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Society
In the spring of 1896 in Athens, 230 athletes from Greece and another 90 approximately from twelve countries, European in their majority, all men, participated in the first modern Olympic Games.  The difference between them and the Games of today is obvious, seeing that more than 10,000 athletes participated in the 2000 Olympics (about 40 % were women) coming from 200 different countries.
This development, which spans the 20th century, a century of radical worldwide changes in the social and political organization, is associated with the constantly increasing significance of sport, as an activity and as a spectacle, in modern societies. Therefore, on the basis of the organizational structures that were developed by the IOC, and through the Olympic Games, an international sports network was created, which produced a decisive effect on the development of the sports institutions and mechanisms of each country. What is more, the Olympic Games and the worldwide network that was developed around the IOC constituted the "model" for the development of similar activities at international level by population groups with special characteristics, as for example the Paralympic Games and the Special Olympics.
The phenomenal expansion and the internationalization of the Games during the 20th century has not always been a frictionless process. The participation of women and the extent of this development have constituted points of disagreements, confrontations and conflicts among the IOC, the sports federations and women's organizations, especially in the 1920s and the 1930s. At the same time, the scouts and the army were the main groups that offered their service to the organization of the Olympic Games. However, the 1980s, especially after the Los Angeles Olympics (1984) marked the development of a new phenomenon, the Olympic volunteers. Therefore, the successful organization of the Olympic Games constitutes for each country an affair that requires not only resources, sports and other infrastructures, but also the mobilization of the whole of the society.
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