1.
1896 Summer Olympics
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The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, was the first international Olympic Games held in modern history. Organised by the International Olympic Committee, which had created by Pierre de Coubertin, it was held in Athens, Greece. Winners were given a medal, while runners-up received a copper medal. Retroactively, the IOC has converted these to gold and silver, ten of the 14 participating nations earned medals. The United States won the most gold medals,11, host nation Greece won the most medals overall,46, the highlight for the Greeks was the marathon victory by their compatriot Spyridon Louis. The most successful competitor was German wrestler and gymnast Carl Schuhmann, the main venue was the Panathenaic Stadium, where athletics and wrestling took place, other venues included the Neo Phaliron Velodrome for cycling, and the Zappeion for fencing. The opening ceremony was held in the Panathenaic Stadium on 6 April, during which most of the athletes were aligned on the infield. After a speech by the president of the committee, Crown Prince Constantine. Afterwards, nine bands and 150 choir singers performed an Olympic Hymn, composed by Spyridon Samaras, the 1896 Olympics were regarded as a great success. The Games had the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date, the Panathenaic Stadium, the only Olympic stadium used in the 1800s, overflowed with the largest crowd ever to watch a sporting event. However, the 1900 Summer Olympics were already planned for Paris and, except for the Intercalated Games of 1906, during the 19th century, several small-scale sports festivals across Europe were named after the Ancient Olympic Games. The 1870 Olympics at the Panathenaic stadium, which had been refurbished for the occasion, had an audience of 30,000 people. In 1890, Coubertin wrote an article in La Revue Athletique, Coubertin also took inspiration from the earlier Greek games organised under the name of Olympics by businessman and philanthropist Evangelis Zappas in 1859,1870 and 1875. This the Greek government did despite the fact that the cost of refurbishing the stadium in marble had already been funded in full by Evangelis Zappas forty years earlier. With deep feeling towards Baron de Coubertins courteous petition, I send him, on 18 June 1894, Coubertin organised a congress at the Sorbonne, Paris, to present his plans to representatives of sports societies from 11 countries. Following his proposals acceptance by the congress, a date for the first modern Olympic Games needed to be chosen, Coubertin suggested that the Games be held concurrently with the 1900 Universal Exposition of Paris. Concerned that a waiting period might lessen public interest, congress members opted instead to hold the inaugural Games in 1896. With a date established, members of the congress turned their attention to the selection of a host city and it remains a mystery how Athens was finally chosen to host the inaugural Games
2.
Sport of athletics
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Athletics is a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running. The results of racing events are decided by finishing position, while the jumps, the simplicity of the competitions, and the lack of a need for expensive equipment, makes athletics one of the most commonly competed sports in the world. Athletics is mostly an individual sport, with the exception of relay races and competitions which combine athletes performances for a team score, organized athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BCE. The rules and format of the events in athletics were defined in Western Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th century. Most modern top level meetings are conducted by the International Association of Athletics Federations, the athletics meeting forms the backbone of the Summer Olympics. The foremost international athletics meeting is the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, other top level competitions in athletics include the IAAF World Cross Country Championships and the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. Athletes with a disability compete at the Summer Paralympics and the IPC Athletics World Championships. The word athletics is derived from the Ancient Greek ἀθλητής from ἆθλον or ἆθλος, initially, the term was used to describe athletic contests in general – i. e. sporting competition based primarily on human physical feats. In the 19th century, the term acquired a more narrow definition in Europe. This definition continues to be the most prominent one in the United Kingdom, furthermore, foreign words in many German and Roman languages which are related to the term athletics also have a similar meaning. In much of North America, athletics is synonymous with sports in general, the word athletics is rarely used to refer to the sport of athletics in this region. Track and field is preferred, and is used in the United States and Canada to refer to most athletics events, including racewalking, Athletic contests in running, walking, jumping and throwing are among the oldest of all sports and their roots are prehistoric. Athletics events were depicted in the Ancient Egyptian tombs in Saqqara, with illustrations of running at the Heb Sed festival, the Tailteann Games were an ancient Celtic festival in Ireland, founded around 1800 BCE, and the thirty-day meeting included running and stone-throwing among its sporting events. The original and only event at the first Olympics in 776 BCE was a running event known as the stadion. This later expanded to include throwing and jumping events within the ancient pentathlon, Athletics competitions also took place at other Panhellenic Games, which were founded later around 500 BCE. The Cotswold Olimpick Games, a festival which emerged in 17th century England. Annually, from 1796 to 1798, LOlympiade de la République was held in revolutionary France, the premier event of this competition was a running event, but various ancient Greek disciplines were also on display
3.
Marathon
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The marathon is a long-distance running race with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres, usually run as a road race. The event was instituted in commemoration of the run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens. The marathon was one of the original modern Olympic events in 1896, more than 800 marathons are held throughout the world each year, with the vast majority of competitors being recreational athletes as larger marathons can have tens of thousands of participants. The name Marathon comes from the legend of Philippides or Pheidippides and it is said that he ran the entire distance without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming νενικήκαμεν, before collapsing and dying. Lucian of Samosata also gives the story, but names the runner Philippides, there is debate about the historical accuracy of this legend. In some Herodotus manuscripts, the name of the runner between Athens and Sparta is given as Philippides, in 1879, Robert Browning wrote the poem Pheidippides. Brownings poem, his story, became part of late 19th century popular culture and was accepted as a historic legend. This route, as it existed when the Olympics were revived in 1896, was approximately 40 kilometres long, and this route is considerably shorter, some 35 kilometres, but includes a very steep initial climb of more than 5 kilometres. When the modern Olympics began in 1896, the initiators and organizers were looking for a great popularizing event, the idea of a marathon race came from Michel Bréal, who wanted the event to feature in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. This idea was supported by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics. The Greeks staged a race for the Olympic marathon on 10 March 1896 that was won by Charilaos Vasilakos in 3 hours and 18 minutes. The winner of the first Olympic marathon, on 10 April 1896, was Spyridon Louis, the marathon of the 2004 Summer Olympics was run on the traditional route from Marathon to Athens, ending at Panathinaiko Stadium, the venue for the 1896 Summer Olympics. The womens marathon was introduced at the 1984 Summer Olympics and was won by Joan Benoit of the United States with a time of 2 hours 24 minutes and 52 seconds. It has become a tradition for the mens Olympic marathon to be the last event of the athletics calendar, often, the mens marathon medals are awarded during the closing ceremony. The Olympic mens record is 2,06,32, set at the 2008 Summer Olympics by Samuel Kamau Wanjiru of Kenya, the Olympic womens record is 2,23,07, set at the 2012 Summer Olympics by Tiki Gelana of Ethiopia. The mens London 2012 Summer Olympic marathon winner was Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda, per capita, the Kalenjin ethnic group of Rift Valley Province in Kenya has produced a highly disproportionate share of marathon and track-and-field winners. Johnny Hayes victory at the 1908 Summer Olympics contributed to the growth of long-distance running and marathoning in the United States. Later that year, races around the season including the Empire City Marathon held on New Years Day 1909 in Yonkers, New York
4.
