different countries and on different continents. The International Olympic Committee did not object to major international competitions being held in Greece between the Games. Such competitions were planned to be held in 1898, and then in 1902. But for organizational and financial reasons they did not take place.

In the 18th century, during archaeological excavations in Olympia, scientists discovered ancient sports facilities. But archaeologists soon stopped studying them. And only 100 years later the Germans joined the study of the discovered objects. At the same time, for the first time they started talking about the possibility of reviving the Olympic movement.

The main inspirer of the revival of the Olympic movement was the French baron Pierre de Coubertin, who helped German researchers study the discovered monuments. He also had his own interest in the development of this project, since he believed that it was the weak physical training French soldiers became the reason for their defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. In addition, the baron wanted to create a movement that would unite young people and help establish friendly relations between different countries. In 1894, he voiced his proposals at an international congress, where it was decided to hold the first Olympic Games in their homeland - in Athens.

The first Games became a real discovery for the whole world and were a huge success. In total, 241 athletes from 14 countries took part in them. The success of this event inspired the Greeks so much that they proposed making Athens the venue for the Olympics on a permanent basis. However, the first International Olympic Committee, which was founded two years before the start of the first Games, rejected this idea and decided that it was necessary to establish rotation between states for the right to host the Olympics every four years.

The First International Olympic Games took place from April 6 to April 15, 1896. Only men took part in the competition. 10 sports were taken as a basis. These are classical wrestling, cycling, gymnastics, swimming, shooting, tennis, weightlifting, fencing. In all these disciplines, 43 sets of medals were competed. The Greek Olympians took the lead, the Americans came in second, and the Germans took bronze.

The organizers of the first Games wanted to make them a competition among amateurs, in which professionals could not take part. After all, according to members of the IOC committee, those athletes who have a financial interest initially have an advantage over amateurs. And this is not fair.

Related article

The next Olympic Games will be held in late summer 2012. The previous competition took place two years ago - it was the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Despite the fact that these were already the 21st Winter Olympic Games, several “premieres” took place at them.

The emblem of the games was a hero named Ilanaak - “friend”, made up of five stones of Olympic colors. Two of the games' mottos were borrowed from the Canadian anthem: the French phrase "Most Brilliant Deeds" and the English phrase "With Burning Hearts."

Amendments were made to the original scenario for the opening of the Olympics. A few hours before the ceremony, news of a tragedy became known - a luge athlete from Georgia crashed during training. The ceremony included a minute of silence, and the Georgian national team came out wearing mourning bands.

During the lighting of the Olympic flame, a small incident occurred. For the first time, four athletes took part in the procedure. But due to a technical failure, only three “grooves” appeared leading to the main torch. However, during the closing ceremony this situation was played out ironically. The same guilty “electrician” appeared on the stage, he apologized and removed the missing fourth element in the design of the Olympic flame.

The main stadium for the games was BC-Place in downtown Vancouver, designed for 55 thousand spectators. In addition, some competitions took place in Whistler, Richmond and West Vancouver.

From February 12 to 28, 82 teams competed for prizes in 15 disciplines. Compared to the previous Olympic Games, the list of disciplines has been expanded: ski cross competitions have been added, separately for men and women.

The medals at the Vancouver Winter Olympics were unique, stylized in the traditions of indigenous art in Canada. For the first time in the history of the Olympics, the awards were not flat, but with a wavy surface.

The Russians remember these games as one of the most unsuccessful for the national team. The Winter Olympics became a record failure - the Russians showed the worst results in terms of the number of gold medals and place in the team event. In the medal standings, the team was only 11th in the table. The hosts of the XXI Winter Olympic Games took first place in terms of the number of gold medals, Germany took second place, and the US team took third place.

From February 12 to February 28, 2010, the XXI Winter Games were held in the Canadian city of Vancouver. Olympic Games. These two weeks have been filled with many sporting events. Participants and spectators became heroes and witnesses of victories and defeats, doping scandals, the struggle for Olympic medals and, unfortunately, even tragic events. This Olympics for the Russian team became the most unsuccessful in the entire history of the Games.

