Major Contributors to the Revival of the Games 

cctv.com 07-16-2004 10:42

Evangelos Zappas, (1800-1865), a wealthy Greek landowner living in Bucharest, was deeply touched by an article written by the Greek poet Alexandros Soutsos that called for the revival of the Games. Zappas decided to propagate Soutsos' idea and, well before the 1896 Games, financed the Zappian Olympic Games, a mixed competition of agricultural, industrial and athletic events.

Demetrios Vikelas, (1835-1908), a Greek intellectual living in London, attended the International Athletic Congress in Paris, in 1894, as a member of the Panhellenic Gymnastic Society in Athens. He suggested that Athens should be the site of the first modern Olympic Games and managed to alter the pre-agreed staging of the Games in Paris in 1900. He later became the first President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Editor:Wang  Source:CCTV.com