Panathenaic Stadium
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The Panathenaic Stadium also known as Kallimarmaro, is a multi-purpose stadium in Athens, Greece. One of the attractions of Athens, it is the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble. A stadium was built on the site of a simple racecourse by the Athenian statesman Lykourgos c. 330 BC and it was rebuilt in marble by Herodes Atticus, an Athenian Roman senator, by 144 AD and had a capacity of 50,000 seats. After the rise of Christianity in the 4th century it was largely abandoned, the stadium was excavated in 1869 and hosted the Zappas Olympics in 1870 and 1875. After being refurbished, it hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the first modern Olympics in 1896 and was the venue for 4 of the 9 contested sports and it was used for various purposes in the 20th century and was once again used as an Olympic venue in 2004. It is the point for the annual Athens Classic Marathon. It is also the last venue in Greece from where the Olympic flame handover ceremony to the host nation takes place, the stadium is built in what was originally a natural ravine between the two hills of Agra and Ardettos, south of the Ilissos river. Up to the 1950s, the River ran in front of the entrance, and the spring of Kallirrhoe, the sanctuary of Pankrates. Originally, since the 6th century BC, a racecourse existed at the site of the stadium and it hosted the Panathenaic Games, a religious and athletic festival celebrated every 4 years in honor of the goddess Athena. The racecourse had no seating and the spectators sat on the natural slopes on the side of the ravine. In the 4th century BC the Athenian statesman Lykourgos built a 850-foot long stadium of Poros limestone, tiers of stone benches were arranged around the track. The track was 669 feet long and 110 feet wide, IG II²351, records that Eudemus of Plataea gave 1000 yoke of oxen for the construction of the stadium and theater. The stadium of Lykourgos is believed to have completed for the Panathenaic Games of 330/329 BC. Donald Kyle suggests that it is possible that Lykourgos did not built, according to Richard Ernest Wycherley the stadium probably had stone seating only for a privileged few. Herodes Atticus, an Athenian who rose to the highest echelons of power in Rome, was responsible for numerous structures in Greece, in Athens he is best known for the reconstruction of the Panathenaic Stadium. Tobin suggests that Herodes built the stadium soon after Atticuss death, the first Greater Panathenaia following his fathers demise was 139/40, and it is probable that at that time Herodes promised the refurbishment of the stadium. According to Philostratus, it was completed four years later, which would have been in 143/4 and these dates are now widely cited as construction dates of the stadium of Herodes Atticus. Welch writes that the stadium was completed by 143 in time for Panathenaic festival, the new stadium was built completely of ashlar masonry in Pentelic marble, using minimal concrete
5.
Gregorian calendar
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The Gregorian calendar is internationally the most widely used civil calendar. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582, the calendar was a refinement to the Julian calendar involving a 0. 002% correction in the length of the year. The motivation for the reform was to stop the drift of the calendar with respect to the equinoxes and solstices—particularly the northern vernal equinox, transition to the Gregorian calendar would restore the holiday to the time of the year in which it was celebrated when introduced by the early Church. The reform was adopted initially by the Catholic countries of Europe, the last European country to adopt the reform was Greece, in 1923. Many countries that have used the Islamic and other religious calendars have come to adopt this calendar for civil purposes. The reform was a modification of a made by Aloysius Lilius. His proposal included reducing the number of years in four centuries from 100 to 97. Lilius also produced an original and practical scheme for adjusting the epacts of the moon when calculating the date of Easter. For example, the years 1700,1800, and 1900 are not leap years, but the years 1600 and 2000 are. The canonical Easter tables were devised at the end of the third century, when the vernal equinox fell either on 20 March or 21 March depending on the years position in the leap year cycle. As the rule was that the full moon preceding Easter was not to precede the equinox, the date was fixed at 21 March for computational purposes, the Gregorian calendar reproduced these conditions by removing ten days. To unambiguously specify a date, dual dating or Old Style, dual dating gives two consecutive years for a given date, because of differences in the starting date of the year, and/or to give both the Julian and the Gregorian dates. The Gregorian calendar continued to use the calendar era, which counts years from the traditional date of the nativity. This year-numbering system, also known as Dionysian era or Common Era, is the predominant international standard today, the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. A regular Gregorian year consists of 365 days, but as in the Julian calendar, in a leap year, in the Julian calendar a leap year occurs every 4 years, but the Gregorian calendar omits 3 leap days every 400 years. In the Julian calendar, this day was inserted by doubling 24 February. In the modern period, it has become customary to number the days from the beginning of the month, some churches, notably the Roman Catholic Church, delay February festivals after the 23rd by one day in leap years. Gregorian years are identified by consecutive year numbers, the cycles repeat completely every 146,097 days, which equals 400 years
6.
Francis Lane
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Francis Adonijah Lane was an American sprinter who competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Greece. Lane won his heat with a time of 12.2 seconds, in the final, he ran 12.6 seconds and tied for the third place with Alojz Sokol of Hungary, and both are considered as bronze medalists. At those games the champion was honored with a medal, an olive branch and a diploma, and the second athlete with a bronze medal, laurel branch. Nothing was given to the third best man, in 1897 Lane graduated from Princeton University and went to the medical school at Washington University in St. Louis. He later became the head of departments at Rush Medical College
7.
Triple jump
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The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the horizontal jumps, the competitor runs down the track and performs a hop, a bound and then a jump into the sand pit. The triple jump was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games and has been a modern Olympics event since the Games inception in 1896. The current male and female world record holders are Jonathan Edwards of Great Britain, with a jump of 18.29 m, both records were set during 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg. Historical sources on the ancient Olympic Games occasionally mention jumps of 15 meters or more and this led sports historians to conclude that these must have been a series of jumps, thus providing the basis for the triple jump. The triple jump was a part of the inaugural modern Olympics in Athens, in fact, the first modern Olympic champion, James Connolly, was a triple jumper. Early Olympics also included the standing jump, although this has since been removed from the Olympic program and is rarely performed in competition today. The womens triple jump was introduced into the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, in Irish mythology the geal-ruith, was an event contested in the ancient Irish Tailteann Games as early as 1829 BC. The athlete sprints down a runway to a mark, from which the triple jump is measured. The takeoff mark is commonly a physical piece of wood or similar material embedded in the runway and these boards are placed at different places on the run way depending on how far the athlete can jump. Typically the boards are set, 40ft, 32ft, and 24ft and these are the most common boards you see at the high school and collegiate levels, but boards can be placed anywhere on the runway. There are three phases of the jump, the hop phase, the bound or step phase. These three phases are executed in one continuous sequence, the hop starts with the athlete jumping from the take off board on one leg, which for descriptive purposes will be the right leg. The objective of the first phase is to hop out, focusing all momentum forward, the hop landing phase is very active, involving a powerful backward pawing action of the right leg, with the right take-off foot landing heel first on the runway. This leads to the familiar step-phase mid-air position, with the take off leg trailing flexed at the knee. The step landing forms the beginning of the take-off of the final phase, the jump phase is very similar to the long jump although most athletes have lost too much speed by this time to manage a full hitch kick, and most use a hang or sail technique. When landing in the pit, the jumper should aim to avoid sitting back on landing. The sand pit usually begins 13m from the take off board for international competition, or 11m from the board for international female
8.
