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 47, 27 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.
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.
Group of French and Greek fencers at 1896 Summer Olympics
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.
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.
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.
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 one bronze, all in the two longer races.
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.
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 after Christopoulos retired due to a shoulder injury; Christopoulous received the bronze medal. Tsitas then faced Carl Schuhmann in the final. Schuhmann, having had a bye in the semifinals, took 55 minutes over two days to defeat Tsitas, the match having to be postponed on account of darkness after 40 minutes on the first day.
↑ 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.
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 )
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