Olympic Games: participation and distinctions
Greece and Australia are the only countries that have participated in all the Olympic organizations since 1896. What is more, in the first modern Olympic Games the Greek athletes constituted the overwhelming majority of the participants. That first Greek Olympic team was to be not only the largest in the Greek Olympic history, but also the one with the biggest harvest of medals. More specifically, there were 10 first victories, 19 second and 17 third, that is more than all the victories won in all the following organizations until the 2000 Sydney Games.
5 athletes took part in the 1900 Paris Games, without gaining any distinction. That was the smallest Greek delegation in the history of the Games and the first from the 9 organizations altogether that not one Greek athlete managed to be among the first three winners. What is more, of those 9 organizations, 6 were consecutive: Paris (1924), Amsterdam (1928), Los Angeles (1932), Berlin (1936), London (1948) and Helsinki (1952). If we add to the above the two organizations that were cancelled due to World War II, that means that 32 years elapsed and many generations of Greek athletes passed without winning any Olympic medal. The other two organizations in which Greece was not included in the medal lists by country was in 1964 in Rome and in 1976 in Montreal.
The year 1992 (Barcelona) marks the turning point with regard to the presence of Greek sport in the Olympic Games. More than 70 athletes took part in those Games, this being the largest participation since the first Olympics. In Barcelona the Greek team won two gold medals: one in weightlifting (Pyrros Dimas) and one in athletics (Voula Patoulidou). In 1996 the number of athletes rose to 120 and the medals won were 8 (4 gold), whereas in the Games of 2000 participated 155 athletes winning 13 medals, 4 of which were gold.
The table below shows the evolution in the participation of Greek athletes in the Olympic Games and the medals won.
Year City Athletes Medals (gold, silver, bronze) 1896 Athens 230 46 (10, 19, 17) 1900 Paris 5 0 1904 Saint Louis 14 2 (1, 0, 1) 1908 London 20 4 (0, 3, 1) 1912 Stockholm 29 2 (1, 0, 1) 1916 Cancelled - - 1920 Antwerp 52 1 (0, 1, 0) 1924 Paris 37 0 1928 Amsterdam 26 0 1932 Los Angeles 10 0 1936 Berlin 41 0 1940 Cancelled - - 1944 Cancelled - - 1948 London 56 0 1952 Helsinki 48 0 1956 Melbourne 13 1 (0, 0, 1) 1960 Tokyo 48 1 (1, 0, 0) 1964 Rome 18 0 1968 Mexico 44 1 (0, 0, 1) 1972 Munich 59 2 (0, 2, 0) 1976 Montreal 36 0 1980 Moscow 41 3 (1, 0, 2) 1984 Los Angeles 61 2 (0, 1, 1) 1988 Seoul 58 1 (0, 0, 1) 1992 Barcelona 72 2 (2, 0, 0) 1996 Atlanta 121 8 (4, 4, 0) 2000 Sydney 155 13 (4, 6, 3)
Source: HOC

 

The Olympic Games in Antiquity:
From ancient Olympia to Athens of 1896