The modern Olympic Games or Olympics are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost sports competition with more than 200 teams, representing sovereign states and territories, participating. The Olympic Games are normally held every four years, and since 1994, have alternated between the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years during the four-year period.
Charles Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin, also known as Pierre de Coubertin and Baron de Coubertin, was a French educator and historian, founder of the International Olympic Committee, and its second president. He is known as the father of the modern Olympic Games. He was particularly active in promoting the introduction of sport in French schools.
The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, Greece, and the most recent Games were held in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is responsible for organising the Games and for overseeing the host city's preparations. The tradition of awarding medals began in 1904; in each Olympic event, gold medals are awarded for first place, silver medals for second place, and bronze medals for third place. The Winter Olympic Games were created out of the success of the Summer Olympic Games, which are regarded as the largest and most prestigious multi-sport international event in the world.
The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad and commonly known as Athens 1896, was the first international Olympic Games held in modern history. Organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which had been created by French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin, it was held in Athens, Greece, from 6 to 15 April 1896.
James Francis Thorpe was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States in the Olympics. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won two Olympic gold medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics. He also played football, professional baseball, and basketball.
The New York Athletic Club is a private social club and athletic club in New York state. Founded in 1868, the club has approximately 8,600 members and two facilities: the City House, located at 180 Central Park South in Manhattan, and Travers Island, located in Westchester County. Membership in the club is by invitation only.
Alvin Christian "Al" Kraenzlein was an American track-and-field athlete known as "the father of the modern hurdling technique". He was the first sportsman in the history of the Olympic games to win four individual gold medals in a single discipline at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. As of 2016, Alvin Kraenzlein is the only track-and-field athlete who has won four individual titles at one Olympics. Kraenzlein is also known for developing a pioneering technique of straight-leg hurdling, which allowed him to set two world hurdle records. He is an Olympic Hall of Fame (1984) and National Track and Field Hall of Fame (1974) inductee.
James Edward Sullivan was an American sports official of Irish descent. He was one of the founders of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) on Jan 21, 1888, serving as its secretary from 1889 until 1906 when he was elected as President of the Amateur Athletic Union from 1906 to 1909. He declined a fourth term and was re-elected to his former position as secretary-treasurer until his sudden death which followed an emergency operation. Sullivan also served as the chairman of the Greater New York Irish Athletic Association in 1903 and on the New York City Board of Education from 1908 to 1912. In 1911 he served as chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission.
The Canadian Olympic Committee is a private nonprofit organization that represents Canada at the International Olympic Committee. It is also a member of the Pan American Sports Organization.
Claflin University is a private historically black university in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Founded in 1869 after the American Civil War by northern missionaries for the education of freedmen and their children, it offers bachelor's and master's degrees.
John Brenden "Jack" Kelly Jr., also known as Kell Kelly, was an American athlete, an accomplished rower, a four-time Olympian, and an Olympic medal winner. He was the son of triple Olympic gold medal winner Jack Kelly Sr., and the elder brother of the actress and Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly. In 1947, Kelly was awarded the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. He served a brief tenure as president of the United States Olympic Committee.
A team representing Ireland as an independent state or polity has competed at the Summer Olympic Games since 1924, and at the Winter Olympic Games since 1992. The Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI) was formed in 1922 during the provisional administration prior to the formal establishment of the Irish Free State. The OFI affiliated to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in time for the Paris games.
Josiah Calvin McCracken was an American football player and track and field athlete.
Norman Armitage was an American patent lawyer, and chemical engineer who became an accomplished textile executive. He was an exceptional saber fencer who competed in six Olympics from 1928-56 and won a bronze Team medal in Sabre in the 1948 London Olympics. Considered one of the greatest sabremen ever produced in America because of his long reign in the sport, after 1930 he was the American Sabre Champion ten times indoors and seven times outdoors, taking an unprecedented seventeen titles in sixteen years.
Byron Lester Krieger was an American foil, sabre and épée fencer. Krieger represented the United States in the Olympics in 1952 in Helsinki and 1956 in Melbourne, and in the 1951 Pan American Games where he won two gold medals.
Michael Charles Murphy was an American athletic trainer and coach at Yale University, Detroit Athletic Club (1889–1892), University of Michigan (1891), Villanova University (1894), University of Pennsylvania, and the New York Athletic Club (1890–1900). He coached the American track athletes at the Summer Olympics in 1900, 1908, and 1912. He spent a year in approximately 1884 as the trainer of heavyweight boxing champion John L. Sullivan.
Cyrus Chace Miller was the third Borough President of The Bronx, and an American lacrosse player. He played college lacrosse as an undergraduate at New York University and served as the team captain. Miller later played with the amateur organizations, the Staten Island Athletic Club and the Crescent Athletic Club. He also coached the Columbia University team for several years.
Alfred John Lill Jr. was the president of the Amateur Athletic Union and a member of the United States Olympic Committee for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany.
John Howard Crocker was a Canadian educator and sports executive. He began teaching physical education at the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in his hometown of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, then graduated from the International YMCA Training School, and introduced basketball to Nova Scotia at Amherst. He won the 1896 and 1897 Canadian pentathlon championships, then graduated from University of New Brunswick. After serving in Halifax, he was the physical education director for the Toronto Central YMCA, where he established the YMCA Athletic League. He introduced lifesaving courses to the curriculum by 1903, and was a charter member of the Ontario branch of the Royal Life Saving Society Canada in 1908. As the general secretary of the Brantford YMCA, he helped design and raise funds for a larger building to meet growing membership. He served the YMCA in China from 1911 to 1917, oversaw construction of a new building in Shanghai, and the city's first major sports stadium. He introduced volleyball to China in 1912, then helped establish the Far Eastern Championship Games in 1913. He later served as secretary of the Chinese Olympic Committee, and led a national physical education program with support of the Chinese government. Based in Winnipeg, he implemented YMCA programs despite World War I austerity measures. As secretary for physical education in Canada from 1921 to 1930, his physical education programs sought to produce a whole man, rather than an athlete. He retired from the YMCA after serving as president of the North American Physical Education Society from 1928 to 1930, remaining a lifetime advisor to the YMCA.
