Which Nations participated in the First Modern Olympics?

The Olympics is one of the most prestigious multi-sporting events in the world. Most nations look forward to participating in the Olympics and win medals in the same. An Olympic medal holds a lot of significance as it helps the country in getting recognition on the world stage. In addition, it also allows the host nation to showcase its culture on the biggest stage.

In this article, we will look at the number of countries that participated in the first-ever Olympic games.

The Backstory

The idea of the Olympics was first proposed by Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France when he traveled the World in order to unite the nations to come together despite all disputes in the name of sports

The Preparation

The first ever modern Olympic games could have moved to Budapest Hungry if George Averoff, a Greek businessman would not have offered to pay for the reconstruction of the Athens’ Panathenean Stadium which was constructed in 330 B.C.E.

The Beginning

The first ever modern Olympic games took place in Athens, Greece in 1896 and were attended by more than 200 athletes. A total of 14 countries participated in the multi-sporting event namely Australia, Austria, Greece, Hungary, the United States of America, Denmark Germany, the United Kingdom, Mixed Team, and Switzerland with the largest delegations coming from France, Greece, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Also Read: What is the history of Table Tennis as an Olympic sport?

The Venues

As far as the venues of the event are concerned a total of seven venues were used during the 1896 Olympic Games. Panathenean Stadium was the venue where the modern Olympic games took place for the very first time as the stadium was used for 4 out of the 9 sports that were contested at that time along with the opening and closing ceremony of the event.

Also Read: Why trampoline is an Olympic sport?

The Performance

Talking about the performance of various nations in the multi-sporting event, the host Greece won the most models with 47 medals registered to its name including 10 gold, 18 silver, and 19 bronze followed by the USA which won 20 medals including 11 gold and 7 silver, and 2 bronze.

The Hype

As far as the excitement among the people regarding the event was concerned there wasn’t much anticipation among the masses till the event entered its 11th day which was the first day of the Marathon.

Interesting Facts about the Modern Olympics

In the first-ever modern Olympic games held in 1896, the swimming event did not take place in a pool as is the case today rather the swimmers competed in the open water of the Mediterranean’s Bay of Zea near Athens.

Separate Anthems were written for different games

Another interesting fact about the first-ever modern Olympics was that each organizing committee had separate anthems that represented their own games a practical which was prevalent until 1958 when the International Olympic Committee adopted its official anthem which was performed for the first time in the 1960 Winter Olympic Games. Since then the anthem has been performed at least two times during the Olympics once each during the opening and closing ceremony.