Pierre de Coubertin, Founder of the Modern Olympics By Robert McNamara Updated August 16, 2016. Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, was a most unlikely sports hero. A French aristocrat, he became fixated on physical education in the 1880s as he became convinced that athletic prowess could save his nation from military humiliation. His campaign to promote athletic activities began as a lonely crusade. But it slowly gained support among advocates of athletics in Europe and America. And Coubertin was able to organize the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896. Athletics Became Popular In the Late 1800s The role of athletics in life had taken on a major role throughout the 1800s, after a long period when society was essentially indifferent to sports, or, actually considered sports to be a frivolous diversion. Scientists began touting athletics as a way of improving health, and organized athletic endeavors, such as baseball leagues in the United States, became very popular. In France, the upper classes indulged in sports, and young Pierre de Coubertin participated in rowing, boxing, ​and fencing.

continue reading below our video The Creation of the Modern Olympic Games Early Life of Pierre de Coubertin Born on January 1, 1863, in Paris, Pierre Fredy, Baron de Coubertin was eight years old when he witnessed the defeat of his homeland in the Franco-Prussian War. He came to believe that his nation’s lack of physical education for the masses contributed to the defeat at the hands of Prussians led by Otto von Bismarck . In his youth, Coubertin was also fond of reading British novels for boys which stressed the importance of physical strength. The idea formed in Coubertin’s mind that the French educational system was too intellectual. What was desperately needed in France, Coubertin believed, was a strong component of physical education. Traveled and Studied Athletics A small item in the New York Times in December 1889 mentioned Coubertin visiting the campus of Yale University.

“His object in coming to this country,” reported the newspaper, “is to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the management of athletics at American colleges and thereby to devise some means of interesting the students at the French University in athletics.” In the 1880s and early 1890s Coubertin actually made several trips to America and a dozen trips to England to study the administration of athletics. The French government was impressed with his work, and commissioned him to hold "athletic congresses," which featured events such as horseback riding, fencing, and track and field. The Founder of the Modern Olympics The ambitious plans of Coubertin to revitalize the educational system of France never really materialized, but his travels began to inspire him with a far more ambitious plan. He began thinking about having countries compete in athletic events based on the Olympic festivals of ancient Greece. In 1892, at a jubilee of the French Union of Athletic Sports Societies, Coubertin introduced the idea of a modern Olympics. His idea was fairly vague, and it seems that even Coubertin himself did not have a clear idea what form such games would take.

Two years later, Coubertin organized a meeting which brought together 79 delegates from 12 countries to discuss how to revive the Olympic games. The meeting established the first International Olympic Committee, and the basic framework of having the games every four years, with the first to take place in Greece, was decided upon. The First Modern Olympics The decision to hold the first modern Olympics in Athens, at the site of the ancient games, was symbolic. Yet it also proved to be problematic as Greece was embroiled in political turmoil. However, Coubertin visited Greece and became convinced the Greek people would be happy to host the games. Funds were raised to mount the games, and the first modern Olympics began in Athens on April 5, 1896. The festival continued for ten days and included events such as foot races, lawn tennis, swimming, diving, fencing, bicycle races, rowing, and a yacht race. A dispatch in the New York Times on April 16, 1896, described the closing ceremonies the previous day.

The newspaper noted that the king of Greece "handed to each winner of a first prize a wreath fashioned of wild olive plucked from the trees at Olympia, and laurel wreaths were given to the winners of second prizes. All of the prize winners then received diplomas and medals." The newspaper also reported, "the total number of athletes who received crowns was forty-four, of whom eleven were Americans, ten Greeks, seven Germans, five French, three English, two Hungarians, two Australians, two Austrians, one Dane and one Swiss." The story was headlined, "Americans Won Most Crowns." Subsequent games held in Paris and St. Louis were overshadowed by World's Fairs, but the Stockholm games in 1912 returned to the ideals expressed by Coubertin. Legacy of Baron de Coubertin Baron de Coubertin gained recognition for his work promoting the Olympics. In 1910, former president Theodore Roosevelt , visiting France after a safari in Africa, made a point of visiting de Coubertin, whom he admired for his love of athletics. During World War I de Coubertin's family suffered hardships and fled to Switzerland.

He was involved in organizing the 1924 Olympics but retired after that. The final years of his life were greatly troubled, and he faced severe financial hardships. He died in Geneva on September 2, 1937. His influence on the institution he founded endures. The idea of the Olympics as an event filled not merely with athletics but great pageantry came from Pierre de Coubertin. So while the games are, of course, held on a scale far more grand than anything he could have imagined, the opening ceremonies, parades, and fireworks are very much ​a part of his legacy. And it was also Coubertin who originated the idea that while the Olympics can instill national pride, the cooperation the world's nations may promote peace and prevent conflict. First modern Olympic Games - Apr 06, 1896 - HISTORY.com First modern Olympic Games Publisher A+E Networks On April 6, 1896, the Olympic Games, a long-lost tradition of ancient Greece, are reborn in Athens 1,500 years after being banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I.

