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.
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).
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| Men from Princeton at the 1896 games |
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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