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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Olympic Games - Forerunners to Modern Games

First significant attempt to emulate the Ancient Olympic Games was the L'Olympiade de la République, a national Olympic festival held annually from 1796 to 1798 in Revolutionary France. L'Olympiade de la République included several disciplines from the ancient Greek Olympics. The 1796 Games of L'Olympiade de la République also marked the introduction of the metric system into sport.

Zappas Olympics (Greek: Ζάππειες Ολυμπιάδες), or simply called Olympics (Greek: Ολύμπια, Olympia) at the time, were a series of athletic events sponsored by the Greek businessman Evangelis Zappas and staged in 1859, 1870, and 1875 in Athens, Greece. The Zappas Olympics were the first revival of the Ancient Olympic Games in the modern era.

In 1850, an Olympian Class was started by Dr William Penny Brookes at Much Wenlock, in Shropshire, England. In 1859, Dr Brookes changed the name to Wenlock Olympian Games. This annual sports festival continues to this day. The Wenlock Olympian Society was founded by Dr. Brookes on 15 November 1860.

Between 1862 and 1867, Liverpool held an annual Liverpool Grand Olympic Festival. Devised by John Hulley and Charles Melly, in cooperation with Dr Brookes, the games of Grand Olympic Festival were elitist in nature since only Gentlemen could compete. Some of the Gentlemen brought their coaches with them. The programme for Athens 1896 had similarities to that of the Liverpool Olympics, but that was to be expected since Dr. Brookes had incorporated events from the 1859 Athens Olympics programme at Much Wenlock and had contributed to the programme at Liverpool.

In 1865, John Hulley, Dr. Brookes and E.G. Ravenstein founded the National Olympian Association in Liverpool. National Olympian Association was the forerunner of the British Olympic Association. National Olympian Association's articles of foundation provided the framework for the International Olympic Charter. In 1866, a national Olympic Games in Great Britain was organized at London's Crystal Palace.

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