Olympic Games - Revival and Modern Games

Greek interest in reviving the Olympic Games began with the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821. It was first proposed by poet and newspaper editor Panagiotis Soutsos in his poem "Dialogue of the Dead", published in 1833. Evangelis Zappas, a wealthy Greek-Romanian philanthropist, first wrote to King Otto of Greece, in 1856, offering to fund a permanent revival of the Olympic Games.

Evangelis Zappas sponsored the first Zappas Olympic Games in 1859, which was held in an Athens city square. Athletes participated from Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Evangelis Zappas funded the restoration of the ancient Panathenaic stadium so that it could host all future Olympic Games. The Panathinaiko Stadium hosted Zappas Olympics in 1870 and 1875. Thirty thousand spectators attended 1870 Zappas Games. No official attendance records are available for the 1875 Zappas Olympics.

In 1890, after attending the Olympian Games of the Wenlock Olympian Society, Baron Pierre de Coubertin was inspired to found the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Baron Pierre de Coubertin built on the ideas and work of Dr William Penny Brookes and Evangelis Zappas with the aim of establishing internationally rotating Olympic Games that would occur every four years.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin presented these ideas during the first Olympic Congress of the newly created International Olympic Committee. This meeting was held on 16-23 June 1894, at the Sorbonne University in Paris. On the last day of the Congress, it was decided that the first Olympic Games, to come under the auspices of the IOC, would take place in Athens in 1896. The IOC elected the Greek writer Demetrius Vikelas as its first president.

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