Harvard University
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Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, james Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College, Harvards $34.5 billion financial endowment is the largest of any academic institution. Harvard is a large, highly residential research university, the nominal cost of attendance is high, but the Universitys large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages. Harvards alumni include eight U. S. presidents, several heads of state,62 living billionaires,359 Rhodes Scholars. To date, some 130 Nobel laureates,18 Fields Medalists, Harvard was formed in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1638, it obtained British North Americas first known printing press, in 1639 it was named Harvard College after deceased clergyman John Harvard an alumnus of the University of Cambridge who had left the school £779 and his scholars library of some 400 volumes. The charter creating the Harvard Corporation was granted in 1650 and it offered a classic curriculum on the English university model—many leaders in the colony had attended the University of Cambridge—but conformed to the tenets of Puritanism. It was never affiliated with any denomination, but many of its earliest graduates went on to become clergymen in Congregational. The leading Boston divine Increase Mather served as president from 1685 to 1701, in 1708, John Leverett became the first president who was not also a clergyman, which marked a turning of the college toward intellectual independence from Puritanism. When the Hollis Professor of Divinity David Tappan died in 1803 and the president of Harvard Joseph Willard died a year later, in 1804, in 1846, the natural history lectures of Louis Agassiz were acclaimed both in New York and on the campus at Harvard College. Agassizs approach was distinctly idealist and posited Americans participation in the Divine Nature, agassizs perspective on science combined observation with intuition and the assumption that a person can grasp the divine plan in all phenomena. When it came to explaining life-forms, Agassiz resorted to matters of shape based on an archetype for his evidence. Charles W. Eliot, president 1869–1909, eliminated the position of Christianity from the curriculum while opening it to student self-direction. While Eliot was the most crucial figure in the secularization of American higher education, he was motivated not by a desire to secularize education, during the 20th century, Harvards international reputation grew as a burgeoning endowment and prominent professors expanded the universitys scope. Rapid enrollment growth continued as new schools were begun and the undergraduate College expanded. Radcliffe College, established in 1879 as sister school of Harvard College, Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. In the early 20th century, the student body was predominately old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, by the 1970s it was much more diversified
9.
James Brendan Connolly
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James Brendan Bennet Jamie Connolly was an American athlete and author. In 1896, he was the first modern Olympic champion, Connolly was born to poor Irish immigrants from the Aran Islands, fisherman John Connolly and Ann ODonnell, as one of twelve children, in South Boston, Massachusetts. Growing up at a time when the parks and playground movement in Boston was slowly developing, Connolly joined other boys in the streets and vacant lots to run, jump, and play ball. He was educated at Notre Dame Academy and then at the Mather and Lawrence grammar school, instead, Connolly worked as a clerk with an insurance company in Boston and later with the United States Army Corps of Engineers in Savannah, Georgia. His predisposition to sport also became apparent, calling a special meeting of the Catholic Library Association of Savannah in 1891, he was instrumental in forming a football team. Soon thereafter, Connolly was elected captain of the CLA Cycling Club, altogether dissatisfied with his career path, Connolly sought to regain the lost years of high school through self-education. In October 1895, he sat for the examination to the Lawrence Scientific School and was unconditionally accepted to study the classics at Harvard University. After the creation of the International Olympic Committee in 1894 the first modern edition of the Olympic Games were scheduled for April 6 to 15,1896 in Athens, Greece. Connolly decided to participate, and submitted a request for a leave of absence to the Chairman of the Harvard University Committee on the Regulation of Athletic Sports and was denied. According to Connolly himself, he was informed that his course of action would be to resign. Connolly then claimed to have replied, I am not resigning, Im getting through with Harvard right now. It is unclear whether this really happened, Harvard records do show a request by Connolly for a leave of absence to Europe, which was denied. Connolly then requested a withdrawal as a student, which was granted on March 19,1896. After arriving in Naples, Italy he was robbed and almost lost his ticket to Athens and he managed to retrieve it only after a pursuit against the robber. Finally he took the train to Athens, arriving there just in time for the Games, the first final on the opening day was the triple jump, one of the events in which Connolly competed. Connollys style, taking two hops with the foot, is no longer allowed in this event nowadays, but was perfectly acceptable in 1896. With this style, he outjumped the field, finishing more than one meter ahead of his nearest opponent by jumping 13.71 m, with this performance, he became the first Olympic champion since AD385, when the Athenian Zopyrus won the pankration. He went on to second place in the high jump tying with Robert Garrett behind Ellery Clark
10.
High jump
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The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern most practised format, a bar is placed between two standards with a mat for landing. In the modern era, athletes run towards the bar and use the Fosbury Flop method of jumping, leaping head first with their back to the bar, performed since ancient times, competitors have introduced increasingly more effective techniques to arrive at the current form. The discipline is, alongside the pole vault, one of two vertical clearance events to feature on the Olympic athletics programme and it is contested at the World Championships in Athletics and IAAF World Indoor Championships, and is a common occurrence at track and field meetings. The high jump was among the first events deemed acceptable for women, Javier Sotomayor is the current mens record holder with a jump of 2.45 m set in 1993 – the longest standing record in the history of the mens high jump. Stefka Kostadinova has held the world record at 2.09 m since 1987. The rules for the jump are set internationally by the International Association of Athletics Federations. Jumpers must take off on one foot, a jump is considered a failure if the bar is dislodged by the action of the jumper whilst jumping or the jumper touches the ground or breaks the plane of the near edge of the bar before clearance. The technique one uses for the jump must be almost flawless in order to have a chance of clearing a high bar, competitors may begin jumping at any height announced by the chief judge, or may pass, at their own discretion. Three consecutive missed jumps, at any height or combination of heights, the victory goes to the jumper who clears the greatest height during the final. If two or more tie for first place, the tie-breakers are, 1) The fewest misses at the height at which the tie occurred. If the event remains tied for first place, the jumpers have a jump-off, the bar is then alternately lowered and raised until only one jumper succeeds at a given height. The first recorded high jump event took place in Scotland in the 19th century, early jumpers used either an elaborate straight-on approach or a scissors technique. In the later years, the bar was approached diagonally, around the turn of the 20th century, techniques began to modernise, starting with the Irish-American Michael Sweeneys Eastern cut-off. By taking off like the scissors, but extending his back and flattening out over the bar, Sweeney achieved a more economic clearance, another American, George Horine, developed an even more efficient technique, the Western roll. In this style, the bar again is approached on a diagonal, Horine increased the world standard to 2.01 m in 1912. His technique was predominant through the Berlin Olympics of 1936, in which the event was won by Cornelius Johnson at 2.03 m, American and Soviet jumpers held the playing field for the next four decades, and they pioneered the evolution of the straddle technique. Straddle jumpers took off as in the Western roll, but rotated their torso around the bar, straddle-jumper Charles Dumas was the first to clear 7 feet, in 1956, and American John Thomas pushed the world mark to 2.23 m in 1960
11.
Long jump
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The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a take off point. Along with the jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a group are referred to as the horizontal jumps. This event has a history in the Ancient Olympic Games and has been a modern Olympic event for men since the first Olympics in 1896 and for women since 1948. If the competitor starts the leap with any part of the foot past the foul line, a layer of plasticine is placed immediately after the board to detect this occurrence. An official will also watch the jump and make the determination, therefore, it is in the best interest of the competitor to get as close to the foul line as possible. Competitors are allowed to place two marks along the side of the runway in order to assist them to jump accurately. At a lesser meet and facilities, the plasticine will likely not exist, at a smaller meet, the number of attempts might also be limited to four or three. Each competitor has a set number of attempts and that would normally be three trials, with three additional jumps being awarded to the best 8 or 9 competitors. All legal marks will be recorded but only the longest legal jump counts towards the results, the competitor with the longest legal jump at the end of competition is declared the winner. In the event of a tie, then comparing the next best jumps of the tied competitors will be used to determine place. In a large, multi-day elite competition, a set number of competitors will advance to the final round, a set of 3 trial round jumps will be held in order to select those finalists. For record purposes, the maximum accepted wind assistance is two metres per second, the long jump is the only known jumping event of Ancient Greeces original Olympics pentathlon events. All events that occurred at the Olympic Games were initially supposed to act as a form of training for warfare, the long jump emerged probably because it mirrored the crossing of obstacles such as streams and ravines. After investigating the surviving depictions of the ancient event it is believed that unlike the modern event, the athletes carried a weight in each hand, which were called halteres. These weights were swung forward as the athlete jumped in order to increase momentum and it is commonly believed that the jumper would throw the weights behind him in midair to increase his forward momentum, however, halteres were held throughout the duration of the jump. Swinging them down and back at the end of the jump would change the center of gravity and allow the athlete to stretch his legs outward. The jump itself was made from the bater and it was most likely a simple board placed on the stadium track which was removed after the event. The jumpers would land in what was called a skamma, the idea that this was a pit full of sand is wrong
12.
