The first modern Olympic Games opened in Athens
On this day · 6 April 1896
On April 6, 1896, athletes from 14 nations revived a tradition dormant for 1,500 years before 80,000 spectators in Athens.
On April 6, 1896, the modern Olympic Games opened in Athens, reviving a contest that had lain dormant for roughly 1,500 years. The date was no accident: it coincided with Greek Independence Day, and the refurbished marble Panathenaic Stadium filled to its 50,000-seat capacity, with crowds spilling onto the surrounding hillsides.
The Games were the work of French baron Pierre de Coubertin, who had spent the 1890s lobbying to turn ancient ritual into a recurring international competition. Athletes from 14 nations took part, all of them men, in more than 40 events spanning track and field, cycling, swimming, gymnastics, weightlifting, wrestling, fencing, shooting, and tennis.
American James Connolly, winning the triple jump, became the first Olympic champion in some fifteen centuries.
The emotional peak came days later, when Greek water-carrier Spyridon Louis won the marathon, a race invented for these Games to echo the ancient run from Marathon to Athens.
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