ATHENS 1896

An idyllic start to the modern Olympics compensated for the paucity of top-class athletes who travelled to Athens by boat, train or on foot.

Only 241 competitors, all men, from 14 countries turned up for contests in gymnastics, bicycle races, lawn tennis, fencing, marksmanship, track and field and swimming, all of which meant little to the Greeks who were interested in one event only.

The marathon was named after a village in Attica, approximately 40 kms north-east of Athens, where the Athenians defeated the Persians in 490 B.C. According to legend, a Greek messenger carried the news from the plains adjoining Marathon to Athens then promptly dropped dead.

Seventeen competitors, including 15 Greeks, lined up in Marathon for the classic distance race.

Frenchman Albin Lermusiaux set a scorching early pace but collapsed after 32 kms, allowing Spiridon Louis from the Greek town of Amarousion to take the lead.

Louis entered the Olympic stadium to a rapturous reception and two Greek princes left their seats to jog alongside their new hero on his weary way to the finish.

At the other end of the scale, Thomas Burke opened more than a century of American sprint dominance with victory in the 100 metres. Another American, James Connolly, won the triple jump to become the first champion since the Ancient Games.

Winners were awarded a silver medal and olive branches while overall the Olympics, thankfully free of pomp and circumstance, were acclaimed as a great success which must have gladdened the heart of their creator, French Baron Pierre de Coubertin.