At the opening of the Athens Games, King Georgios I of Greece and a crowd of 60,000 spectators welcomed athletes from 13 nations to the international competition. The first recorded Olympic Games were held at Olympia in the Greek city-state of Elis in 776 B.C., but it is generally accepted that the Olympics were at least 500 years old at that time. The ancient Olympics, held every four years, occurred during a religious festival honoring the Greek god Zeus. In the eighth century B.C., contestants came from a dozen or more Greek cities, and by the fifth century B.C. from as many as 100 cities from throughout the Greek empire. Initially, Olympic competition was limited to foot races, but later a number of other events were added, including wrestling, boxing, horse and chariot racing, and military competitions. The pentathlon, introduced in 708 B.C., consisted of a foot race, the long jump, discus and javelin throws, and wrestling. With the rise of Rome, the Olympics declined, and in 393 A.D.

the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, a Christian, abolished the Games as part of his efforts to suppress paganism in the Roman Empire. With the Renaissance, Europe began a long fascination with ancient Greek culture, and in the 18th and 19th centuries some nations staged informal sporting and folkloric festivals bearing the name “Olympic Games.” However, it was not until 1892 that a young French baron, Pierre de Coubertin, seriously proposed reviving the Olympics as a major international competition that would occur every four years. At a conference on international sport in Paris in June 1894, Coubertin again raised the idea, and the 79 delegates from nine countries unanimously approved his proposal. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was formed, and the first Games were planned for 1896 in Athens, the capital of Greece. In Athens, 280 participants from 13 nations competed in 43 events, covering track-and-field, swimming, gymnastics, cycling, wrestling, weightlifting, fencing, shooting, and tennis.

All the competitors were men, and a few of the entrants were tourists who stumbled upon the Games and were allowed to sign up. The track-and-field events were held at the Panathenaic Stadium, which was originally built in 330 B.C. and restored for the 1896 Games. Americans won nine out of 12 of these events. The 1896 Olympics also featured the first marathon competition, which followed the 25-mile route run by a Greek soldier who brought news of a victory over the Persians from Marathon to Athens in 490 B.C. In 1924, the marathon was standardized at 26 miles and 385 yards. Appropriately, a Greek, Spyridon Louis, won the first marathon at the 1896 Athens Games. Pierre de Coubertin became IOC president in 1896 and guided the Olympic Games through its difficult early years, when it lacked much popular support and was overshadowed by world’s fairs.

In 1924, the first truly successful Olympic Games were held in Paris, involving more than 3,000 athletes, including more than 100 women, from 44 nations. The first Winter Olympic Games were also held that year. In 1925, Coubertin retired. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the foremost international sports competition. At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, more than 10,000 athletes from 200 countries competed, including nearly 4,000 women. In 2004, the Summer Olympics returned to Athens, with more than 11,000 athletes competing from 202 countries. In a proud moment for Greeks and an exciting one for spectators, the shotput competition was held at the site of the classical Games in Olympia. Related Videos History of the Olympics - Creating the Modern Games History of the Olympics Creating the Modern Olympic Games A picture of the Olympic flag. (Photo by Tony Duffy / Getty Images) Share By Jennifer Rosenberg According to legend, the ancient Olympic Games were founded by Heracles (the Roman Hercules), a son of Zeus.

Yet the first Olympic Games for which we still have written records were held in 776 BCE (though it is generally believed that the Games had been going on for many years already). At this Olympic Games, a naked runner, Coroebus (a cook from Elis), won the sole event at the Olympics, the stade - a run of approximately 192 meters (210 yards). This made Coroebus the very first Olympic champion in history. The ancient Olympic Games grew and continued to be played every four years for nearly 1200 years. In 393 CE, the Roman emperor Theodosius I, a Christian, abolished the Games because of their pagan influences. Pierre de Coubertin Proposes New Olympic Games Approximately 1500 years later, a young Frenchmen named Pierre de Coubertin began their revival. Coubertin is now known as le Rénovateur. Coubertin was a French aristocrat born on January 1, 1863.

continue reading below our video What are the Seven Wonders of the World He was only seven years old when France was overrun by the Germans during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Some believe that Coubertin attributed the defeat of France not to its military skills but rather to the French soldiers' lack of vigor.* After examining the education of the German, British, and American children, Coubertin decided that it was exercise, more specifically sports, that made a well-rounded and vigorous person. Coubertin's attempt to get France interested in sports was not met with enthusiasm. Still, Coubertin persisted. In 1890, he organized and founded a sports organization, Union des Sociétés Francaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA). Two years later, Coubertin first pitched his idea to revive the Olympic Games . At a meeting of the Union des Sports Athlétiques in Paris on November 25, 1892, Coubertin stated, Let us export our oarsmen, our runners, our fencers into other lands.