Thomas Burke (athlete)
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Thomas Edmund Tom Burke was an American sprinter. He was the first Olympic champion in the 100 and 400 meter dash races, Burke, a student at Boston University School of Law, was a reputed runner in the 400 meters and 440 yards, having won the AAU title in 1895. He had no reputation for the first event he entered in the inaugural modern Olympic Games in Athens,1896. With many top sprinters absent, Burke surprisingly won the 100 meters and he was also noted for his crouch start, which was uncommon at that time but in standard use now. His time in the final was 12.0 seconds, in the preliminary heat, he had an even better time –11.8 seconds. At the same Olympics, Burke also won the 400 meters and his times for that event were 58.4 seconds in the preliminary heats and 54.2 seconds in the final, in both of which Burke finished first. Later in his career, Burke specialized in the longer distances, in 1897, he was one of the initiators of the annually held Boston Marathon, inspired by the success of the marathon event at the 1896 Olympics. Burke later became a lawyer, but was also a coach and a part-time journalist, writing for The Boston Journal. The Complete Book of the Olympics
13.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
14.
Edwin Flack
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Edwin Harold Teddy Flack was an Australian athlete and tennis player. He was Australias first Olympian, being its only representative in 1896, and the first Olympic champion in the 800 metres, born in London, England, Teddy Flack was five years old when his family migrated to Australia, to live in Berwick, Victoria. Soon after leaving the Melbourne Church of England Grammar School in 1892, from 1892 to 1894, Flack was active in middle distance and distance running in amateur athletics in the then colony of Victoria, competing with the Melburnian Hare & Hounds athletics club. In 1892 he placed third in the inaugural Victorian 10 mile cross country championships, held at Caulfield Racecourse and this was the second such meet, the first having been held at Moore Park in Sydney on 31 May 1890. Flack competed in the 1893 event and won the championship in a time of 4,44.0. He also competed in the 880 yards and three miles championship, but was unplaced in both events.21. On 15 December 1894 he won both the 880yards and mile Victorian 1894 championships and, on a date in 1894 was 2nd in the 10 mile cross country championships. The 1894 event was Flacks last appearance in the Victorian Championships, at the age of 21 Flack was sent to London to receive further training as an accountant with the firm Price, Waterhouse & Co. A keen athlete in Victoria, Flack joined the London Athletic Club and was intent on attending the coming inaugural Olympics while in the city of New York, Flack reached Athens after an uncomfortable six-day rail and sea trip, during which he was plagued with sea sickness. On the opening day of the Games he won his first race, on the second day he lined up against the American favourite, Arthur Blake, in the 1500 metres run. Running shoulder to shoulder with Blake in the straight, Flack powered ahead near the end to win by more than five metres in a time of 4,33.2. On the fourth day of the Games Flack earned his second first-place medal and it may be noted that, even by the standards of the time, the times required to win the 800m and 1, 500m at the first Olympics were slow. At the Australasian Championships of 1896, the mile was won by New Zealander W Bennett in a time of 4,28.6 - some 4. 6s quicker than Flacks Olympic 1, 500m time, despite running 109 metres further. Just a day later Flack tried for a treble, in the marathon, even though he had never run a more than 10 miles. He was in place behind Frenchman Albin Lermusiaux, bronze medallist in the 1500 m run. After 32 kilometres, the Frenchman dropped out and Flack was left in the lead, but with just three kilometres to go, Flack suddenly collapsed. He was so delirious that, when a Greek spectator tried to help him, Flack was removed from the course and tended to by Prince Nicholas. Although largely unknown, Flack also competed in the singles and doubles at the Athens Olympics
15.
Robert Garrett
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Robert Garrett was an American athlete. He was the first modern Olympic champion in discus throw and shot put, Robert S. Garrett was born in Baltimore County, Maryland into one of the most prominent and wealthiest families in Maryland. He was the son of Thomas Harrison Garrett and Alice Dickerson Whitridge Garrett, the younger Robert Garrett studied at Princeton University. He excelled in track and field athletics as an undergraduate, and was captain of the Princeton track team in both his junior and senior years, Garrett was primarily a shot-putter, though he also competed in the jumping events. When he decided to compete in the first modern Olympic games being revived and held in Athens, Greece, in 1896 and they consulted classical authorities to develop a drawing and Garrett hired a blacksmith to make a discus. It weighed nearly 30 pounds and it was impossible to throw any distance, Garrett paid for his own and three classmates (Francis Lane, Herbert Jamison, and Albert Tyler way to Athens to compete in the games. When he discovered that a real discus weighed less than five pounds, the Greek discus throwers were true stylists. Each throw, as they spun and rose from a classical Discobolus stance, was intended to be beautiful, Garrett, who seized the discus in his right hand and swinging himself around and around, the way the hammer is usually thrown, threw the discus with tremendous force. Garretts first two throws were clumsy, instead of sailing parallel to the ground, the discus turned over and over and narrowly missed hitting some of the audience. Both foreigners and Americans laughed at his efforts and he joined in the general merriment and his final throw, however, punctuated with a loud grunt, sent the discus sailing 19 centimetres beyond the second-place throw mark at 29.15 metres. American spectator Burton Holmes wrote, All were stupefied, the Greeks had been defeated at their own classic exercise. According to James Connolly, in five of the track and field events won by Americans, Garrett also won the shot put with a distance of 11.22 metres and finished second in the high jump and second in the long jump. In the 1984 NBC television multi-episode miniseries, The First Olympics, Athens 1896, in the second episode, Garrett was incorrectly portrayed as being a participant in the first Olympic Marathon. In the 1900 Olympics, Garrett placed third in the shot put and his bronze medal in the shot put was unusual, as he refused to compete in the final due to it being held on a Sunday. His qualifying mark was enough to place him in third. He also competed in the discus throw again, but due to a planned course was unable to set a legal mark as his discus throws all hit trees. Garrett was also a member of the Tug-of-War team at the 1900 Olympics that was forced to withdraw because three of its six members were engaged in the hammer throw final, Garrett later became a banker and financier at his grandfathers historic mercantile firm Robert Garrett and Sons in Baltimore. Garrett had an early intensive interest in science, especially in history and archeology and he helped to organize and finance an archaeological expedition to Syria, led by Dr. John M. T. Finney
16.