From the very beginning, the Olympic Games in Vancouver were marked by an absurd tragedy: even before the opening of the Games, several athletes were injured on the luge and bobsleigh track, and a young promising athlete from the Georgian team, Nodar Kumaritashvili, died after crashing into a metal support. Therefore, the opening ceremony of the Olympics began with a minute of silence.

But then events developed according to plan, despite the too warm weather and problems with demonstrators and strikers protesting against globalization. The very next day, the usual Olympic routine began, the first official competition took place - K-90 ski jumping, in the final of which the Swiss Simon Ammann won, who opened the scoring for Vancouver's medals.

Russian skiers did not start their performances very well, and as a result they only got fourth places, which the coaches attributed to poor selection ski wax. The first Olympic medal for the Russian team was won by speed skater Ivan Skobrev, who took third place in the 5 km distance.

The Russian team continued to be plagued by setbacks: biathlete Niyaz Nabeev, on whom great hopes were placed, was removed from participation in the competition due to an elevated level of hemoglobin in the blood. In the first match with the Finns, the Russian hockey players lost with a score of 1:5 and actually immediately dropped out of the fight for medals. For the first time in many years, there were no Russian athletes in the pairs competition either.

The first gold for Russia was won by sprint skiers Nikita Kryukov and Alexander Panzhinsky only on the 5th day of the Olympics. Evgeni Plushenko, who was predicted to have gold in figure skating, took only second place, which also became an unpleasant surprise and a reason for long debate. Success accompanied the ice dancers, skiers in the team sprint, biathletes and lugers, who added several more medals to the Russian team's treasury. For the first time in the history of Russian sports, Ekaterina Ilyukhina won a gold medal in snowboarding. In the unofficial team competition, the Russian team was only 11th in the number of Olympic medals.

At the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games, Vancouver passed the baton to the Russian city of Sochi. Let's hope it's the next one

The Olympic Games, Olympic Games are the largest international complex sports competitions of our time, which are held every four years. A tradition that existed in ancient Greece, in late XIX century was revived by a French public figure Pierre de Coubertin. The Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics, have been held every four years since 1896, with the exception of years following the World Wars. In 1924, the Winter Olympic Games were established and were originally held in the same year as the Summer Olympics. However, since 1994, the timing of the Winter Olympic Games has been shifted by two years relative to the timing of the Summer Games.

Ancient Olympic Games

The Olympic Games of Ancient Greece were a religious and sports festival held in Olympia. Information about the origin of the games has been lost, but several legends describing this event have survived. The first documented celebration dates back to 776 BC. e., although it is known that games were held earlier. During the games, a sacred truce was declared; during this time it was forbidden to wage war, although this was repeatedly violated.

The Olympic Games significantly lost their importance with the arrival of the Romans. After Christianity became official religion, games began to be seen as a manifestation of paganism and in 394 AD. e. they were banned by the emperor Theodosius I.

Revival of the Olympic Idea

Even after the ban on ancient competitions, the Olympic idea did not disappear forever. 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, best case scenario, regional character. The first true predecessors to the modern Olympic Games are the Olympias, which were held regularly between 1859 and 1888. The idea of ​​reviving the Olympic Games in Greece belonged to the poet Panagiotis Soutsos, brought it to life by a public figure Evangelis Zappas.

In 1766, as a result of archaeological excavations in Olympia, sports and temple buildings 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 Olympic thinking and culture spread quite quickly throughout Europe. French Baron Pierre de Coubertin (French: Pierre de Coubertin) said then: “Germany has excavated what remains of ancient Olympia. Why can't France restore its old greatness?

Baron Pierre de Coubertin

According to Coubertin, it was 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 strives to change the situation through improvement physical culture French. At the same time, he wanted to overcome national egoism and contribute to the struggle for peace and international understanding. The “youth of the world” were supposed to measure their strength in sports competitions, and not on the battlefields. Reviving the Olympic Games seemed in his eyes the best solution to achieve both goals.

