Mondo Knows Facts
The first modern Olympics were held in Athens
Around fourteen nations competed in Athens across nine sports Pierre de Coubertin organised the Games, which opened on 6 April 1896 in the Panathenaic Stadium. Around 240 athletes took part, all of them men. The marathon was run for the first time, won by the Greek water carrier Spyridon Louis. It sits in Mondo's sports collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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More facts like this
The first modern Olympic Games were hosted in Athens in 1896Athletes from fourteen nations gathered in Greece to revive the ancient traditionThe Peloponnesian War reshaped ancient Greek politicsAthens and Sparta fought a twenty-seven-year conflict for regional hegemonyThe Olympic motto is three Latin wordsCitius, Altius, Fortius translates as faster, higher, strongerThe marathon is 42.195 km because of a royal viewThe odd distance comes from the 1908 London Olympics courseThe ancient Olympics are traditionally dated to 776 BCThey were held at Olympia in Greece for about twelve centuriesMichael Phelps has won 23 Olympic gold medalsNo other Olympian has won more golds or more medals overall
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Tags: olympics, athens, 1896
The first modern Olympics were held in Athens: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Around fourteen nations competed in Athens across nine sports. The figure is taken from Olympics.com, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a sports fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Sports shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.