That is the true Free Trade of the future; and the day it is introduced into Europe the cause of Peace will have received a new and strong ally. It inspires me to touch upon another step I now propose and in it I shall ask that the help you have given me hitherto you will extend again, so that together we may attempt to realise [sic], upon a basis suitable to the conditions of our modern life, the splendid and beneficent task of reviving the Olympic Games.** His speech did not inspire action. The Modern Olympic Games Are Founded Though Coubertin was not the first to propose the revival of the Olympic Games, he was certainly the most well-connected and persistent of those to do so. Two years later, Coubertin organized a meeting with 79 delegates who represented nine countries. He gathered these delegates in an auditorium that was decorated by neoclassical murals and similar additional points of ambiance. At this meeting, Coubertin eloquently spoke of the revival of the Olympic Games. This time, Coubertin aroused interest. The delegates at the conference voted unanimously for the Olympic Games. The delegates also decided to have Coubertin construct an international committee to organize the Games.

This committee became the International Olympic Committee (IOC; Comité Internationale Olympique) and Demetrious Vikelas from Greece was selected to be its first president. Athens was chosen as the location for the revival of the Olympic Games and the planning was begun. * Allen Guttmann, The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992) 8. ** Pierre de Coubertin as quoted in "Olympic Games," Britannica.com (Retrieved August 10, 2000 from the World Wide Web. Bibliography Durant, John. Highlights of the Olympics: From Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Hastings House Publishers, 1973. Guttmann, Allen. The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992. Henry, Bill. An Approved History of the Olympic Games. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1948. Messinesi, Xenophon L. A Branch of Wild Olive. New York: Exposition Press, 1973. "Olympic Games." Britannica.com.

Retrieved August 10, 2000 from the World Wide Web. Pitt, Leonard and Dale Pitt. Los Angeles A to Z: An Encyclopedia of the City and Country. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997. Modern Olympic Games | Go for the Gold Student Activity | Scholastic.com The Modern Olympic Games From Grolier Online’s New Book of Knowledge The revival of the Olympic Games began with Baron Pierre de Coubertin (18631937) of France. Coubertin was greatly interested in education, and he firmly believed that the best way to develop the minds of young people was to develop their bodies as well; learning and athletics should go together. After he visited the ruins of ancient Olympia, it occurred to Coubertin that perhaps the best way to generate widespread acceptance of his theory was to resurrect the Olympic Games. He hoped the new Games would bring back the ideals of physical, mental, and spiritual excellence displayed in the ancient Games, as well as build courage, endurance, and a sense of fair play in all who participated. In addition, he hoped the Games would turn the tide he saw worldwide of the growing commercialism of sports.

In 1892, Coubertin first introduced the idea of starting the Olympic Games again. Few people were ready to accept his idea. But in 1894 Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and began planning the first modern Olympiad. The first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896 in Athens, Greece  a fitting place to rekindle the spirit of the early Greek Games. Coubertin remained president of the International Olympic Committee until 1925. In this office he directed the course the Games were to take. He wrote the Olympic Charter, protocol, and athletes' oath, and he also planned the ceremonies. Although the modern Olympic Games are patterned after the ancient Greek Games, there are important differences. Unlike ancient Greece, modern nations have not stopped wars for peaceful athletic competition. Because of World War I, Games were not held in 1916. Nor were they held in 1940 and 1944, during World War II. The original Olympics were always held at Olympia. Almost every modern Olympiad is celebrated in or near a different city of the world.

The earlier Games were open only to Greek citizens and athletes from other Mediterranean countries. The modern Games encourage all nations to compete. A person may enter if his or her country has a National Olympic Committee (NOC) that is recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Events for women have become a major interest in the modern Games, and the winners receive honors equal to those given the male winners. The ancient Greeks furthered culture by giving honors for cultural achievements at the Olympic Games. The modern Olympics hold an arts festival, where the culture of the host country is showcased in various art forms. Footraces, jumping, discus and javelin throwing, boxing, wrestling, and some other events were carried over from the original Olympic Games. But such present Olympic contests as cycling, canoeing and sailing, football (soccer), basketball, judo, rifle shooting, and water polo were unknown in early times. The modern pentathlon tests an athlete's all-around ability in swimming (300-meter freestyle), cross-country running (4,000 meters), fencing with the épée, horse show jumping, and shooting with a target pistol at 10 meters. One of the most grueling events of the modern Olympics is the marathon.

