Before a crowd of some 60,000 spectators in the newly restored Panathenaic Stadium, King George I declared the first modern Olympic Games open. Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin's dream of reviving the ancient competition drew 241 athletes from 14 nations. American James Connolly won the triple jump, becoming the first Olympic champion in over fifteen centuries.
The marble stadium had been rebuilt using money donated by Greek businessman Georgios Averoff, and it gleamed white in the April sun as spectators packed in far beyond capacity. Pierre de Coubertin, the French aristocrat who had spent years lobbying for the revival, watched his vision materialize after the ancient Games had been banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I in 393 AD for being a pagan ritual.
The competition itself was gloriously amateurish by modern standards. Some athletes arrived without proper training, and the American team, mostly students from Princeton and Harvard, funded their own trip. James Brendan Connolly, a Harvard dropout, leapt 13.71 meters in the triple jump to become the first Olympic champion crowned in 1,500 years, a title he treasured for the rest of his life.
The closing marathon, run over the actual route from Marathon to Athens, became legend when Greek water-carrier Spyridon Louis crossed the finish line first, sending the home crowd into a frenzy. His victory cemented the Games as a genuine international sensation rather than a curious academic experiment, guaranteeing the Olympics would return four years later in Paris.
Key people: Pierre de Coubertin, George I of Greece, James Connolly, Spyridon Louis