Princeton University
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Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The institution moved to Newark in 1747, then to the current site nine years later, Princeton provides undergraduate and graduate instruction in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. The university has ties with the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton has the largest endowment per student in the United States. The university has graduated many notable alumni, two U. S. Presidents,12 U. S. Supreme Court Justices, and numerous living billionaires and foreign heads of state are all counted among Princetons alumni body. New Light Presbyterians founded the College of New Jersey in 1746 in order to train ministers, the college was the educational and religious capital of Scots-Irish America. In 1754, trustees of the College of New Jersey suggested that, in recognition of Governors interest, gov. Jonathan Belcher replied, What a name that would be. In 1756, the moved to Princeton, New Jersey. Its home in Princeton was Nassau Hall, named for the royal House of Orange-Nassau of William III of England, following the untimely deaths of Princetons first five presidents, John Witherspoon became president in 1768 and remained in that office until his death in 1794. During his presidency, Witherspoon shifted the focus from training ministers to preparing a new generation for leadership in the new American nation. To this end, he tightened academic standards and solicited investment in the college, in 1812, the eighth president the College of New Jersey, Ashbel Green, helped establish the Princeton Theological Seminary next door. The plan to extend the theological curriculum met with approval on the part of the authorities at the College of New Jersey. Today, Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary maintain separate institutions with ties that include such as cross-registration. Before the construction of Stanhope Hall in 1803, Nassau Hall was the sole building. The cornerstone of the building was laid on September 17,1754, during the summer of 1783, the Continental Congress met in Nassau Hall, making Princeton the countrys capital for four months. The class of 1879 donated twin lion sculptures that flanked the entrance until 1911, Nassau Halls bell rang after the halls construction, however, the fire of 1802 melted it. The bell was then recast and melted again in the fire of 1855, James McCosh took office as the colleges president in 1868 and lifted the institution out of a low period that had been brought about by the American Civil War. McCosh Hall is named in his honor, in 1879, the first thesis for a Doctor of Philosophy Ph. D. was submitted by James F. Williamson, Class of 1877. In 1896, the officially changed its name from the College of New Jersey to Princeton University to honor the town in which it resides
17.
Discus throw
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The discus throw is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an ancient sport, as demonstrated by the fifth-century-B. C, although not part of the modern pentathlon, it was one of the events of the ancient Greek pentathlon, which can be dated back to at least to 708 BC. Discus is a part of most modern track-and-field meets at all levels and is a sport which is particularly iconic of the Olympic Games. The mens competition has been a part of the modern Summer Olympic Games since the first Olympiad in 1896. Images of discus throwers figured prominently in advertising for early modern Games, such as fundraising stamps for the 1896 games, the discus was re-discovered in Magdeburg, Germany, by Christian Georg Kohlrausch and his students in the 1870s. His work around the discus and the throwing techniques have been published since the 1880. The first modern athlete to throw the discus while rotating the body was František Janda-Suk from Bohemia. He invented this technique when studying the position of the statue of Discobolus. After only one year of developing the technique he gained the silver in 1900. The womens competition was added to the Olympic program in the 1928 games, the mens discus is a heavy lenticular disc with a weight of 2 kilograms and diameter of 22 centimetres, the womens discus has a weight of 1 kilogram and diameter of 18 centimetres. Under IAAF rules, Youth boys throw the 1.5 kilograms discus, the Junior men throw the unique 1.75 kilograms discus, in international competition, men throw the 2 kg discus through to age 49. The 1.5 kilograms discus is thrown by ages 50–59, women throw the 1 kilogram discus through to age 74. Starting with age 75, women throw the 0.75 kilograms discus, the typical discus has sides made of plastic, wood, fiberglass, carbon fiber or metal with a metal rim and a metal core to attain the weight. The rim must be smooth, with no roughness or finger holds, a discus with more weight in the rim produces greater angular momentum for any given spin rate, and thus more stability, although it is more difficult to throw. However, a higher rim weight, if thrown correctly, can lead to a farther throw, a solid rubber discus is sometimes used. To make a throw, the starts in a circle of 2.5 m diameter. The thrower typically takes an initial stance facing away from the direction of the throw and he then spins anticlockwise around one and a half times through the circle to build momentum, then releases his throw. The discus must land within a 34. 92-degree sector, the distance from the front edge of the circle to where the discus has landed is measured, and distances are rounded down to the nearest centimetre
18.
Pierre de Coubertin
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Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin was a French educator and historian, and founder of the International Olympic Committee. He is considered the father of the modern Olympic Games, born into a French aristocratic family, he became an academic and studied a broad range of topics, most notably education and history. The Pierre de Coubertin medal is a given by the International Olympic Committee to athletes that demonstrate the spirit of sportsmanship in the Olympic Games. Pierre de Frédy was born in Paris on 1 January 1863 into an aristocratic family and he was the fourth child of Baron Charles Louis de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin and Marie–Marcelle Gigault de Crisenoy. His paintings often centred on themes related to the Roman Catholic Church, classicism, and nobility and his memoirs elaborated further, describing as a pivotal moment his disappointment upon meeting Henri, Count of Chambord, whom the elder Coubertin believed to be the rightful king. But while these events were the setting of his childhood, his experiences were just as formative. This suggests that despite his rebelliousness at home, Coubertin adapted well to the rigors of a Jesuit education. As an aristocrat, Coubertin had a number of paths from which to choose. But he chose instead to pursue a career as an intellectual, studying and later writing on a range of topics, including education, history, literature. The subject which he seems to have been most deeply interested in was education, and his study focused in particular on physical education, in 1883, he visited England for the first time, and studied the program of physical education instituted by Thomas Arnold at the Rugby School. Coubertin credited these methods with leading to the expansion of British power during the 19th century, the inclusion of physical education in the curriculum of French schools would become an ongoing pursuit and passion of Coubertins. In fact, Coubertin is thought to have exaggerated the importance of sport to Thomas Arnold, nonetheless, Coubertin was an enthusiast in need of a cause and he found it in England and in Thomas Arnold. Thomas Arnold, the leader and classic model of English educators, wrote Coubertin, playing fields sprang up all over England. Intrigued by what he had read about English public schools, in 1883, at the age of twenty, Fredy went to Rugby and he described the results in a book, LEducation en Angleterre, which was published in Paris in 1888. This hero of his book is Thomas Arnold, and on his visit in 1886. What Coubertin saw on the fields of Rugby and the other English schools he visited was how “organised sport can create moral and social strength”. Not only did organised games help to set the mind and body in equilibrium, First developed by the ancient Greeks, it was an approach to education that he felt the rest of the world had forgotten and to whose revival he was to dedicate the rest of his life. As a historian and a thinker on education, Coubertin romanticised ancient Greece, Coubertin advocated for these concepts, this triple unity, to be incorporated into schools
19.
Pheidippides
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Pheidippides is the central figure in a story that was the inspiration for a modern sporting event, the marathon race. Pheidippides is said to have run from Marathon to Athens to deliver news of a victory against the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. The modern use of the dates back to Philippides the dispatch-runner. Bringing the news of the victory at Marathon, he found the archons seated and he said, and died upon his message, breathing his last in the word Joy. – Lucian Pro lapsu inter salutandum The traditional story relates that Philippides and he ran about 240 km in two days. Most accounts incorrectly attribute this story to the historian Herodotus, who wrote the history of the Persian Wars in his Histories, however, Magill and Moose suggest that the story is likely a romantic invention. Robert Browning gave a version of the story in his 1879 poem Pheidippides. It was this poem which inspired Baron Pierre de Coubertin and other founders of the modern Olympic Games to invent a running race of 42 km called the marathon, in any case, no such story appears in Herodotus. The first known account of a run from Marathon to Athens occurs in the works of the Greek writer Plutarch. Plutarch attributes the run to a herald called either Thersippus or Eukles, Lucian, a century later, credits one Philippides. Three runners were successful in completing the distance, John Foden, John Scholtens, since 1983, it has been an annual footrace from Athens to Sparta, known as the Spartathlon, celebrating Pheidippidess at least semi-historical run across 246 km of Greek countryside. Course records Male,20,25,00, Yiannis Kouros,1984 Female,25,07,12, in 1991, Yiannis Kouros starred as Pheidippides in the movie The Story of the Marathon, A Heros Journey, which chronicles the history of marathon running. It was I, no less solitary than he but having made the use of the morning. Aubrey de Sélincourt and A. R. Burn, the Dubious Origins of the Marathon. Von Herodot über Bréal bis zur Gegenwart, Olympic Opera by the composer Luca Belcastro The Story of the Marathon
20.
