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HOC and SEGAS
The history of the Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) began in November 1894, when on the initiative of Pierre de Coubertin the first attempt was  made with a view to creating a committee for the organization of the first modern Olympic Games. It seems that during its first meeting doubts were expressed as to the possibility to gather the money that the organization required. Besides, these doubts reflected to a certain extent the bad economic situation of the country (bankruptcy 1893) and the initial unwillingness of the government of Ch. Trikoupis to provide the necessary resources. Certain members even quitted and very soon it became obvious that the committee had been dissolved perforce. About a month later, in January 1895, a new committee was created. The initiative for its formation belonged to the royal family, which had expressed from the very beginning its interest in the success of the Games. Therefore, the heir to the Greek throne was appointed president of the Committee and was assisted by men, such as Timoleon Filimon, Thrasyvoulos and Konstantinos Manos, Pavlos Skouzes.
The committee continued to operate after the Games and three years later, in 1899, by virtue of law Â×ÊÁ' (on gymnastics) it was vested with a legislative framework of operation and with determined duties. The name Committee for the Olympic Games suggests the initial aim of its constitution (organization of the Games of 1896) and was maintained until 2000, when its name changed to "Hellenic Olympic Committee", conforming to the name-giving practices of the International Olympic Committee. Law Â×ÊÁ', which is considered one of the constitutional laws relating to the formation of Greek sport, stipulated among other things the participation of the Committee to the organization of the Panhellenic Games together with the SEAGS. By virtue of the said law, in 1901 there was a rearrangement in the hierarchy of the COG and Spyridon Lampros was nominated secretary general, a position which he had held until 1917.
The creation of the COG was the result of an unexpected and imperative need that arose due to the entrustment of the first modern Olympic Games to Greece. The foundation of the Greek Association of Amateur Athletics (SEAGS) corresponded to other types of processes that were naturally accelerated due to the organization of the Games. More specifically, it was the result of the foundation of sports associations in Athens and elsewhere and of the organization of games on the initiative of those associations as early as from the beginning of the 1890s and especially after 1894. Therefore, in February 1895 on the initiative of the Panacha•kos Gymnastic Association was held in Patras a meeting among representatives of five associations (the other four were the Panhellenic Gymnastic Society, the Ethnikos, the Panaitolikos and the Gymnastic Society of Patras). During this meeting were discussed the need to organized joint preliminary games for the formation of the Olympic team and an agreement was signed for the creation of a higher institutional body, an association or a federation.
The initiative for the materialization of this decision was finally taken right after the Games by Spyridon Lampros, as president of the Panhellenic Gymnastic Society. More precisely, in October 1896 he sent an invitation relating thereto to more than 50 associations (37 of which had been created in 1896, but were stillborn) that were apparently operative at that time in various cities in and outside of Greece. Two months later he prepared the proposed statute and in January 1897 a sports congress was held with the participation of 28 associations. 5 of them were from Athens and Piraeus, 20 from different cities of the Greek province (Patras, Agrinio, Corfu, Kalamata etc.) and 3 more associations were active outside the boundaries of the Greek State: the Gymnasium from Smyrna, the Gymnastic Association Olympia from Limassol and the Gymnastic Association Pagkypria from Nicosia. It should be noted that 11 out of the 28 associations that were the founding members of the SEAGS are still operative.
Spyridon Lampros was elected first president of the SEAGS and remained in this position until 1906. The duties of the SEAGS included the organization of a panhellenic championship, the registering of statistical data and results and the institution of an award for the most victorious association, which was designated as such by the distinctions firstly in athletics and secondly in gymnastics. This distinction reflects the shift of the associations' interest from gymnastics to athletics. Nevertheless, during the first years of its constitution the SEAGS covered all sports, whereas in the first organizations of Panhellenic Games, apart from athletics and gymnastics, the programme included also wrestling and weightlifting contests and other events. Gradually the SEAGS began to organize separate championships for every sport. During the interwar period the first independent federations for each sport were founded. In 1928 the SEAGS changed its name to SEGAS and bears it to date.
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