OK, I made up that number.
The 1896 Olympics in Athens cost 3,740,000 drachmas. I couldn’t locate a
conversion table. I think the Greeks spent less than Boston is going to spend in 2024.
The games of the first modern Olympics lasted only 10 days in April, 1896, with 241 athletes
(all men) representing 14 nations.
Most of the events
were staged in Panathinaiko Stadium for the entertainment of about 80,000
spectators.
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| Men from Princeton at 1896 games |
An American, James
Connolly, was the first Olympic champion—he won the triple jump on the first
day, and received a silver medal and an olive branch. (The gold/silver/bronze
medal system was introduced in 1904 at the games in St. Louis).
Besides the
traditional track and field events, the 1896 games included swimming, fencing,
shooting, tennis and cycling. The beach volley ball fans had to suck it up.
A Greek athlete won
the marathon, to the boundless delight of the hometown crowd.
By the way, the
marathon is a modern addition to the Olympics—it was introduced at the 1896
games. The distance was 40 kilometers (24.85 miles).
The race
commemorates the feat of Pheidippides, a soldier who ran from the plain of Marathon
to Athens in 490 B.C. to announce a Greek victory over Persian invaders.
In 1908, at the
London games, the route of the marathon race was fixed at 26 miles 385 yards, the
measured distance from its start point at Windsor Castle to the finish line in
the stadium.
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2015
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