In 1896, the millennia-old tradition was revived into the modern Olympics. The first Games in the summer of 1896 included competitors from Europe and the United States and were held in Athens in ...

From that modest start in Athens with 241 participants in 43 events, the Olympics have ballooned to include 11,238 athletes vying for 306 gold medals at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The 1896 Olympics also saw the world’s first marathon competition. But world fairs largely outshone the early Olympic Games . and it wasn’t until the 1920s that the “first truly successful ...

Events like the marathon embody that: There has been a marathon at each Olympics since the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The Paris Olympic Games are set to deliver another shake-up ...

This summer, some 10,500 male and female athletes from more than 200 nations are expected to compete in Rio in 306 events over 28 sports. In 1896, the first modern Olympic champion was Boston’s James ...

These Olympic events push the definition of “sport” nearly to its breaking point but aren’t even close to the oddest in the Games’ 116 year history.

In 1896, the millennia-old tradition was revived into the modern Olympics. The first Games in the summer of 1896 included competitors from Europe and the United States and were held in Athens in ...

Here are some of the highlights of the 1896 Olympics in Athens, when Spyridon Louis won the race that would come to be known as the marathon in […] Skip to content. All Sections.