Athens 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games facts & stats

Olympia 776 B.C. - Athens 2004 A.D.

Did you know that...

...the French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin did not found the Modern Olympic Games? He couldn't have because they had already been founded more than forty years earlier. He did, however, found the International Olympic Committee in 1894. Mr. Evangelis Zappas founded the first Modern National Olympic Games which took place in 1859 in Athens. Also Dr. William Penny Brookes founded the Wenlock Olympian Society (which presided over an "Olympic-like" Games) in 1860. Baron de Coubertin visited Dr. Penny Brookes in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, England and was inspired by him to establish the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which was founded on June 23rd, 1894. Baron de Coubertin was interested in reforming French education. The reason that everyone believes that Baron de Coubertin was the founder is down to him promoting himself as the founder selfishly and without mentioning Dr. Brookes or Mr. Zappas or Mr. Panagiotis Soutsos (Soutsos was Greek and the poet who first wrote about the revival in his poetry in 1833).

Evangelis Zappas
Portrait by S. Vikatou

...Athens Olympic Broadcasting (AOB) will feature a series of features, in cooperation with Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT)? Ten features cover the entire spectrum, from Greek music to classical Greece, to the treasures of Athens and the islands. Promoting Greece and the Olympic Games, these ten features, which will be produced by AOB, in cooperation with ERT, and distributed to the world Right Holders Broadcasters, are:

1. Modern Greece	A modern country in a historical crossroads.
2. Athens	The classical legacy and the modern city.
3. The Parthenon	The history of one of the most important universal landmarks.
4. Olympia	Birthplace of the Olympic Games.
5. The Ancient Games	The historical and cultural background that inspired the modern Games.
6. 1896 Games of the Olympiad	The first modern Olympic Games, hosted in Athens in the Panathinaikon Stadium.
7. The Marathon Run	The historical background and the classic road.
8. Greeks: The People and the Music	Mainland and the islands.
9. The Byzantine legacy	Thessaloniki, Mount Athos, Meteora, Mystras
10. The Classical Legal	Delphi, Crete, Epidavros, Myceanae, Vergina
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