At a congress held from June 16-23, 1894 at the Sorbonne (University of Paris), he presented his thoughts and ideas to an international audience. On the last day of the congress (June 23), it was decided that the first Olympic Games of our time should be held in 1896 in Athens, in the ancestral country of the Games - Greece. To organize the Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded. The first president of the Committee was a Greek Demetrius Vikelas, who was president until the end of the First Olympic Games in 1896. Baron became General Secretary Pierre de Coubertin.

The first Games of our time were truly a great success. Despite the fact that only 241 athletes (14 countries) took part in the Games, the Games became the largest sporting event ever held since Ancient Greece. Greek officials were so pleased that they put forward a proposal to hold the Olympic Games “forever” in their homeland, Greece. But the IOC introduced rotation between different states so that every 4 years the Games change their location.

After the first success, the Olympic movement experienced the first crisis in its history. The 1900 Games in Paris (France) and the 1904 Games in St. Louis (Missouri, USA) were combined with the World Exhibitions. Sports competitions dragged on for months and attracted almost no interest from spectators. Almost only American athletes participated in the Games in St. Louis, since getting from Europe across the ocean in those years was very difficult for technical reasons.

At the 1906 Olympic Games in Athens (Greece), sports competitions and results again came first. Although the IOC initially recognized and supported the holding of these "interim Games" (just two years after the previous ones), these Games are now not 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.”

Modern Olympic Games

The principles, rules and regulations of the Olympic Games are determined by the Olympic Charter, the foundations of which were approved by the International Sports Congress in Paris in 1894, which, at the suggestion of the French educator and public figure Pierre de Coubertin, decided to organize the Games on the model of the ancient ones and to create the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

According to the charter of the Games, the Olympics “... unite amateur athletes from all countries in fair and equal competitions. There shall be no discrimination against countries or individuals on the basis of race, religion or political reasons..." The games are held in the first year of the Olympiad (4-year period between games). The Olympiads have been counted since 1896, when the first Olympic Games took place (I Olympiad - 1896-99). The Olympiad also receives its number in cases where the games are not held (for example, VI - in 1916-19, XII - 1940-43, XIII - 1944-47). The symbol of the Olympic Games is five fastened rings, symbolizing the unification of the five parts of the world in the Olympic movement, the so-called. Olympic rings. The color of the rings in the top row is blue for Europe, black for Africa, red for America, in the bottom row - yellow for Asia, green for Australia. In addition to Olympic sports, the organizing committee has the right to choose to include in the program exhibition competitions in 1-2 sports that are not recognized by the IOC. In the same year as the Olympics, the Winter Olympic Games have been held since 1924, which have their own numbering. Since 1994, the dates of the Winter Olympic Games have been shifted by 2 years relative to the summer ones. The location of the Olympics is chosen by the IOC; the right to organize them is granted to the city, not the country. Duration no more than 15 days ( winter games- no more than 10).

The Olympic movement has its own emblem and flag, approved by the IOC at the suggestion of Coubertin in 1913. The emblem is the Olympic rings. The motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius (faster, higher, stronger). The flag is a white cloth with the Olympic rings, and has been flown at all Games since 1920.

Among the traditional rituals of the Games:

* lighting of the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony (the flame is lit from the sun's rays in Olympia and delivered by a torch relay of athletes to the host city of the Games);
* pronouncement of the Olympic oath by one of the outstanding athletes of the country in which the Olympics are taking place on behalf of all participants in the games;
* taking an oath of impartial judging on behalf of the judges;
* presentation of medals to winners and prize-winners of competitions;
* raising the national flag and singing the national anthem in honor of the winners.

