Olympic Games were revived in 1859

Zappas.org
for the founders of the Modern Olympic Games

The MidWeek (Georgia, Florida, USA)

June 9, 2004

Letters to the Editor

I enjoyed reading your article on the Olympics until I read the last paragraph. The Olympic Games were not revived in Athens in 1896 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin. How could they be? They had already been revived in Athens in 1859 by Evangelis Zappas, a Greek billionaire philanthropist who had sponsored the Games and the refurbishment of the ancient Panathenian stadium. Olympic Games took place in Athens in 1859, 1870 and 1875.

'Olympic-like' Games also took place in the village of Much Wenlock in Shropshire, England in the early 1860s after the foundation of the Wenlock Olympian Society on the back of a Games founded in 1850. These Games continue today.

The Olympic Games were revived before Baron Pierre de Coubertin was born. However, let us give credit to him where it is due. He did found the International Olympic Committee in 1894 (35 years after the Olympics held in Athens in 1859).

Yours faithfully,
Zappas.org

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Recommended reading by Zappas.org:
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The Modern Olympics: A Struggle for Revival

by
David. C Young
published by
The Johns Hopkins University Press
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A Brief History of the Olympics

by
David. C Young
published by
Blackwell Publishing

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