Bidding and preparation:
From June 65438 to June 0894, Athens, a historic city, won the right to host the first modern Olympic Games through the negotiation of the Paris International Sports Conference.
Athens, the capital of Greece, is located on the west side of the Arctic Peninsula in southeastern Greece. It is surrounded by the sea on three sides and has a pleasant climate. The political, cultural and economic center of Greece today is one of the important arenas in ancient Greece. It pays special attention to culture and education, emphasizes the combination of intellectual education, moral education, physical education and aesthetic education to cultivate talents, and creates brilliant Athenian culture. If Greece is the cradle of ancient European civilization, then Athens is the center of this cradle, and Olympia, the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games, which is famous in the world sports, is also about 300 kilometers away from here. Therefore, it is of great historical significance to hold the first Olympic Games in this ancient city.
After the Paris International Sports Conference, Demetriou ViKailas, the first president of the International Olympic Committee, brought back the good news of hosting the Olympic Games to Athens. As Kailas later wrote to Coubertin, "At that time, from Brindisi to Athens, my compatriots were talking happily about the Olympic Games". However, D Kailas is too optimistic. Not long after, when meeting with Greek Prime Minister Trikoupis, the Prime Minister suggested that the Olympic Games should be postponed due to financial problems. This is a blow to d' Kailas.
Coubertin was very anxious after learning the news. At the end of 10, he arrived in Marseille by train from Paris and then went to Athens by boat. After arriving in Athens, he exchanged a few pleasantries with D Kailas and went to the ruins of the ancient sports ground in Athens.
When he saw the ruins and desolate scenes everywhere, his heart cooled by half. It takes a lot of money to rebuild a sports ground on such ruins. Before leaving Paris, Coubertin received a letter from Kemeny, a Hungarian and a member of the International Olympic Committee. Kemani also knows what happened in Greece. In his letter, he suggested to Coubertin that Hungary was willing to take over the competition as a commemoration of the1000th anniversary of the founding of Hungary. The Olympic Games will be held in Greece, which is Coubertin's goal of reviving the Olympic Movement and internationalizing the Olympic Games. However, moving to Hungary went against his ideal. Camini's suggestion was difficult for Coubertin to accept. However, if the original proposal is held in Greece, how will the money be raised?
The attitude of Prime Minister Trikoupis was not only criticized by the opposition, but also aroused the dissatisfaction of Athenian citizens. When he learned that Coubertin had arrived in Athens, he immediately went to the hotel where Coubertin stayed, but the conversation between them ended in discord. Trikoupis said that it is impossible for a country to hold a sports meeting at a high price when it is heavily in debt. The charge d 'affaires of the French Embassy in Athens also exerted invisible pressure on Coubertin. The agent said that his arrival caused a political crisis in Athens and provided an excuse for the opposition party to oppose Trikoupis, because the opposition party was in favor of holding the sports meeting as scheduled.
Coubertin was almost at a loss. However, he is a strong-willed man, not discouraged and pessimistic. In a letter to a newspaper, he said that the word "can't" didn't exist in the French dictionary. At that time, King George I of Greece did not return from his visit to Petersburg, Russia, so he turned to the Crown Prince of Greece with a glimmer of hope.
The Greek Crown Prince Constanyine is a handsome young man of 26 years old. He is strong and loves sports. When he didn't express his position immediately after listening to Coubertin's story, the learned Coubertin went on to talk to the Crown Prince about the Greek uprising against Turkish rule in 182 1 year; It is said that Byron, an English poet, crossed the ocean with his sick body for the freedom of the Greek people, went to Greece to participate in the just war, and finally gave his young life. I talked about how 300,000 Greeks shed their last drop of blood in that cruel war so that the surviving 600,000 compatriots could control their own destiny ... Finally, Coubertin said with passion, "Therefore, I am full of confidence in such Greece."
The Crown Prince was obviously defeated by Coubertin's emotional contagion. He said excitedly, "On the other hand, I am full of confidence in the Olympic Games." .
The crown prince was persuaded that Coubertin was worthy of his trip to Athens.
