Greece at the 1896 Summer Olympics
| Greece at the 1896 Summer Olympics | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| IOC code | GRE | ||||||||
| NOC | Hellenic Olympic Committee | ||||||||
| Website |
www | ||||||||
| in Athens | |||||||||
| Competitors | 169 in 9 sports | ||||||||
| Medals Ranked 2nd |
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| Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |||||||||
| Other related appearances | |||||||||
| 1906 Intercalated Games | |||||||||
Greece was the host nation of the 1896 Summer Olympics held in Athens. The number of Greek contestants is commonly cited as 169, but as many as 176 Greeks[1] contested events in all nine sports. The Greeks were by far the most successful nation in terms of total medals with 46, 26 more than the United States of America. Nevertheless, their number of first-place finishes (10) was one fewer than the Americans' 11. The Greeks had 172 entries in 39 events. Only 4 events had no Greek entrants—the 400 metres and the high jump in athletics and the vault and the team horizontal bar in gymnastics.
Medalists
Results by event
Athletics
The Greeks entered every event on the athletics program save the 400 metres and the high jump. They took 1 gold, 3 silver, and 6 bronze medals in the sport. It was initially thought that the Greek team had swept the top three places of the marathon event, until it was discovered that Spiridon Belokas had covered part of the distance by cart and was disqualified.
| Event | Place | Athlete | Heat | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 metres | 5th | Alexandros Chalkokondylis | 12.75 seconds | 12.6 seconds |
| – | Georgios Gennimatas | Unknown | Did not advance | |
| 800 metres | 3rd | Dimitrios Golemis | 2:16.8 | 2:28.0 |
| – | Angelos Fetsis | Unknown | Did not advance | |
| Dimitrios Tomprof | Unknown | |||
| 1500 metres | 5th | Angelos Fetsis | No heats | Unknown |
| 6th | Dimitrios Golemis | Unknown | ||
| – | Konstantinos Karakatsanis | Unknown | ||
| Dimitrios Tomprof | Unknown | |||
| 110 metre hurdles | – | Athanasios Skaltsogiannis | Unknown | Did not advance |
| Anastasios Andreou | Unknown | |||
| Marathon | 1st | Spiridon Louis | No heats | 2:58.50 |
| 2nd | Charilaos Vasilakos | 3:06:03 | ||
| 4th | Ioannis Vrettos | Unknown | ||
| 5th | Eleftherios Papasymeon | Unknown | ||
| 6th | Dimitrios Deligiannis | Unknown | ||
| 7th | Evangelos Gerakeris | Unknown | ||
| 8th | Stamatios Masouris | Unknown | ||
| – | Ioannis Lavrentis | Did not finish | ||
| Georgios Grigoriou | Did not finish | |||
| Ilias Kafetzis | Did not finish | |||
| Dimitrios Christopoulos | Did not finish | |||
| Spyridon Belokas | Disqualified | |||
| Event | Place | Athlete | Best mark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long jump | 4th | Alexandros Chalkokondylis | 5.74 metres |
| – | Athanasios Skaltsogiannis | Unknown | |
| Triple jump | 3rd | Ioannis Persakis | 12.52 metres |
| – | Christos Zoumis | Unknown | |
| Pole vault | 3rd | Evangelos Damaskos | 2.60 metres |
| Ioannis Theodoropoulos | 2.60 metres | ||
| 5th | Vasilios Xydas | 2.40 metres | |
| Shot put | 2nd | Miltiadis Gouskos | 11.03 metres |
| 3rd | Georgios Papasideris | 10.36 metres | |
| Discus throw | 2nd | Panagiotis Paraskevopoulos | 28.95 metres |
| 3rd | Sotirios Versis | 27.78 metres | |
| – | Georgios Papasideris | Unknown | |
Cycling
Greece had entries in all six cycling events, winning one and taking second place in three more.