Battle of Marathon
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The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC, during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis, the battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Greece. The Greek army decisively defeated the more numerous Persians, marking a point in the Greco-Persian Wars. The Athenians and Eretrians had succeeded in capturing and burning Sardis, in response to this raid, Darius swore to burn down Athens and Eretria. Also he charged one of his servants, to say Master, remember the Athenians, three times before dinner each day. At the time of the battle, Sparta and Athens were the two largest city states, once the Ionian revolt was finally crushed by the Persian victory at the Battle of Lade in 494 BC, Darius began plans to subjugate Greece. In 490 BC, he sent a task force under Datis and Artaphernes across the Aegean, to subjugate the Cyclades. Reaching Euboea in mid-summer after a campaign in the Aegean. The Persian force then sailed for Attica, landing in the bay near the town of Marathon, the Athenians, joined by a small force from Plataea, marched to Marathon, and succeeded in blocking the two exits from the plain of Marathon. The Athenians also sent a message asking for support to the Spartans, when the messenger arrived in Sparta, the Spartans were involved in a religious festival and gave this as a reason for not coming to aid of the Athenians. The Athenians and their allies chose a location for the battle, with marshes and mountainous terrain, Miltiades, the Athenian general, ordered a general attack against the Persians. He reinforced his flanks, luring the Persians best fighters into his center, the inward wheeling flanks enveloped the Persians, routing them. The Persian army broke in panic towards their ships, and large numbers were slaughtered, the defeat at Marathon marked the end of the first Persian invasion of Greece, and the Persian force retreated to Asia. Darius then began raising a new army with which he meant to completely subjugate Greece, however, in 486 BC, his Egyptian subjects revolted. After Darius died, his son Xerxes I restarted the preparations for an invasion of Greece. The Battle of Marathon was a watershed in the Greco-Persian wars, showing the Greeks that the Persians could be beaten, the battle also showed the Greeks that they were able to win battles without the Spartans, as they had heavily relied on Sparta previously. This win was due to the Athenians, and Marathon raised Greek esteem of them. The main source for the Greco-Persian Wars is the Greek historian Herodotus, Herodotus, who has been called the Father of History, was born in 484 BC in Halicarnassus, Asia Minor
21.
Marathon, Greece
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Marathon is a town in Greece, the site of the battle of Marathon in 490 BC, in which the heavily outnumbered Athenian army defeated the Persians. The tumulus or burial mound of the 192 Athenian dead, also called the Soros, the Tymbos is now marked by a marble memorial stele and surrounded by a small park. The name Marathon comes from the herb fennel, called marathon or marathos in Ancient Greek and it is believed that the town was originally named so because of an abundance of fennel plants in the area. After Miltiades defeated Darius Persian forces, the Persians decided to sail from Marathon to Athens in order to sack the unprotected city. Miltiades ordered all his forces to march double time back to Athens. Although the name Marathon had a resonance in Europe in the nineteenth century, for some time that was sullied by the Dilessi murders. The sophist and magnate Herodes Atticus was born in Marathon, in 1926, the American company ULEN began construction on the Marathon Dam in a valley above Marathon, in order to ensure water supply for Athens. About 10 km² of forested land were flooded to form Lake Marathon, the beach of Schinias is located southeast of the town and it is a popular windsurfing spot and the Olympic Rowing Center for the 2004 Summer Olympics is also located there. At the 1896 and 2004 Summer Olympics, Marathon was the point of the marathon races. The area is susceptible to flooding, because of forest fires having denuded parts of the eastern slopes of Mount Penteli especially in 2006.747 km2. The other settlements in the unit are Agios Panteleimonas, Kato Souli, Vranas, Avra, Vothon, Ano Souli. Kato Souli Naval Transmission Facility with its 250-metre tall radio mast, the tallest structure in Greece. e-marathon. gr
22.
Spyridon Louis
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Spiridon Spyros Louis was a Greek water-carrier who won the first modern-day Olympic marathon at the 1896 Summer Olympics, thereby becoming a national hero. Louis was born in the town of Marousi, which is now a suburb to the north of Athens, louiss father sold mineral water in Athens, at the time lacking a central water supply, and his son helped him by transporting it. After the decision to revive the Olympic Games in 1894, preparations were made to organise the first modern Olympics in Athens, one of the races would be the marathon, an event which had never been held before. The Greeks were very enthusiastic about this new event and decided to stage qualifying races for would-be Greek participants and these were organised by an army colonel, Papadiamantopoulos, who had been Louis commanding officer during his military service. The first qualifying race—the first ever marathon race—was held on 22 March, Louis participated in the second qualifying race, two weeks later. Papadiamantopoulos, who knew Louis running talents, had convinced him to try out, Louis crossed the line in fifth place, behind winner Dimitrios Deligiannis. The Olympic marathon was run on 10 April, the Greek public had been very enthusiastic about the Games, but was disappointed in the fact that no track and field event had yet been won by a Greek competitor. The victory in the throw, a classical Greek event. Because of its connection with Greek history, the public desperately yearned for the marathon to be won by one of their countrymen. In Marathon, Colonel Papadiamantopoulos gave the signal for the small field, consisting of thirteen athletes from Greece. The early leader of the race, which led over dusty dirt roads along which throngs of Greeks had gathered to watch, was the Frenchman Albin Lermusiaux, in the town of Pikermi, Louis made a stop at a local inn to drink a glass of wine. After asking for the advantage of the runners, he confidently declared he would overtake them all before the end. After 32 km, Lermusiaux was exhausted and abandoned the race, the lead was taken over by Edwin Flack, an Australian who won the 800 and 1500 m races. Louis slowly closed in on Flack, the Australian, not used to running long distances, collapsed a few kilometers onwards, giving Louis the lead. In the stadium, the atmosphere was tense, especially after a cyclist brought the news that the Australian was in the lead, the scene witnessed then inside the Stadion cannot be easily described, and even foreigners were carried away by the general enthusiasm. Reportedly, the king offered Louis any gift he would care to ask of him, adding to the celebrations, two more Greek runners entered the stadium to finish in second and third place. Third place finisher Spiridon Belokas was later found to have covered part of the course by carriage and was disqualified, after his victory, Louis received gifts from many countrymen, ranging from jewelry to a lifelong free shave at the barber shop. It is unknown if Louis took all these gifts, although he did back home the carriage he had asked of the king
23.