This footrace over a distance of 26 miles, 385 yards (42.195 kilometers) is a supreme test of the runners' endurance. The marathon was not run at Olympia, but it has its origin in ancient Greece. In 490 B.C. the Athenians defeated an army of invading Persians at Marathon, which is northeast of Athens. From there, Pheidippides, a champion runner in the Olympic Games, carried the news of victory to the people of Athens. To do this he had to run a great distance. Once he reached Athens and gasped out his news of victory, he died. It is in his honor that the marathon race is run. In 1924, the Winter Games became a new feature of the modern Olympics. Such cold-weather sports as pair and figure skating, ice hockey, bobsledding, and the biathlon (rifle shooting on a cross-country ski course) could never have developed in the warm climate of Greece (although figure and pair skating and ice hockey had been included in previous modern Games). Until 1992, the Winter Games were held in the same year as the Summer Games.

Beginning in 1994, the Winter and Summer Games were held two years apart, on separate four-year cycles. A poster from the 1900 Universal Exhibition shows a a female fencer holding in her right hand the three traditional weapons  foil, sword and sabre  even though women could not compete until 1924. (Photo: © IOC/Olympic Museum Collections) The History of the Olympic Games | Scholastic The History of the Olympic Games Compare the ancient Olympics to the modern games. Plus, learn how money, politics, and performance-enhancing drugs have become major influences, often causing controversy. Grades 6–8, 9–12 The Olympic Games are an international sports festival that began in ancient Greece. The original Greek games were staged every fourth year for several hundred years, until they were abolished in the early Christian era. The revival of the Olympic Games took place in 1896, and since then they have been staged every fourth year, except during World War I and World War II (1916, 1940, 1944).

Perhaps the basic difference between the ancient and modern Olympics is that the former was the ancient Greeks' way of saluting their gods, whereas the modern Games are a manner of saluting the athletic talents of citizens of all nations. The original Olympics featured competition in music, oratory, and theater performances as well. The modern Games have a more expansive athletic agenda, and for 2 and a half weeks they are supposed to replace the rancor of international conflict with friendly competition. In recent times, however, that lofty ideal has not always been attained. The Ancient Olympics The earliest reliable date that recorded history gives for the first Olympics is 776 B.C., although virtually all historians presume that the Games began well before then. It is certain that during the midsummer of 776 B.C. a festival was held at Olympia on the highly civilized eastern coast of the Peloponnesian peninsula. That festival remained a regularly scheduled event, taking place during the pre-Christian golden age of Greece. As a testimony to the religious nature of the Games (which were held in honor of Zeus, the most important god in the ancient Greek pantheon), all wars would cease during the contests.

According to the earliest records, only one athletic event was held in the ancient Olympics — a footrace of about 183 m (200 yd), or the length of the stadium. A cook, Coroibus of Elis, was the first recorded winner. The first few Olympics had only local appeal and were limited to one race on one day; only men were allowed to compete or attend. A second race — twice the length of the stadium — was added in the 14th Olympics, and a still longer race was added to the next competition, four years later. When the powerful, warlike Spartans began to compete, they influenced the agenda. The 18th Olympiad included wrestling and a pentathlon consisting of running, jumping, spear throwing (the javelin), discus throwing, and wrestling. Boxing was added at the 23rd Olympiad, and the Games continued to expand, with the addition of chariot racing and other sports. In the 37th Olympiad (632 B.C.) the format was extended to five days of competition.

The growth of the Games fostered "professionalism" among the competitors, and the Olympic ideals waned as royalty began to compete for personal gain, particularly in the chariot events. Human beings were being glorified as well as the gods; many winners erected statues to deify themselves. In A.D. 394 the Games were officially ended by the Roman emperor Theodosius I, who felt that they had pagan connotations. The Modern Olympics The revival of the Olympic Games in 1896, unlike the original Games, has a clear, concise history. Pierre de Coubertin (1863–1937), a young French nobleman, felt that he could institute an educational program in France that approximated the ancient Greek notion of a balanced development of mind and body. The Greeks themselves had tried to revive the Olympics by holding local athletic games in Athens during the 1800s, but without lasting success. It was Baron de Coubertin's determination and organizational genius, however, that gave impetus to the modern Olympic movement. In 1892 he addressed a meeting of the Union des Sports AthlÃ©tiques in Paris.

Despite meager response he persisted, and an international sports congress eventually convened on June 16, 1894. With delegates from Belgium, England, France, Greece, Italy, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the United States in attendance, he advocated the revival of the Olympic Games. He found ready and unanimous support from the nine countries. De Coubertin had initially planned to hold the Olympic Games in France, but the representatives convinced him that Greece was the appropriate country to host the first modern Olympics. The council did agree that the Olympics would move every four years to other great cities of the world. Thirteen countries competed at the Athens Games in 1896. Nine sports were on the agenda: cycling, fencing, gymnastics, lawn tennis, shooting, swimming, track and field, weight lifting, and wrestling. The 14-man U.S. team dominated the track and field events, taking first place in 9 of the 12 events. The Games were a success, and a second Olympiad, to be held in France, was scheduled.