| Event | Place | Cyclist | Time/Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 333 metres | 2nd | Stamatios Nikolopoulos | 26.0 seconds |
| 2 kilometres | 2nd | Stamatios Nikolopoulos | 5:00.2 |
| 10 kilometres | 5th | Aristidis Konstantinidis | Unknown |
| – | Georgios Kolettis | Did not finish | |
| 100 kilometres | 2nd | Georgios Kolettis | Unknown |
| – | Aristidis Konstantinidis | Did not finish | |
| 12-hour race | – | Georgios Paraskevopoulos | Did not finish |
| Nikos Loverdos | Did not finish | ||
| A. Tryfiatis-Tripiaris | Did not finish | ||
| Konstantinos Konstantinou | Did not finish | ||
| Road race | 1st | Aristidis Konstantinidis | 3:22:31 |
| – | Georgios Aspiotis | Unknown | |
| Miltiades Iatrou | Unknown | ||
| Konstantinos Konstantinou | Unknown | ||
| Georgios Paraskevopoulos | Unknown | ||
Fencing
Greek fencers won the top two places in the sabre competition, third place in the amateur foil competition, and in a major upset, Pyrgos defeated Joanni Perronet in the sole match of the masters foil event.
| Event | Place | Fencer | Record | Touches | Round-robin | Final | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins | Losses | For | Against | |||||
| Foil | 3rd | Periklis Pierrakos-Mavromichalis | 2 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 2nd Group A | Did not advance |
| 4th | Athanasios Vouros | 2 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 2nd Group B | Did not advance | |
| 5th | Konstantinos Komninos-Miliotis | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 3rd Group B | Did not advance | |
| 7th | Georgios Balakakis | 0 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 4th Group B | Did not advance | |
| Ioannis Poulos | 0 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 4th Group A | Did not advance | ||
| Masters foil | 1st | Leonidas Pyrgos | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | None held | Won 3-1 |
| Sabre | 1st | Ioannis Georgiadis | 4 | 0 | 12 | 6 | 1st | None held |
| 2nd | Tilemachos Karakalos | 3 | 1 | 11 | 5 | 2nd | None held | |
| 5th | Georgios Iatridis | 0 | 4 | 3 | 12 | 5th | None held | |
| Opponent nation | Wins | Losses | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 2 | 1 | .667 |
| Denmark | 2 | 1 | .667 |
| France | 2 | 6 | .250 |
| Total international | 6 | 8 | .429 |
| Greece | 7 | 7 | .500 |
| Total | 13 | 15 | .464 |
Gymnastics
The names of the members of the two teams that competed in the team events are, for the most part, unknown. The vault and the team horizontal bar were two of the four events (the other two in the athletics program) that had no Greek entrants. The Greeks took two of each color medal, with two medals in each of the rope climbing (gold and silver), rings (gold and bronze), and team parallel bars (silver and bronze) competitions.
| Event | Place | Gymnast |
|---|---|---|
| Parallel bars | – | Filippos Karvelas |
| Ioannis Mitropoulos | ||
| Antonios Papagiannou | ||
| Horizontal bar | – | Antonios Papagiannou |
| Leonidas Tsiklitiras | ||
| Pommel horse | – | Aristovoulos Petmezas |
| Rings | 1st | Ioannis Mitropoulos |
| 3rd | Petros Persakis | |
| Event | Place | Gymnast | Height |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rope climbing | 1st | Nikolaos Andriakopoulos | 14.0 metres |
| 2nd | Thomas Xenakis | 14.0 metres | |
| Event | Place | Team |
|---|---|---|
| Team parallel bars | 2nd | Panellinios Gymnastikos Syllogos |
| 3rd | Ethnikos Gymnastikos Syllogos | |
Shooting
Greek shooters dominated the two rifle events and the rapid fire pistol competition, but were largely unable to compete with the Paine brothers of the United States in the pistol events that the two brothers entered.