Since 1932, the host city has been building an “Olympic village” - a complex of residential premises for the participants of the games. According to the charter, the Games are a competition between individual athletes and not between national teams. However, since 1908 the so-called unofficial team standings - determining the place occupied by teams based on the number of medals received and points scored in competitions (points are awarded for the first 6 places according to the system: 1st place - 7 points, 2nd - 5, 3rd - 4, 4 -e - 3, 5th - 2, 6th - 1). The title of Olympic champion is the most honorable and coveted title in the career of an athlete in those sports in which Olympic tournaments are held. The exception is football, since the title of world champion in this sport is much more prestigious.

In Paris in Great hall The Sorbonne convened a commission to revive the Olympic Games. Baron Pierre de Coubertin became its general secretary. Then the International Olympic Committee - the IOC - was formed, which included the most authoritative and independent citizens of different countries.

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

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

The date of the ceremony was not chosen by chance - on this day, Easter Monday coincided with three directions of Christianity at once - 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 competition is taking place, and the singing of the Olympic anthem. However, such indispensable attributes modern Games, like the parade of participating countries, the ceremony of lighting the Olympic flame and the recitation of the Olympic oath, there was no; they were introduced later. There was no Olympic village; invited athletes provided their own housing.

241 athletes from 14 countries took part in the Games of the 1st 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 Olympics.

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

According to ancient tradition, the Games began with athletic competitions.

Athletics competitions became the most popular - 63 athletes from 9 countries took part in 12 events. Largest quantity species - 9 - won by representatives of the USA.

The first Olympic champion was 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 conducting fights, and 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's 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 swimming pools in Athens, swimming competitions were held in an open bay near the city of Piraeus; the start and finish were marked by ropes attached to the floats. The competition aroused great interest - by the start of the first swim, about 40 thousand spectators had gathered on the shore. About 25 swimmers from six countries took part, most of them naval officers and sailors of the Greek merchant fleet.

Medals were awarded in four events, all swims were held “freestyle” - you were allowed to swim in any way, changing it along the course. At that time, the most popular swimming methods were breaststroke, overarm (an improved way of swimming on the side) and treadmill style. At the insistence of the Games organizers, the program also included an applied swimming event - 100 meters in sailor's clothing. Only Greek sailors took part in it.

In cycling, six sets of medals were awarded - five on the track and one on the road. The track races took place at the Neo Faliron velodrome, specially built for the Games.

Eight sets of awards were competed for in the artistic gymnastics competitions. The competition took place outdoors at the Marble Stadium.

Five sets of awards were awarded in shooting - two in rifle shooting and three in pistol shooting.

Tennis competitions took place on the courts of the Athens Tennis Club. Two tournaments were held - singles and doubles. At the 1896 Games there was not yet a requirement that all team members represent the same country, and some pairs were international.

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

Three sets of awards were competed for in fencing. Fencing became the only sport where professionals were allowed: separate competitions were held among “maestros” - fencing teachers (“maestros” were also admitted to the 1900 Games, after which this practice ceased).

The highlight of the Olympic Games was the marathon running. Unlike all subsequent Olympic marathon competitions, the marathon distance at the Games of the First Olympics was 40 kilometers. The classic 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 including marathon running in the program of the Games, a barrel of wine, a voucher for free food for a year, free tailoring of a dress and the use of a hairdresser throughout his life, 10 centners of chocolate, 10 cows and 30 rams.

The winners were awarded on the closing day of the Games - April 15, 1896. Since the Games of the First Olympiad, the tradition of singing the national anthem and raising the national flag in honor of the winner has been established. The winner was crowned with a laurel wreath, given a silver medal, an olive branch cut from the Sacred Grove of Olympia, and a diploma made by a Greek artist. Second place winners received bronze medals.

Those who took third place were not taken into account at that time, and only later the International Olympic Committee included them in the medal standings among countries, but not all medalists were determined accurately.

The Greek team won the largest number of medals - 45 (10 gold, 17 silver, 18 bronze). Team USA came second with 20 medals (11+7+2). The third place was taken by the German team - 13 (6+5+2).

The material was prepared based on information from open sources