Olympic Games were held in 1900 and 1904, and by 1908 the number of competitors more than quadrupled the number at Athens — from 311 to 2,082. Beginning in 1924, a Winter Olympics was included — to be held at a separate cold-weather sports site in the same year as the Summer Games — the first held at Chamonix, France. In 1980 about 1,600 athletes from 38 nations competed at Lake Placid, N.Y., in a program that included Alpine and Nordic skiing, biathlon, ice hockey, figure skating and speed skating, bobsled, and luge. But the Summer Games, with its wide array of events, are still the focal point of the modern Olympics. Among the standard events are basketball, boxing, canoeing and kayaking, cycling, equestrian arts, fencing, field hockey, gymnastics, modern pentathlon, rowing, shooting, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, water polo, weight lifting, wrestling (freestyle and Greco-Roman), and yachting.

New sports are added to the roster at every Olympic Games; among the more prominent are baseball, martial arts, and most recently triathlon, which was first contested at the 2000 Games. The Games are governed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), whose headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland. The Summer and Winter Games were traditionally held in the same year, but because of the increasing size of both Olympics, the Winter Games were shifted to a different schedule after 1992. They were held in Lillehammer, Norway in 1994, in Nagano, Japan in 1998, in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2002, in Turin, Italy in 2006, and in 2010, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Politics and the Olympics The ideology of nationalism, which swept the world during the early 20th century, left its mark on the Olympics. Athletic nationalism was brought to a peak by Nazi Germany, which staged the 1936 Games in Berlin and used the Olympics to propagandize its cause. The Germans built a powerful team through nationalized training and scientific advances and dominated the Games in terms of medals won.

The political overtones of the Olympics did not lessen with the fall of Nazi Germany. In 1956, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon boycotted the Melbourne Games to protest the Anglo-French seizure of the Suez Canal, and the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland boycotted as well to protest the USSR's invasion of Hungary. In Mexico City in 1968, two African American runners used the victory pedestal to protest U.S. racial policies. In the Munich Olympics in 1972, 11 Israeli athletes were massacred by Palestinian terrorists. And in 1976 in Montreal, 33 African nations, to be represented by about 400 athletes, boycotted the Games to protest South Africa's apartheid policies. The most serious disruptions to the modern Olympics, however, occurred in 1980 and 1984. In 1980, under strong pressure from the Carter administration, the U.S. Olympic Committee voted to boycott the Summer Games in Moscow to protest the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

About 40 nations followed suit, including West Germany, China, and Japan, depriving the Soviets of their chief athletic competition and raising doubts about the future of the Olympic movement. Although the 1984 Winter Games, in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, proceeded without boycotts, the Summer Games, in Los Angeles, were undercut by an Eastern-bloc boycott led by the USSR. Fear of an openly hostile environment in Los Angeles was cited by the Soviet Olympic Committee as the reason for nonparticipation, but most commentators believed the reasons to be political: the poor state of recent U.S.-Soviet relations, revenge for the U.S. boycott in 1980, and possible embarrassment to the Soviets on worldwide television caused by planned anti-Soviet demonstrations and defections of Eastern-bloc athletes. The popularity and financial success of the 1984 Los Angeles Games were, however, greater than anticipated. In 1988 the Winter Games — in Calgary, Alberta, Canada — went on without incident.

At the Summer Games, in Seoul, South Korea, only six nations (including Cuba and North Korea) boycotted, and the focus returned to the athletes.The 1992 Winter and Summer Games (in Albertville, France, and Barcelona, Spain, respectively) were the first Olympics without the Eastern-bloc sports machine, were the last for the "Unified Teams" from the former USSR, and marked the return of South Africa to Olympic competition. The 1996 Summer Games, in Atlanta, Ga., were the largest ever; they were marred by a bombing that took the lives of two people. The 1994 and 1998 Winter Games transpired without incident. The 2000 Summer Games were held in Sydney, Australia, to great acclaim. In Sydney, politics took a back seat to the competition, although North and South Korea were temporarily reunited as their athletes marched as one country in the opening ceremonies. Athens, Greece — site of the first modern Olympics — was the site of the Summer Games in 2004. Though it has potential for political controversies due to its rapid modernization and its communist state-Beijing, China was selected for the 2008 Summer Games.

Money and the Olympics The biggest influence on the modern Olympic Games is money. Commercialism exists side by side with the outstanding athleticism and the spirit of friendship imbuing competitors from around the world. Since the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, it has become clear that a city hosting the Games can anticipate a financial windfall, as spectators and sponsors converge for the event. Because of the tremendous potential for profit, the process of selecting host cities has become politicized, and there is a large potential for corruption. In fact, a scandal erupted in late 1998, when it was found that promoters involved with Salt Lake City's (winning) bid for the 2002 Winter Games had bribed IOC members, who were forced to resign; the Nagano and Sydney bids were also under suspicion of bribery. Athletes, too, especially in the "glamour sports" such as gymnastics, ice skating, or track and field, can reap tremendous financial gains for winning performances, through product endorsements and personal appearances. Originally, Olympic athletes were expected to remain strictly amateurs and not earn money even for endorsing products.