Marousi
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Marousi or Maroussi is a suburban city in the northeastern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. Amarousio dates back to the era of the ancient Athenian Republic, its ancient name was Athmonon, Marousi is situated 13 km northeast of Athens city centre. The municipality has an area of 12.938 km2, the built-up area of Marousi is continuous with those of the neighbouring suburbs Pefki, Kifisia, Vrilissia and Halandri. Within Marousi lies the biggest forest in urban Athens, Dasos Syngrou, the Athens Olympic Sports Complex, the largest sports complex in Greece, built for the 2004 Summer Olympics, is located in the southwestern part of the municipality. The main thoroughfare is Kifisias Avenue, which connects Marousi with central Athens, Marousi has 4 stations on Athens Metro Line 1, and two suburban commuter railway stations, Nerantziotissa station and Kifisias railway station. Marousi is also home to a number of public and private educational institutions. Marousis favourable infrastructure has led to economic growth. The managing office of Consolidated Contractors Company, a large Middle Eastern, the Mall Athens, one of the largest shopping centres in southeastern Europe, is situated in the southwestern part of Marousi. Vivartia has its office in Marousi. Google Athens is headquartered in Marousi, the new building of Greek Ministry of Education is located in Marousi, in the district Neratziotissa. In the same district is located the School of Pedagogical and Technological Education, the German School of Athens is also located in Marousi. Maroussi is the place of Greek Olympic Sport Center and it is located in the southwest of the suburb, in an area that is named Kalogreza. Maroussi has also some sport such as Dais Indoor Hall. Local teams are Maroussi B. C. with long-time presence in A1 Ethniki Basketball and A. C. Doukas with many titles in Handball and Futsal. The Olympic Stadium is used as home stadium by famous clubs of Greek football, currently by AEK, prince Michael lived in Marousi from his marriage to Marina Karella in 1965, since late 1970s
24.
Constantine I of Greece
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Constantine I was King of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. He succeeded to the throne of Greece on 18 March 1913 and his disagreement with Eleftherios Venizelos over whether Greece should enter World War I led to the National Schism. Constantine forced Venizelos to resign twice, but in 1917 he left Greece, after threats of the Entente forces to bombard Athens, his son, Alexander. After Alexanders death, Venizelos defeat in the 1920 legislative elections, and he abdicated the throne for the second and last time in 1922, when Greece lost the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, and was succeeded by his eldest son, George II. Constantine died in four months later, in Sicily. Born on 2 August 1868 in Athens, Constantine was the eldest son of King George I and his birth was met with an immense wave of enthusiasm, the new heir apparent to the throne was the first Greek-born member of the family. As the ceremonial cannon on Lycabettus Hill fired the salute, huge crowds gathered outside the Palace shouting what they thought should rightfully be the newborn princes name. He was inevitably christened Constantine on 12 August, and his style was the Diádochos. An additional nickname adopted mainly by the royalists for Constantine was the son of the eagle, on 30 October 1882 he enrolled in the Hellenic Military Academy. After graduation he was sent to Berlin for further military education, Constantine also studied political science and business in Heidelberg and Leipzig. In 1890 he became a Major General, and assumed command of the 3rd Army Headquarters in Athens, in January 1895, Constantine caused political turmoil when he ordered army and gendarmerie forces to break up a street protest against tax policy. Constantine had previously addressed the crowd and advised them to submit their grievances to the government, Prime Minister Charilaos Trikoupis asked the King to recommend that his son avoid such interventions in politics without prior consultation with the government. King George responded that the Crown Prince was, in dispersing protesters, merely obeying orders. The incident caused a debate in Parliament, and Trikoupis finally resigned as a result. In the following elections Trikoupis was defeated, and the new Prime Minister, Theodoros Deligiannis, the organization of the first modern Olympics in Athens was another issue which caused a Constantine-Trikoupis confrontation, with Trikoupis opposed to hosting the Games. After Deligiannis electoral victory over Trikoupis in 1895, those who favored a revival of the Olympic Games, including the Crown Prince, coubertin assured that the King and the Crown Prince will confer their patronage on the holding of these Games. Constantine later conferred more than that, he assumed the presidency of the 1896 organizing committee. At the Crown Princes request, wealthy businessman George Averoff agreed to pay one million drachmas to fund the restoration of the Panathinaiko Stadium in white marble
25.
NBC
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The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcast television network that is the flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is part of the Big Three television networks, founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. Following the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright served as executive officer of NBC, remaining in that position until his retirement in 2007. In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, and acquired General Electrics remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBC Universal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke, during a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph. Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had an outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ. This station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&Ts manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas. The Bell System, AT&Ts telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, the 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs. In an early example of chain or networking broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines. The early effort fared poorly, since the telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric. In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its network were incompatible with the companys primary goal of providing a telephone service. AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&Ts phone lines for network transmission, the divisions ownership was split among RCA, its founding corporate parent General Electric and Westinghouse. NBC officially started broadcasting on November 15,1926, WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On April 5,1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network and this was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network, also known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18,1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, and the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network, initially, the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. The Orange Network name was removed from use in 1936, at the same time, the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC also developed a network for shortwave radio stations, in 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building designed by architect Floyd Brown
26.
International Olympic Committee
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The International Olympic Committee is the supreme authority of the worldwide Olympic movement. It is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Lausanne and its mission is enshrined in the Olympic Charter, to support the development of competitive sport by ethical and environmentally sustainable means. The IOC was created by Pierre de Coubertin, on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president, today its membership consists of 100 active members,32 honorary members, and 1 honour member. The IOC is the authority of the worldwide modern Olympic movement. The IOC organises the modern Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games, held in summer and winter, the first Summer Olympics organised by the IOC was held in Athens, Greece, in 1896, the first Winter Olympics was in Chamonix, France, in 1924. Until 1992, both Summer and Winter Olympics were held in the same year, the first Summer Youth Olympics were in Singapore in 2010 and the first Winter Youth Olympics were held in Innsbruck in 2012. In 2009, the UN General Assembly granted the IOC Permanent Observer status and this decision enables the IOC to be directly involved in the UN Agenda and to attend UN General Assembly meetings where it can take the floor. This has provided the possibility to promote sport at a new level, during each proclamation at the Olympics, announcers speak in different languages, French is always spoken first followed by an English translation and the dominant language of the host nation. The stated mission of the International Olympic Committee is to promote Olympic throughout the world and it is the IOC’s supreme organ and its decisions are final. Extraordinary Sessions may be convened by the President or upon the written request of at least one third of the members, among others, the powers of the Session are, To adopt or amend the Olympic Charter. To elect the members of the IOC, the Honorary President, to elect the President, the Vice-Presidents and all other members of the IOC Executive Board. To elect the host city of the Olympic Games, the Olympic Laurel is awarded to individuals for promoting education, culture, development, and peace through sport. For most of its existence, the IOC was controlled by members who were selected by other members, countries that had hosted the Games were allowed two members. When named, they did not become the representatives of their countries to the IOC. The membership of IOC members ceases in the circumstances, Resignation. Non re-election, any IOC member ceases to be a member without further formality if they are not re-elected, age limit, any IOC member ceases to be a member at the end of the calendar year during which they reach the age of 80. Failure to attend Sessions or take part in IOC work for two consecutive years. Transfer of domicile or of main center of interests to an other than the country which was theirs at the time of their election
27.
United States at the 1896 Summer Olympics
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Fourteen competitors from the United States competed in three sports at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The Americans were the most successful nation in terms of medals, beating host nation Greece,11 to 10. However, the Greeks 46 total medals dwarfed the Americans 20, the United States team had 27 entries in 16 events, with 20 of the 27 resulting in top-three finishes. Most of the American competitors were students at Harvard University or Princeton University or members of the Boston Athletic Association, the team trained at The Pennington School, in Pennington, New Jersey, while preparing in secret for the first modern Olympic Games. Of the 14 Americans at the Athens Games,12 won medals, charles Waldstein, a shooter, and Gardner Williams, a swimmer, were the two who did not win any medals. The United States squad won nine medals in the twelve athletics events. Six silver medals and two bronze medals went to the Americans in athletics. Track & Road Field Events The Paine brothers contested only two events, taking the top two spots in the event in which both competed, the military pistol. Sumner was the one of the two to enter the free pistol, which he won. Waldstein was the member of the American shooting contingent, competing in the military rifle event. Williams competed in two swimming events, placing in neither, de Coubertin, Pierre, Philemon, P. J. & Anninos, C. The Olympic Games, BC776 – AD1896, results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games
28.
