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Games the winners, headed by Spyros Louis, paraded spontaneously around the Panathinaikon
Stadium - the first "Olympic Parade". "The neutral ground of Athens,
full of common memories, made it easier than anywhere else for the competitors to
be reconciled with each other," claimed Sloane. As for Spyros Louis, he personified
in the eyes of both Greek and foreign people the "Greek" described by the Hungarian
athlete - the one who conveyed a message to peoples: "Forget your disputes.
The barbarians have been defeated".
Already in the First Olympic Games the relationship between sports contests and
music was well established. The Games opened and closed with the Olympic Anthem
written by C. Palamas and set to music by S. Samaras and eventually adopted
by the Olympic Movement as the official Olympic Anthem, but the Greek national
anthem was also played at the ceremonies. It was a ritual that has been retained to
date. Especially as far as the Olympic Anthem is concerned, it brought about an explosion
of worship for classical Greece by stirring deep emotion and great enthusiasm;
which is why it was played for a second time, as we said above. There were
also various other pieces of music played by the bands during the intervals. In the
Games of 1896, the flag of each winner's country would be raised and the band
would "salute" it by playing some anthem (not necessarily the national anthem) of
that country; it was only with Louis's victory that the national anthem was played.
One other element worthy of mention is the torch processions. In addition to
their classical connotations, since they were held partly in order to commemorate
the torch relays of the ancient Panathenean feasts, they also had a symbolic character;
for Greeks, fire is a symbol of renascence and catharsis.
The Olympic Games of 1896 but also of 1906 were a model for subsequent
Olympiads, in terms of purely organizational aspects but also in terms of the ceremonies
and the various cultural and social events. These Games also initiated the
huge interest that was to be developed in commemorative books, stamps and medals
and the development of folk art around the Games as well as the attraction this
athletic institution has had for artists and writers.
Finally, mention should also be made of the great contribution of the protagonists
in the success of the first International Olympic Games, which set the foundations
for their subsequent development: Demetrios Vikelas, first president of the International
Olympic Committee; Pierre de Coubertin, secretary-general of the IOC;
Crown Prince Constantine, president of the Olympic Games Committee; Timoleon
Philemon, secretary-general of the organizing committee for the Greek Games.
Once can assert with certainty that the Athens Olympics of 1896 and 1906 secured
the future of the Olympic Movement, especially in view of the failure of the
Games in Paris (1900) and St Louis (1904).
Expressing his own personal feelings about the Athens Olympics, Coubertin
wrote: "The honour of competing and the hope that you will be crowned a winner
in Athens, at the foot of the Acropolis; the joy of admiring this clear atmosphere,
those horizons which nature and history have invested with double grandeur; the visit
to these valleys and plains the secrets of which have been revealed by science
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