However, by the last decades of the 20th century, professionalism among competitors received official acceptance, as the IOC finally recognized that many world-class athletes were already functioning as professionals. At the elite level of competition in many Olympic sports, the athlete must devote him- or herself entirely to the sport, all but precluding the holding of a full-time job. The end of amateurism began in 1960s in the Communist countries, where top athletes were supported by the state, but were officially considered amateurs. To counter this, in the 1970s and 1980s athletes in non-Communist countries sought out corporate sponsors, in effect becoming "employees" of the sponsor. By the late 1980s, restrictions were eased on athletes earning prize money at their sports, and professional athletes were permitted to represent their countries at the Olympics. This now includes the star athletes who play in the American professional leagues, such as the U.S. basketball "Dream Team" of National Basketball Association superstars who dominated the 1992 Olympic competition. In addition, with IOC rules concerning amateurism vacated, many medal-winning contestants have cashed in on their Olympic fame with product endorsements or performance tours.

Performance-Enhancing Drugs Winning medals at the Olympic Games has always been considered the most prestigious mark of an athlete, and a source of glory for the athlete's country. This has led to the use of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes, intentionally or otherwise, despite the health risks to the athlete and IOC rules prohibiting the use of these substances. The types of drugs banned include stimulants (which can be found in common cold and cough medications; caffeine is also banned), narcotics, anabolic steroids, diuretics, certain hormones (such as human growth hormone), and in some sports, beta blockers. The testing of athletes for drug use began for the Olympics in 1968, at the Mexico City Games, but did not become widespread until the 1972 Games. Over the years, as drugs such as human growth hormone have been developed, tests have been added for newer drugs. With such great rewards at stake, there are athletes and even national sports programs willing to use performance-enhancing drugs despite the risks to future health and the disgrace of getting caught. The best-known example of drug use is the East German sports federation, which had a systematic program for giving its athletes steroids from 1974 to 1989.

During that time East German women suddenly dominated events such as swimming, winning medals in 11 of 13 events both in 1976 and 1980. Other swimmers suspected that the East German women were using steroids, because the drugs affected their physical appearance, but the team was never caught. After the reunification of Germany, the East German sports federation's records were opened and the program was exposed. In 2000 the former head of the federation and the doctor who developed and administered the drug plan were convicted of systematic and overall doping. The former athletes maintain that they never knew they were taking steroids, claiming that they were told that the various medications were vitamins. As drug testing procedures have improved, more athletes have been caught. In Seoul there was suspicion of widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs after Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive; he was stripped of his gold medal. In the mid-1990s, China's female swimmers and runners quickly rose to the top of elite competition, arousing suspicions of drug use; by the late 1990s many were caught through more diligent drug testing. The IOC publicly decries the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

However, it is commonly believed that even with out-of-competition testing, the drugs and masking agents available to athletes is far ahead of the tests used to detect these substances. A study released in September 2000 that was financed by the U.S. government accused the IOC of permitting drug use to persist in order to maintain the mystique of the Olympics and record-breaking performances. The IOC formed the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in late 1999 to test athletes at the upcoming Olympics and to increase drug testing standards, but how effective WADA will be in the long run is not yet known. Jim Benagh Bibliography: Finding, John E., and Pelle, Kimberly D., Historical Dictionary of the Modern Olympic Movement (1996); Greenberg, Stan, Guinness Book of Olympic Records (1992); Guttmann, Allen, The Olympics (1992); Henry, Bill, et al., An Approved History of the Olympic Games (1984); Hill, Christopher, Olympic Politics: Athens to Atlanta, 1896–1996, 2d ed.

(1997); Swaddling, Judith, The Ancient Olympic Games, 2d ed. (2000); Wallechinsky, David, The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics: Sydney 2000 Edition (2000); Young, David C., The Modern Olympics: A Struggle for Revival (1996). × The Olympic Games - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com The Olympic Games A+E Networks Introduction The Olympic Games, which originated in ancient Greece as many as 3,000 years ago, were revived in the late 19th century and have become the world’s preeminent sporting competition. From the 8th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D., the Games were held every four years in Olympia, located in the western Peloponnese peninsula, in honor of the god Zeus. The first modern Olympics took place in 1896 in Athens, and featured 280 participants from 13 nations, competing in 43 events. Since 1994, the Summer and Winter Olympic Games have been held separately and have alternated every two years.