Germany at the 1896 Summer Olympics
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Germany competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The Germans were the third most successful nation in terms of gold medals and total medals. Gymnastics was the sport in which Germany excelled, the German team had 19 athletes. The Germans had 75 entries in 26 events, taking 13 medals, hofmanns silver medal in the 100 metres was the only medal earned by the German athletes, though they finished 4th or 5th an additional 4 times. Track and road Field Events Germanys only cycling medal came in the road race. Germany dominated the program, taking 5 of the 8 gold medals. Traun was defeated by Boland in the first round of the singles tournament, the two entered the doubles tournament as a pair, winning the gold medal in that competition as part of a mixed team, that medal is not counted for Germany. Schuhmanns lift was equal to that of the bronze medallist, schuhmann first faced Launceston Elliot, the one-handed lift weightlifting champion, defeating him fairly easily. He received a bye in the semifinals, to face Georgios Tsitas in the final match and that contest took two days, after it had been postponed on account of darkness 40 minutes into the first day. Schuhmann quickly won on the second morning, de Coubertin, Pierre, Philemon, P. J. Anninos, C. The Olympic Games, BC776 – AD1896, results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games
29.
Alajos Szokolyi
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Alajos Szokolyi was a Hungarian athlete, sports organizer, sports manager, archivist and physician. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics, winning the medal in 100 metres dash. In the same year he won the first ever edition of the Hungarian Athletics Championships in 100 yards dash. Szokolyi was born on 9 June 1871 in Rónicz, Kingdom of Hungary as the first child József Szokoly, an engineer and Emília Holub. At the age of 3, he was adopted by his childless godparents, Alajos Schőnn, Szokolyi went to grammar school in Ipolyság, subsequently he absolved the high school in Selmecbánya and Léva. He excelled with his talent already in school, having been nominated the best gymnast of the school while in fourth grade. He was also awarded in the school-year ending gymnastic competitions. In 1887 Szokolyi with his family moved from Ipolyság to their new mansion in Bernece, two years later he was enrolled at the medical faculty in Budapest. In Budapest Szokolyi immediately joined the Magyar Athletikai Club, founded in 1875, MAC was the first athletics club in continental Europe and played a pioneer role in developing sports in Hungary. Szokolyi participated in the race as well, finishing third in the 100 yards. After the initial successes his career suffered a setback as he joined the 3rd Imperial Tyrolian Rifle Regiment and remained without training. The next two years passed without significant improvements, subsequently MAC contracted John Cash, an English coach, before leaving to Athens, Szokolyi accidentally slit his sole. As it is known from Nándor Dánis travel diary, he suffered much from the injury, still, Szokolyi first competed in the 100 metres dash. He came in second in the heats, with a time of 12.75, there, Szokolyi was one of four athletes to come in at 12.6 seconds. Szokolyi and Lane are currently considered to split the bronze medal for the event by the International Olympic Committee, Szokolyi placed fourth in the triple jump, with a best effort of 11.26 metres. According to the announcement and the morning newspaper Akropolis, four qualifying heats were to be held with the respective winners progressing to the final. However, due to the absence of some contestants the athletes were combined to two heats only. Szokoly, racing in the first heat, was in lead until hitting the hurdle and stumbling, allowing Grantley Goulding to pass him
30.
Hungary at the 1896 Summer Olympics
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Hungary competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Austrian and Hungarian results at early Olympic Games are generally kept separate despite the union of the two nations as Austria-Hungary at the time, seven athletes from Hungary competed in six sports. The Hungarian medals came on 18 entries in 15 events, the Hungarian athletes were successful in each event except the 110 metre hurdles, taking a silver, two bronzes, and a 4th-place finish. Men Track & road events Field events The Hungarian gymnasts were unable to win any medals, men Tapavicza was defeated by Dionysios Kasdaglis in the semifinals of the singles tournament. Tapavicza took last place in the weightlifting competition, the amount he lifted is unknown except that it was less than 90 kilograms, the amount lifted by the third through fifth place contestants. Tapavicza lost his only wrestling match, which turned into a contest of endurance, de Coubertin, Pierre, Philemon, P. J. Anninos, C. The Olympic Games, BC776 – AD1896, results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games
31.
Herbert Jamison
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Herbert Brotherson Jamison was an American sprinter who won a silver medal in the 400 m at the 1896 Summer Olympics. His favorite event,200 m, was not yet part of the Olympics, in 1897 Jamison graduated from Princeton University and joined the family business in agriculture. Seven years later he founded an agency in his native Peoria
32.
Great Britain at the 1896 Summer Olympics
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Ten athletes from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland competed in seven sports at the 1896 Summer Olympics. The British athletes were the fifth most successful in terms of overall medals, the 7 medals came on 23 entries in 14 events. Two British tennis players played in mixed team squads, contributing to a gold. These medals are not counted as part of the British total, the British athletes took two medals and a fourth-place finish in athletics. The 100 metres and the 800 metres were the two events in which they had little success, battell and Keeping each won a medal in the cycling program, earning a 4th place and a 5th-place finish as well. Elliot finished in last place in the climbing competition. He did not make it all the way up the 14-metre rope, merlin and Machonet were unable to win any medals in the shooting events. Boland was by far the best player in the tennis competition and he defeated Traun in the first round of the singles competition, then teamed up with him for the doubles competition. Like Bolands doubles gold medal, Robertsons bronze is not counted as part of the British total because the two played on mixed teams. Elliot lifted the same amount as Viggo Jensen in the two handed lift, but was declared by Prince George of Greece to have taken place based on lifting form. In the one handed lift, he easily defeated Jensen, who lifted only 57 kilograms, elliot was defeated by eventual champion Carl Schuhmann in the first round of the wrestling competition, tying for 4th and last place. De Coubertin, Pierre, Philemon, P. J. Anninos, the Olympic Games, BC776 – AD1896. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary, the Invention of the Modern Olympic Games
33.
Australia at the 1896 Summer Olympics
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One athlete from Victoria, a British colony which later formed part of Australia, competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Edwin Flack was born in England and was resident in London in 1896, the Union Flag was used as the flag for the Australian colonies as well as Great Britain and Ireland at the 1896 Summer Olympics. Flack was the competitor from an Australian colony. He entered five events, winning medals in three, the bronze medal in tennis, however, was part of a mixed team and therefore is not counted for Australia. Both of Flacks gold medals came in the competitions as he won both of his track races. In the singles tournament, Flack lost both of the matches he competed in and his loss in the semifinals of the doubles competition, while carrying no prize at the time, earned him a retroactive bronze medal from the International Olympic Committee. This medal is counted for mixed team rather than Australia, however, de Coubertin, Pierre, Philemon, P. J. & Anninos, C. The Olympic Games, BC776 – AD1896, results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games
United States (USA)
Australia (AUS)
Greece (GRE)
Hungary (HUN)
France (FRA)
Germany (GER)
Australia (1)
Chile (1)
Denmark (3)
France (5)
Germany (5)
Greece (29)
Hungary (3)
Sweden (1)
United States (10)