| Event | Place | Shooter | Score | Hits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Military rifle | 1st | Pantelis Karasevdas | 2350 | 40 |
| 2nd | Pavlos Pavlidis | 1978 | 38 | |
| 3rd | Nicolaos Trikupis | 1713 | 34 | |
| 4th | Anastasios Metaxas | 1701 | Unknown | |
| 5th | Georgios Orphanidis | 1698 | Unknown | |
| 7th | Georgios Diamantis | 1456 | Unknown | |
| 9th | Ioannis Theofilakis | 1261 | Unknown | |
| 11th | Alexios Fetsios | 894 | Unknown | |
| 12th | Spiridon Stais | 845 | Unknown | |
| – | Aristovoulos Petmezas | Unknown | ||
| G. Karagiannopoulos | Unknown | |||
| 22 others, names unknown | Unknown | |||
| Free rifle | 1st | Georgios Orphanidis | 1583 | 37 |
| 2nd | Ioannis Frangoudis | 1312 | 31 | |
| 4th | Anastasios Metaxas | 1102 | Unknown | |
| 5th | Pantelis Karasevdas | 1039 | Unknown | |
| – | Antelothanasis | Unknown | ||
| Georgios Diamantis | Unknown | |||
| Alexios Fetsios | Unknown | |||
| Karakatsanis | Unknown | |||
| Hatzidakis | Unknown | |||
| Nikolaos Levidis | Unknown | |||
| Zenon Mikhailidis | Unknown | |||
| Moustakopoulos | Unknown | |||
| Pavlos Pavlidis | Unknown | |||
| Alexandros Theofilakis | Unknown | |||
| Ioannis Theofilakis | Unknown | |||
| Nikolaos Trikupis | Unknown | |||
| – | Leonidas Langakis | Did not finish | ||
| Ioannis Vourakis | Did not finish | |||
| Military pistol | 3rd | Nikolaos Morakis | 205 | Unknown |
| 4th | Ioannis Frangoudis | Unknown | ||
| – | Zenon Mikhailidis | Unknown | ||
| Georgios Orphanidis | Unknown | |||
| Pantazidis | Unknown | |||
| Patsouris | Unknown | |||
| Pavlos Pavlidis | Unknown | |||
| Aristovoulos Petmezas | Unknown | |||
| Platis | Unknown | |||
| Vavis | Unknown | |||
| – | Pantelis Karasevdas | Did not finish | ||
| Sanidis | Did not finish | |||
| Rapid fire pistol | 1st | Ioannis Frangoudis | 344 | 23 |
| 2nd | Georgios Orphanidis | 249 | 20 | |
| Free pistol | 3rd | Ioannis Frangoudis | Unknown | |
| 4th | Leonidas Morakis | Unknown | ||
| 5th | Georgios Orphanidis | Unknown | ||
Swimming
Some of the Greek swimmers' names were not recorded. Greece's only swimming gold medal came in an event in which only Greek swimmers were allowed to compete, as did a silver and a bronze. In the three open events, the Greeks took two silvers and two bronzes, all in the two longer races.
| Event | Place | Swimmer | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 metre freestyle | – | Georgios Anninos | Unknown |
| Efstathios Chorafas | Unknown | ||
| Alexandros Khrisafos | Unknown | ||
| Four others, names unknown | Unknown | ||
| 500 metre freestyle | 2nd | Antonios Pepanos | 9:57.6 |
| 3rd | Efstathios Chorafas | Unknown | |
| 1200 metre freestyle | 2nd | Ioannis Andreou | 21:03.4 |
| 3rd | Efstathios Chorafas | Unknown | |
| – | N. Kartavas | Unknown | |
| Three others, names unknown | Unknown | ||
| 100 metres, sailors | 1st | Ioannis Malokinis | 2:20.4 |
| 2nd | Spiridon Chasapis | Unknown | |
| 3rd | Dimitrios Drivas | Unknown | |
Tennis
Greece earned a silver medal and a bronze medal in the singles tournament. Kasdaglis and Petrokokkinos competed as a mixed team, winning another silver which is not counted in the Greek total.
