The Modern Olympics

The end of the ancient Olympics

Peloponnesian war; Elean neutrality; 424 BC games
365 BC : Arcadians vs. Eleans
336 BC: Philippeion
1st century BC: Sulla at Olympia
AD 393 pagan cults banned.
AD 426: Temple of Zeus burned

Intervening period

Istanbul games.
Romanized survival of events

The "Lost Olympics" (D. Young)

1837: Otto I's panhellenic games

1859: Evangelis Zappas' games

2nd Olympiad: 1870

emphasis on agriculture/industry
excavation of panathenaic stadium
similarities to ancient games

3rd Olympiad: 1875

The birth of "amateurism"
Philippos Ioannou, scholar, professor, and Olympic judge

Cancellation for 12 years

4th Olympiad 1888

agri-industrial contests
no athletic contests

Phokianos' Private olympics in 1889

elite athletes
cancellation mid-games.

Panhellenic Games: 1891, 1893.

Baron De Coubertin's 1896 Athens Olympics

1894 Paris congress on olympics: amateurism
Contact with Greeks.
Dr. W. Brookes

Dispute over location of future games

Coubertin vs. Greeks, Vitelas
compromise

Why did Coubertin claim to be the founder of the Olympics? Why suppress Zappas' role?

This page last updated by Ben Dollar on October 17, 2000.