The crown prince took over all the preparations for the Olympic Games, which caused strong dissatisfaction from the Prime Minister. After King George I returned home, he publicly supported the Crown Prince and forced Trikoupis to resign as Prime Minister. It is the first time in the history of the Olympic Games that a senior official of a country resigned because of hosting the Olympic Games.
The obstacles in the preparatory work have been eliminated. In order to raise funds, fundraising activities were launched all over Greece, raising 332,756 drachmas, but this was only a drop in the bucket. In order to make up for the lack of funds, the Greek government allocated 400,000 drachmas, and the postal department used the money to issue a set of stamps with the theme of the history of the ancient Olympic Games, which were sold at a price higher than the face value. This is the first batch of Olympic stamps in the world. 1906 When Athens held a sports meeting to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the modern Olympic Games, Greece once again adopted the above fundraising method. Greece originally issued Olympic stamps only for economic benefits, but it made such stamps popular all over the world and had a positive impact. 1920 At the Antwerp Olympic Games, Belgium followed Greece for the first time. Since then, not only the host country of the Olympic Games, but also other countries have issued such commemorative stamps. Winter Olympics stamps are issued from 1932. During the period of 1982, philatelists of the World Olympic Games also set up a philatelic association and elected Samaranch as the chairman of this association.
Although the Greeks raised a lot of money by collecting donations and issuing stamps, the Games were held smoothly, thanks to the Greek businessman George Avirov (18 14- 1899). He donated/kloc-0 million drachmas to rebuild the marble stadium on the ruins of the ancient stadium. To commemorate Avirov's contribution to the Games, Greece built a statue for him in Athens Square, and held an unveiling ceremony the day before the opening of the Games.
Basic information:
Invited to participate in the first modern Olympic Games are 365,438+065,438+0 athletes from Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Britain, Hungary, Germany, Denmark, the United States, France, Chile, Switzerland, Sweden and the host country Greece, with the largest team of ***230, accounting for two-thirds of the total; Germany and France each 19; The United States 14 people ranked fourth. Most American players come from Harvard and Princeton University. In order to travel to Europe, they organized themselves and raised funds themselves. They thought that the conference would open on April 18, but they didn't know that the opening date was April 6 until April 1 arrived in Italy, so they had to give up all their sightseeing plans and arrive in Athens before the opening. The host of the first Olympic Games followed the old system of the ancient Olympic Games, and female athletes were not allowed to participate. As for the qualifications of participating countries, unlike today's regulations, non-IOC members are not allowed to participate. Greece has invited countries all over the world, including China, but most countries didn't send teams because they didn't know much about the Olympic Games or for other reasons, and China is one of them. Greece's neighbor Italy once went to Milan for a player, which was the only player sent by Italy. But the organizing committee thought he was a professional athlete, so he was not allowed to participate.
Opening ceremony:
The first Olympic Games overcame many difficulties and finally opened on April 6th. 1896. This is the earliest month of previous Olympic Games. The host chose the opening ceremony on this day to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Greece's uprising against Turkish rule.
At 3 pm on April 6, King George I of Greece announced the opening of the conference. IOC officials such as Wei Calhas and Coubertin attended the opening ceremony. In the opening ceremony, solemn classical strings were played, and 1958 was designated as the Olympic anthem by the International Olympic Committee. The composer of the national anthem is Greek samaras and the lyricist is palamas. The Greeks showed great enthusiasm for the conference, and the audience attending the opening ceremony reached 80 thousand, which was not broken until 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Competition:
There are 9 events in this competition: track and field, swimming, weightlifting, shooting, cycling, greco-Roman wrestling, gymnastics, fencing and tennis. Rowing was originally planned, but it was not held later. There are two different reasons for cancellation. One is that the weather is bad and the sea is windy, so it can't be carried out. Another way of saying it is that no one signed up and had to change the plan.
The opening day of April 6 kicked off. James connolly of the United States won the triple jump championship with a score of 13.438+0 m, becoming the first champion of the modern Olympic Games. After his victory, the stars and stripes were played in the stadium and the American flag was raised. This has become the traditional awarding ceremony for the future Olympic Games. Connolly, a freshman at Harvard University in the United States, failed to get permission from the school when he came to Athens, but the young man who loves classical literature and sports was attracted by Greece, a mythical country and its sports club, and made up his mind to drop out of school. When he returned to his alma mater with his first Olympic medal, he was warmly welcomed. The school believes that this is not only the glory of Connolly, but also the glory of Harvard University. Connolly later became a famous journalist and writer.