| Event | Place | Player(s) | Round 1 | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singles | 2nd | Dionysios Kasdaglis | Won | Won | Won | Lost |
| 3rd | Konstantinos Paspatis | Won | Won | Lost | Did not advance | |
| 5th | Aristidis Akratopoulos | Won | Lost | Did not advance | ||
| Konstantinos Akratopoulos | Won Walkover | Lost | ||||
| Evangelos Rallis | Won | Lost | ||||
| 8th | D. Frangopoulos | Lost | Did not advance | |||
| Demetrios Petrokokkinos | Lost | |||||
| Doubles | 2nd | Dionysios Kasdaglis Demetrios Petrokokkinos | None held | Won | Won | Lost |
| 4th | Aristidis Akratopoulos Konstantinos Akratopoulos | Lost | Did not advance | |||
| Konstantinos Paspatis Evangelos Rallis | Lost | |||||
| Opponent nation | Wins | Losses | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
 Australia | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
 France | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
.svg.png){kind=small} Hungary | 1 | 1 | .500 |
| Great Britain | 1 | 3 | .250 |
 Mixed team | 1 | 3 | .250 |
| Total international | 5 | 7 | .417 |
| Greece | 4 | 3 | .571 |
| Total | 9 | 10 | .474 |
Weightlifting
In the one handed event, weightlifters had to lift with each hand successively. Nikolopoulos was able to list 57 kilograms with one hand, but only 40 kilograms with the other. He was judged to have come in third place in the event between the silver medallist Viggo Jensen who had lifted 57 with each hand and 4th-place finisher Versis who had lifted 40 with each, but had not been able to lift 57 with either.
Lifting form was used to break ties in the two handed competition.
| Event | Place | Weightlifter | Best lift |
|---|---|---|---|
| One handed | 3rd | Alexandros Nikolopoulos | 57.0 kilograms 40.0 kilograms |
| 4th | Sotirios Versis | 40.0 kilograms | |
| Two handed | 3rd | Sotirios Versis | 90.0 kilograms |
| 4th | Georgios Papasideris | 90.0 kilograms | |
Wrestling
Christopoulos won a battle of endurance against Momcsilló Tapavicza in the quarterfinals of the wrestling tournament. He then had to face Tsitas, who had received a bye in that round. Tsitas won, giving Christopoulos the bronze medal and a shoulder injury. Tsitas then faced Carl Schuhmann in the final. Schuhmann, having had a bye in the semifinals, took two days to defeat Tsitas, the match having to be postponed on account of darkness at the end of 40 minutes in the first day.
| Event | Place | Wrestler | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greco-Roman | 2nd | Georgios Tsitas | Bye | Won | Lost |
| 3rd | Stephanos Christopoulos | Won | Lost | Did not advance | |
| Opponent nation | Wins | Losses | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 0 | 1 | .000 |
| Hungary | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Total international | 1 | 1 | .500 |
| Greece | 1 | 1 | .500 |
| Total | 2 | 2 | .500 |
Notes
- ↑ The names of 103 competitors are known. Up to 7 unknown swimmers, 22 unknown shooters, and 44 unknown gymnasts competed for a total of 176. Most historians reduce the number of swimmers to 6 unknowns, saying that two of the entries were by the same swimmer, as well as noting that the 104 known competitors include three gymnasts who probably were among the 44 unnamed competitors in the team event. These two changes reduce the total competitors to 172. A comparison of Mallon's tables of multiple-event athletes indicates that he believes 3 of the unknown gymnasts also competed in other sports, reducing the number further to 169, which is the number he uses for Greece, Smyrna and Cyprus.
References
- Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J.; Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at )
- Mallon, Bill; Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0379-9. (Excerpt available at )
- Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.