Konstantinos Manos
Konstantinos Manos was born in 1869 in Athens and came from an eminent family of military officers from Fanari. His father Thrasyvoulos settled in Athens in 1835 and studied in the Army Academy. In 1866 he participated as volunteer in the uprising of Crete. In mid-1890s he was major general, commander of the Army Academy and member of the secret organization National Society, a founding member of which was his other son, Peter, who was also an officer. At the same time, Thrasyvoulos Manos was one of the members of the Committee for the preparation of the first modern Olympic Games (COG). Konstantinos Manos was a member of the committee as well.
Konstantinos Manos took up sport during his studies (political sciences, philosophy, philology) in universities with an organized sports activity, like Oxford. Although he lived in Europe, it seems that he participated in the processes for the formation of the Greek sports institutions. A characteristic example is that he wrote the verses for the anthem of the Panhellenic Gymnastic Society, which was presented for the first time during the games organized by the above association in 1893. The music was composed by Spyros Samaras, who later composed the Olympic Anthem. At that time Manos was one of the most popular poets of the Athenian society, seeing that the poetic collection that he published in 1890 entitled Words of the Heart won awards and very good critiques.
In the mid-1890s Konstantinos Manos quitted his profession as teacher of Greek to the empress of Austria-Hungary, Elisabeth, proposing Konstantinos Chrysomanos to be his substitute, and settled in Greece. The cause of his return was the organization of the Olympic Games and his participation in the organizing committee for the first Games of 1896. He travelled to European countries, especially England, so as to be informed about the organization of sports games. During his "educational" trips he had the opportunity to see the differences in the training systems, the sports etc. in relation to the prevailing views in Greece. So, upon his return he became an adherent of the modernization of Greek sport. For Manos, that signified the removal of gymnastics from training in athletics, as well as the specialization of the athletes in specific contests, so as to improve their performances and hence their potentials for victory. He even tried to implement these ideas by founding the Athenian Sports Club in 1895. The association was dissolved right after the Games and Manos went to Crete fighting as a volunteer for the union of Crete with Greece.
His position in the Organizing Committee for the Games and especially the power he had acquired by assuming the responsibility for the technical issues (sports, athletics, etc.) allowed him to put forth a series of improving proposals, such as the employment of an expert for the construction of the track of the Panathenaic Stadium. Charles Perry, an expert engineer and timekeeper and amateur trainer in athletics, was employed for that reason. What is more, he was the official timekeeper of the 1896 Olympics, and had also helped in the preparation of the athletes of the Athenian Sports Club for the Games. At the same time, he wrote one of the first sports manuals in Greek, entitled A Rough Guide for the Preparation of Athletes (1894), which was a translation of extracts from a French book.
The views of Manos and the leading role he had played in the period 1894-1896, which was critical for Greek sport, brought him at variance with Ioannis Fokianos and Ioannis Chrysafis. The public confrontation of the three men through articles in newspapers of that time featured two different views: on the one hand (Manos) track and field events, specialized training without gymnastic exercises, recording of performances and systematic training with a view to victory and on the other hand (Chrysafis, Fokianos) priority to the psychophysical dimension of sport, to gymnastics and exercises, indifference to recording and improving the performances.
This confrontation was interrupted right after the Games of 1896. At that time the famous National Society, among the members of which were Manos' brother Peter and his father Thrasyvoulos, prepared armed insurrections in Macedonia and Epirus, applied pressure on the Greek government to declare war and at the same time was in contact with revolutionary nuclei in Crete. Konstantinos Manos was also there fighting in several battles. At the same time his father headed the army of Epirus, during the "unfortunate" Greek-Ottoman war of 1897. The same year he published one more book. This time it was neither poetry nor a sports manual. It was the Schediasma tis Grammatikis tis Koinis Dimotikis (A draft of the grammar of the Demotic Greek language). Manos was along with Psycharis one of the most eminent supporters of the Demotic. Later, when he was deputy, he supported these views of his.
The uprising in Crete led to the independence of the island (1897). In 1901 Manos was appointed mayor of Chania. At the same time he was elected member of the restructured COG, a position which he maintained until 1904, when he was replaced due to his absence from the meetings. After his second term of office as mayor of Chania (1903) he left Crete and went to Macedonia, where he headed the "undeclared war" in West Macedonia using the name Michailidis. In another region of Macedonia acted his brother Peter under the name captain Vergos. Manos was arrested by the Ottoman authorities, but was set free and returned to Crete. There, in 1905, Eleftherios Venizelos, Konstantinos Foumis and himself constituted the leadership of the Therissos uprising, which led to the incorporation of Crete into the territory of the Greek State. In 1906 he was elected deputy of Chania, in 1907 he was designated president of the "Macedonian Committee of Athens" and in 1910 he was reelected deputy. He fought voluntarily in the Balkan Wars, organizing a campaign corps of his own, which contributed actively to the taking of Preveza. He was killed in 1913 in a crash. The aircraft, on which he was aboard, was on a surveillance flight over the Bulgarian positions in the region of Lagkadas.
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