America is the darling of this track and field competition. Two hours after Connolly won the championship, another player won the discus event that the Greeks thought was a shoo-in. He is robert garrett, a student of Princeton University. There is only 1897 national discus competition in the United States, which was rarely known before. Before the Olympic Games, after Garrett learned the news of the game, he tried his best to inquire about the throwing method of discus, and specially made a discus the size of the ancient Olympic Games and practiced it himself.
After coming to Athens, he found that the discus used in the competition was lighter and more convenient to use, so his confidence increased greatly. Finally, he defeated the Greeks with a score of 29. 15 meters. Later, he also won the first place in the shot put.
100 meter final was held in April 10. The starting posture can be said to be various, including standing upright, bending over and spreading hands. Only Thomas Burke of the United States adopted the approximate "squat" running method, and he won the championship with 12 seconds, which was another victory after 400 meters. Burke once won the 100 meter preliminaries.
The Athens Marble Stadium is U-shaped, with a total length of 333.33 meters and a linear length of 192 meters. Because of the small turning angle and easy accidents, the host did not set up the 200-meter event. This is the only time in the Olympic Games.
The actual distance of 1 10 meter hurdles this time is 100 meter, and there are only 8 hurdles. Hurdles are also varied in the competition, and some even jump over the hurdles with both feet and pause before running. Only seven athletes signed up for the competition, so they could not be divided into three groups as planned. They were temporarily changed into two groups, and the top two in each group entered the finals. However, U Huo Yite of the United States and Shao Zuokeli of Hungary, who won the right to the final, did not attend for some reason. Only two people took part in the final. Thomas Liutis, the American champion hurdler from Boston Sports Association, won the championship.
In this track and field competition, the United States showed great strength and won 9 championships in 12 events. However, the most exciting and sensational scene of the Athens Olympic Games is the marathon.
Before the Olympic Games, Michel Brill, a French linguist, visited Greece and expressed his admiration for Fidipides, the legendary hero of the marathon. In 490 BC, Greece defeated the invading Persian army in the Marathon Valley. At that time, as a messenger, Fidipides was ordered to inform Athens of this victory quickly. Regardless of fatigue, he ran from marathon to Athens. After arriving in Athens, he was exhausted and only said "We won"! Just died in the square. Feeling this heroic deed, Brill wrote to his compatriot, International Olympic Committee Secretary-General Coubertin, suggesting that a marathon should be added to the Olympic track and field events, and that a Brill silver cup should be donated as a reward for the champion.
The route of the Athens Olympic Marathon is the route that Fidipides once ran, from the marathon to Athens for 40 kilometers. Greece is very concerned about this competition, because after the track and field events began, Greece lost one after another and has not won a championship so far, and marathon is their only hope.
The competition was held on April 10. There are 17 athletes from four countries, and the atmosphere is very warm. At that time, there were only135,000 people in Athens, but the number of people watching the marathon was as high as 654,385+000, which was really "an empty alley". As time goes by, the audience in the stands are anxiously waiting to see who will win the game. When Spiridon Ruiz, a Greek wearing a light blue vest, was the first to rush into the stadium, all the audience cheered and cheered. As the chief referee of the conference, Crown Prince Constantine of Greece could not help but accompany Ruiz to the finish line, and King George I stepped down from the viewing platform to meet the victorious hero. Bundles of flowers and gifts were thrown at Ruiz's side and feet. Thousands of pigeons tied with Greek flags and ribbons flew into the sky. There is a festive atmosphere everywhere. Crowds crowded into the stadium, scrambling to hug him, throwing him around, and some even shouted: pawn him as a minister. After the game, he won the glorious title of Greek national hero, but did not enjoy the honor of being a high official and generous. He returned to his remote hometown and became a rural postman, living a poor life with his wife and children. When he died in 1940, people carved the symbol of the Olympic rings on his tombstone to commemorate him.
