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 Did you know?
- Only the first and second winners were awarded in the Olympic Games of Athens. The prizes were a diploma, a silver medal and an olive wreath from Olympia for the first winner and a diploma, a bronze medal and a laurel wreath for the second winner. The rest of the athletes that had taken part in the organization were awarded commemorative medals as a token of honour for their participation. The winners' medals had been engraved by the French sculptor Jules Chaplain and the commemorative medal by the Greek painter and engraver Nikephoros Lytras. Nikolaos Gyzis, a Greek as well, had created the diplomas that were awarded to the winners.
- The American jumper James Connolly is considered the first Olympic winner in the history of the modern Olympic Games. He won the triple jump, the final of which took place right after the opening ceremony of the Games. However, the first athletic events that took place before the triple jump final were the three preliminaries of the 100m race.
- During the ten days that the Olympic Games had lasted many fine cultural events took place. Ancient drama performances were put on stage ("Medea", "Antigone") and concerts, literary evenings and torch relays were organized.
- The marathon race was inspired by the French scholar Michel Breal, who had even offered a special prize to the winner of the race. No similar event existed in antiquity, seeing that, according to the historical sources, the longest distance in a long-course race in Olympia was the dolichos (4,500m approximately). Breal got the inspiration for the marathon from the tradition of the strenuous effort of the Athenian soldier Pheidippides, who ran from Marathon to the Athenian agora to announce to his fellow citizens the victory against the Persians.
- The observers of the first Olympic Games of Athens attributed the absence of outstanding performances by the participant athletes (always taking into account the circumstances of that time) to many and various factors. The most important ones were the hasty carrying out of the Games during a winter month, a fact which did not allow of an adequate preparation, the narrow field of the Panathenaic Stadium, as well as the long and exhausting journey of the American athletes, who were the most likely candidates to achieve world records due to the sports infrastructure that their country had at that time.
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