Google The Olympics in Ancient Greece The first written records of the ancient Olympic Games date to 776 B.C., when a cook named Coroebus won the only event–a 192-meter footrace called the stade (the origin of the modern “stadium”)–to become the first Olympic champion. However, it is generally believed that the Games had been going on for many years by that time. Legend has it that Heracles (the Roman Hercules ), son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene, founded the Games, which by the end of the 6th century B.C had become the most famous of all Greek sporting festivals. The ancient Olympics were held every four years between August 6 and September 19 during a religious festival honoring Zeus. The Games were named for their location at Olympia, a sacred site located near the western coast of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece. Their influence was so great that ancient historians began to measure time by the four-year increments in between Olympic Games, which were known as Olympiads. Did You Know?

The 1896 Games featured the first Olympic marathon, which followed the 25-mile route run by the Greek soldier who brought news of a victory over the Persians from Marathon to Athens in 490 B.C. Fittingly, Greece's Spyridon Louis won the first gold medal in the event. In 1924, the distance would be standardized to 26 miles and 385 yards. After 13 Olympiads, two more races joined the stade as Olympic events: the diaulos (roughly equal to today’s 400-meter race), and the dolichos (a longer-distance race, possibly comparable to the 1,500-meter or 5,000-meter event). The pentathlon (consisting of five events: a foot race, a long jump, discus and javelin throws and a wrestling match) was introduced in 708 B.C., boxing in 688 B.C. and chariot racing in 680 B.C. In 648 B.C., pankration, a combination of boxing and wrestling with virtually no rules, debuted as an Olympic event.

Participation in the ancient Olympic Games was initially limited to freeborn male citizens of Greece; there were no women’s events, and married women were prohibited from attending the competition. Decline and Revival of the Olympic Tradition After the Roman Empire conquered Greece in the mid-2nd century B.C., the Games continued, but their standards and quality declined. In one notorious example from A.D. 67, the decadent Emperor Nero entered an Olympic chariot race, only to disgrace himself by declaring himself the winner even after he fell off his chariot during the event. In A.D. 393, Emperor Theodosius I, a Christian, called for a ban on all “pagan” festivals, ending the ancient Olympic tradition after nearly 12 centuries. It would be another 1,500 years before the Games would rise again, largely thanks to the efforts of Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) of France. Dedicated to the promotion of physical education, the young baron became inspired by the idea of creating a modern Olympic Games after visiting the ancient Olympic site.

In November 1892, at a meeting of the Union des Sports Athlétiques in Paris, Coubertin proposed the idea of reviving the Olympics as an international athletic competition held every four years. Two years later, he got the approval he needed to found the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which would become the governing body of the modern Olympic Games. The Olympics Through the Years The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. In the opening ceremony, King Georgios I and a crowd of 60,000 spectators welcomed 280 participants from 13 nations (all male), who would compete in 43 events, including track and field, gymnastics, swimming, wrestling, cycling, tennis, weightlifting, shooting and fencing. All subsequent Olympiads have been numbered even when no Games take place (as in 1916, during World War I , and in 1940 and 1944, during World War II ). The official symbol of the modern Games is five interlocking colored rings, representing the continents of North and South America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia.

The Olympic flag, featuring this symbol on a white background, flew for the first time at the Antwerp Games in 1920. The Olympics truly took off as an international sporting event after 1924, when the VIII Games were held in Paris. Some 3,000 athletes (with more than 100 women among them) from 44 nations competed that year, and for the first time the Games featured a closing ceremony. The Winter Olympics debuted that year, including such events as figure skating, ice hockey, bobsledding and the biathlon. Eighty years later, when the 2004 Summer Olympics returned to Athens for the first time in more than a century, nearly 11,000 athletes from a record 201 countries competed. In a gesture that joined both ancient and modern Olympic traditions, the shotput competition that year was held at the site of the classical Games in Olympia.

Tags The Little-Known History of How the Modern Olympics Got Their Start | History | Smithsonian Contact Privacy Policy Terms of Use The Little-Known History of How the Modern Olympics Got Their Start As London gets set to host the XXXth Olympiad, acclaimed sportswriter Frank Deford connects the modern Games to their unlikely origin—in rural England As the Games return to London, it's worth remembering that they may not exist at all were it not for the perseverance of the Brits. (John Ritter) By Frank Deford Smithsonian Magazine | Subscribe July 2012 What is known as Wenlock Edge, a great palisade, almost 1,000 feet high, running for 15 miles through the county of Shropshire, overlooks, near its eastern end, the tidy town of Much Wenlock. (Much Wenlock being so named, you see, to distinguish it from its even wee-er neighbor, Little Wenlock.) However, to this quaint backwater village near Wales came, in 1994, Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain, the grandiose president of the International Olympic Committee.

