5 A successful start

Chapter 5 A successful start The first official modern Olympic Games opened on April 6 1896, in the city of Athens in Greece.

Thousands of spectators gathered to watch male athletes from 14 countries compete in nine different sports: athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, swimming, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling. Women could only watch. In those days, many people, including de Coubertin, thought women were too delicate to play sports.

One of the biggest problems for many athletes was the journey to Athens. An American named James Connolly spent almost all his life savings on the boat trip from New York to Naples, which took 17 days. The trip was worth it. Connolly won the hop, hop and jump (now the triple jump), and became the first medal winner in the modern Games.

The entry rules weren't very strict. An Irish tourist named John Boland signed up at the last minute... and ended up winning the tennis singles and doubles competitions. Swimmers had to be especially tough. They had to jump out of boats into the open sea and race to shore in icy cold water.

The highlight was the marathon race of 40km (nearly 25 miles), invented for the Athens Olympics. It was inspired by a story about a Greek soldier named Pheidippides. In 490BC, he ran this distance from Marathon to Athens, with news of Greece's victory over the Persians. Rejoice! Greece has won the war.

As the first marathon race at Athens drew to a close, the crowd leaped to their feet when a Greek runner named Spyridon Louis entered the stadium for the final lap. Overcome with excitement, two Greek princes, sons of King George I of Greece, jumped onto the track and ran alongside Louis to the finish line.