The swimming competition is held on the high seas, and the floating boat pulls the cable as the starting and finishing line. The distance has not been measured carefully, but it is only a rough estimate. As for posture, it's called freestyle, in fact, it means doing whatever you want. During the competition, the weather was cold, the sea was cold, and the waves were very urgent. Some players even flinched. Alfred Hajos, the only Hungarian athlete, aged 18, won the freestyle titles of 100 m and 1200 m, becoming the first Olympic gold medal winner in Hungary and being praised as "Hungarian Dolphin" by Greek newspapers. This Budapest college student was quite famous before the Olympic Games. In August, he won the European Swimming Championships in Austria 1895. At the 1924 Paris Olympic Games, he won an Olympic silver medal in the art competition.
This year's swimming competition also set up the 100-meter freestyle sailor race for sailors moored on warships in Piraeus Port, which was not on the original schedule and was temporarily added. This shows that the establishment of competition events was not very strict at that time. Although 14 people signed up, only three Greek sailors actually took part in the competition.
At that time, weightlifting and wrestling were not graded according to weight. There are only two kinds of weightlifting: one-handed lifting and two-handed lifting. Old Elliot of England won the one-handed lift championship with 7 1 kg; In both hands, he also lifted the same weight as champion Danish VI Jonson. But the referee thought that his lift posture was not as accurate and beautiful as Jonson's, so he only won the second place. It is said that Eliot was quite proud after winning. But when he saw the crown prince Constantine easily lift the weight he lifted, the arrogance disappeared. This legend is very romantic, which is hard to see in official history.
At that time, there were no rules and standards for athletes to participate in sports, so many athletes were cross-sports. This situation is more prominent in wrestling. For example, Eliot, who won the weightlifting competition, was also a wrestler, but only finished fourth. The winner is carl schumann, a German, who is cleverer and lighter than all his opponents. Schumann is also a cross-athlete. Besides wrestling, he also participated in track and field and gymnastics competitions. He also achieved excellent results in gymnastics, winning the vault championship and the first place in the parallel bars. Together with wrestling, he won the first place in four events and became the player who won the most gold medals this year.
1894 The Olympic Charter formulated by the Paris Conference clearly stipulates that only amateur athletes can participate in all kinds of competitions, but fencing can be an exception. There are only two kinds of fencing, foil and sabre, which are divided into amateur and professional competitions. France's El Gravlot and Greece's Jay Giorgiatis won the amateur foil and sabre respectively. There is only one foil in the professional competition, and the champion is Leon Pigos, the owner of Athens Fencing School and a famous professional swordsman.
There are six events in the cycling competition, five of which are arranged on the track. The other is the road race, which is regarded as a marathon by the host. The route is 87 kilometers from Athens to marathon and back to Athens. At that time, there were no special racing cars, the roads were rugged, and the cars often broke down and could not even ride. The champion Greek Constantines changed cars twice to finish the race. In fact, the track 12 hour race is really a "marathon". Only three of the seven players persisted, and Austrian A. Schmahl finally won the gold medal. Before that, he also won bronze medals in two other competitions. 100 km race is even more terrible, with only two of the nine riders riding the whole course. France's Le Flamond not only won the championship, but also showed good sportsmanship. During the race, he found that the car of Greek Ge Coletis behind him was broken, so he stopped to repair it with the latter before continuing to ride. His noble style was appreciated by people. The outstanding cyclist is paul mussen, who won the short distance races of 2000m and10000m by himself.
On April 15, the first Olympic Games, which lasted 10, ended. The United States won 1 1 gold medal, 7 silver medals and 2 bronze medals; The host country followed closely, with gold 10, silver 17 and bronze 19. Germany ranked third with 6.5 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 2 bronze medals. German tennis player fritz Traun and British player John Bohlander won the doubles gold medal. Bohlander is not an official member of the British delegation, but a student of Oxford University, who happens to be here for sightseeing. He is a tennis enthusiast, and his skills are itchy. He took part in the competition temporarily, and not only won the doubles championship, but also won the singles championship.
Today's Olympic Games are organized by the National Olympic Committee, and this kind of cooperation between the two countries no longer exists. The cooperation between the two countries has brought some confusion to the medal statistics. For example, in this doubles competition, many historical materials are that Britain and Germany each recorded 1 gold medal, but some only recorded half of it. According to the actual situation, the latter calculation method is more reasonable.