From This Story [×] CLOSE Johnny Hayes won the 1908 marathon on a technicality: The first runner was disqualified after race officials propped him up and dragged him to the finish. (British Library / AKG-Images) As the Games return to London, it's worth remembering that they may not exist at all were it not for the perseverance of the Brits. (John Ritter) Since there were many Irish-Americans on the U.S. team, some Yanks came over carrying a chip on their shoulder for their cousins from the ould sod. (John Ritter) The Baron de Coubertin’s ringing declaration—which would become a maxim of the Olympic movement—was appropriated from an American clergyman. (Bettmann / Corbis) Almost every day, even when the rains returned to the 1948 Olympics, Wembley was filled. The attendance records set by the Nazis in '36 were topped. (John Ritter) Photo Gallery Samaranch, an old spear carrier for Franco, was a vainglorious corporate politician, either obsequious or imperious, depending on the company, who was never much given to generosity.

Yet he found his way to Much Wenlock, where he trooped out to the cemetery at Holy Trinity Church and placed a wreath on a grave there. Samaranch then declared that the man who lay at his feet beneath the Shropshire sod “really was the founder of the modern Olympic Games.” That fellow was affectionately known as Penny Brookes; more formally, he was Dr. William Penny Brookes, the most renowned citizen of Much Wenlock—at least since the eighth century, when the prioress of the abbey there, St. Milburga, regularly worked miracles (notably with birds she could order about), while also displaying a singular ability to levitate herself. If not quite so spectacular as the enchanted prioress, Penny Brookes was certainly a man of consequence—fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, town magistrate and founder of the National Olympian Association in 1865—which, significantly, he created years before the International Olympic Committee was formed. Still, notwithstanding Samaranch’s homage, Brookes and his little town are seldom cited in Olympic liturgy. Olympic myth runs rife, too, generously embroidered with Pollyanna.

Most particularly, from its inception, modern Olympic advocates have trumpeted that their sweaty contests are much more uplifting—a noble “movement” of brotherhood that will somehow influence us grubby mortals to stop our common carping and warring. Alas, poetry and peace always then fly off with the doves. Also gospel is it that a Frenchman, venerating Greek antiquity, cowered by German physicality, was the initiating force behind the re-creation of the Games. But that’s only true so far as it goes. The fact is that the modern Olympics owe their birth and their model and, ultimately, their success foremost to England. For that matter, as we shall see, the first London Games, those of 1908, which were fashioned out of whole cloth by a towering Edwardian named Willie Grenfell—or Lord Desborough, as he had become—essentially saved the Olympics as an institution. It’s really quite appropriate that, in a few weeks hence, London will become the first city since Olympia to host the Games three times. Across the channel, Pierre Frédy was born in Paris in 1863 into the French aristocracy.

He grew up as an unapologetic chauvinist, but withal, even as France declined as a world presence, nothing ate at young Pierre more than the fact that Germany had whipped France in the Franco-Prussian War when he had been but an impressionable tot of 7. Pierre became convinced that a considerable reason for France’s shellacking was that the German soldiers had been in much better shape. This was certainly true, too, as young Germans were assembled to participate in turnen, which were tedious, rote physical exercises that, like eating your spinach, were good for you. But Pierre Frédy’s antipathy for anything Teutonic inhibited him from simply encouraging French leaders to have their youth ape their victors’ physical education. Rather, by chance, he happened to read the British novel Tom Brown’s School Days, and thereupon Pierre, who would ascend to the title of the Baron de Coubertin, had what could only be described as a spiritual experience. Tom Brown’s was about a smallish boy who goes off to boarding school at Rugby, where he participates in the school’s athletics, which helps him to thrash the big bully, Flashman.

Moreover, the climax of the novel is a game—a cricket match. The young baron was hooked. Not only did he want to improve the physical condition of his own countrymen by emphasizing the British way of sport, but he began to conjure up the greater dream of reinstituting the ancient Greek Olympics, thereby to improve the whole world. The original Olympics had been banned in A.D. 393 by the Roman emperor Theodosius I, but despite the prohibition, Europeans of the Dark and Middle ages kept playing their games. Frivolity by the lower classes is, however, not the stuff of history, saved. Rather, we mostly only have glamorous tapestried depictions of the nobility occupied at their expensive blood sports. We do know, though, that by the 11th century in Scotland, various tournaments of strength were held. These were the ancient forerunners of what became the Highland Games, but it was not until 1612, farther south in England, that the embryonic modern Olympics first made their appearance. This was an athletic festival that was held on the estate of one Capt.

Robert Dover, and it included the likes of fencing and “leaping” and wrestling, “while the young women were dancing to the tune of a shepard’s [sic] pipe.” It was even known, in fact, as the Cotswold Olympick Games. Captain Dover was a Roman Catholic, and he devilishly scheduled his festival as a joyous in-your-face exhibition to counter the dour Puritanism of the time. Unfortunately, with his death in 1641 the annual athletic celebration petered out.

Question: Who was the founder of the modern Olympic Games?
Answer: Pierre de Coubertin