To the first modern Olympics

· A man called Coroibis of Elis became the first recorded Olympic champion nearly three thousand years ago. What were the Games like in those days? Nobody knows exactly when the Olympic Games began. Some historians think it was over 3,500 years ago - but the first recorded Games were held at Olympia in 776 ВС. That's when we start to get a clear picture of the ancient prizes, buildings, champions and sports - or rather "sport" - because in the early days there was just one event - a 192-metre race called the "stade". It was several years before other sports were added. Gradually, though, the Games at Olympia grew and grew until they were famous all over Greece. Athletes traveled long distances to compete in them every four years and the winners became national heroes. This continued for centuries until the Roman Empire conquered Greece. Then the Games slowly began to decline. In AD 67, for example, the Roman Emperor Nero won a chariot race in which he was (a) the only competitor (b) drunk... (and he didn’t even complete the course). Finally, the Games were stopped in AD 393 by another Emperor - Theodosius I - who was a Christian and disapproved of Greek gods and festivals. After that, Olympia - the only city ever completely devoted to sport - remained deserted until it was destroyed by two earthquakes in the sixth century. The site was only rediscovered 1,100 years later. That’s when interest in the Olympics began to revive. But it was one man - Baron Pierre de Coubertin - who did more than anyone else to bring the classical Games back to life.

· De Coubertin first suggested his idea at a lecture in 1892. Then, after his idea was well received, he organized an international conference which took place in June 1894 at the Sorbonne University in Paris. Representatives came from twelve countries and there were messages of support from twenty-one others. that The International Olympic Committee was set up during this conference. But that's not all. Plans were also made for the first modern Games, and this meant that two important decisions had to be made... where and when. The answers were «Athens» and "1896".

A total of 295 athletes from thirteen countries took part in the first modern Olympics. Watched by 40,000 spectators, they paraded around the new Panathenean stadium on 6-th April... then competition began.

America and Greece were the two most successful nations in 1896 - they won twenty-one gold medals between them. The very first medal of the modem Olympic era went to James Connolly (USA). But perhaps the most dramatic winner in Athens was a young Greek shepherd called Spyridon Louis. He unexpectedly won the first ever Olympic marathon, running 40 kilometres in 2 hours 58 minutes 50 seconds.