Athletics at the 1896 Winter Olympics in Athens

Most of the competitions were held at a newly rebuild stadium that in its architecture only differed little from antiquitys Olympic stadium. The running course consisted of two long stretches connected by a sharp curve. The stadium could hold around 70.000 people and competitions were generally watched by many spectators.

Athletics at the olympics in 1896 can in no way be compared with the athletics of later summer games. It was rather coincidental who participated and many of the competitors would take the task ahead of them very relaxed. 67 athletes started in a total of 12 events. 30 of them were Greeks but there were also participants from USA, France, Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Sweden and Chile.

USA was the dominating nation and the Americans won 9 of the 12 events. Australia won 2 gold medals and Greece the last gold. 4 athletes became double gold winners: Thomas Burke, USA, won the 100 m and 400 m; Edwin Flack, AUS, won the 800 m and the 1500 m; Ellery Clark, USA, won high jump and long jump; and Robert Garrett, USA, won both the shot put and the discos.

The host nations only gold medal raised a lot of joy among the spectators and it was also considered to be the most important event by many Greeks. The gold was won by Spiridon Louis in the marathon race, which was placed in the Olympic programme in memory of the runner, Pheidippides, who in the year 490 BC ran a little more than 40 km from the Marathon plateau to Athens to announce the Greek victory over the Persian invasion forces.

The triple jump final was the first final among all the event finals in Athens 1896. American James Brendan Conolly thereby became the first Olympic champion after the resurrection of the games after a 1500 year gap in Olympic competitions.