Zappas.org was founded to help correct a historical error since there is a limit to how many times you can hear the same error without doing something about it. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) promotes Baron Pierre de Coubertin as 'the founder of the modern Olympic Games'. All historical references endorsed by the IOC including those at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne do the same. The IOC ignores the works and efforts of the founding fathers of the modern Olympic Games to promote the IOC's founding father. Moreover, the IOC promotes the Baron as 'the founder of the modern Olympic Games' at the Opening Ceremony of each Olympic Games and unfailingly ignores Panagiotis Soutsos, Dr William Penny Brookes and Evangelis Zappas.

Our Mission

To gain formal recognition for those who revived the Olympic Games in modern times who have been largely ignored since Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894 (35 years after the first modern Olympic Games and 24 years after the first to be held in a stadium). To hear Panagiotis Soutsos and Dr William Penny Brookes acknowledged and honored as founders of the modern Olympic Movement and Evangelis Zappas acknowledged and honored as founder of the modern Olympic Games at the Opening Ceremony of each Olympic Games. Pierre de Coubertin should continue to be honored as founder of the International Olympic Committee but not as "the founder of the modern Olympic Games".

Related Issues

The Wenlock Olympian Society (WOS) claims that Much Wenlock is 'the birthplace of the modern Olympic Games'. It used to claim that it was 'the birthplace of the Olympic Games' before I wrote to remind them that the Olympic Games originated in ancient Greece and that 'a birthplace of the modern Olympic Games' was more appropriate since Evangelis Zappas sponsored Olympic Games in Athens from 1859 and paid for the refurbishment of an ancient stadium for the revival of the Olympic Games. There is still no stadium at Much Wenlock whilst the Panathenaic stadium in Athens has hosted events at Olympic Games in 1870, 1875, 1896, 1906, and 2004. The Panathenaic stadium was the only stadium to host Olympic Games in the 19th century. The WOS continues to insist on the incorrect use of 'the' and fails to acknowledge that Panagiotis Soutsos preceded Dr Brookes as a founder of the modern Olympic Movement or that the Olympic provenance of the Wenlock Olympian Games is rooted in the Olympic Games sponsored by Evangelis Zappas (moreover, Athens 1896 was also partly sponsored by the Zappas family but not by Dr Brookes or by Pierre de Coubertin). The WOS also publicises that the first Wenlock Olympian Games was held in 1850 when its own archives document that the first games to be called 'Annual Wenlock Olympian Games' was held in 1860 and the WOS was founded in 1860. The WOS deliberately misleads the public by using #WOS_1850 as its hash-tag ID on its Twitter account. The WOS claims on the annual programme of the Wenlock Olympian Games that its games began in 1850. Prior to 1860 an annual sports event was organised for locals as part of Dr Brookes' physical education class called the 'Olympian Class'. The WOS denies its Olympic provenance from Athens 1859 and instead portrays Dr Brookes' meeting with Baron Pierre de Coubertin, in 1890, as the 'make or break' moment of modern Olympic history.

Yours faithfully,
Mike Pagomenos
Founder of Zappas.org
Member of the International Society of Olympic Historians