The first Olympic Games of the modern era were staged in Athens, Greece from 6 to 15 April 1896. The driving force behind their revival was Pierre de Fredi, Baron de Coubertin, who was born in Paris in 1863. He believed in the Greek athletic ideal of perfection of mind and body, and his energies were devoted to achieving his dream of reintroducing the Olympic Games, which had been staged for more than a thousand years before their prohibition in AD 394.
In 1889 de Courertin was commissioned by the French government to form a universal sports association and he visited other European nations to gather information. He made public his views on 25 November 1892 at the Sorbonne in Paris. These led to the formation of the International Olympic Committe in 1894 and thence to the staging of the Olympic Games., which were opened in Athens on Easter Monday 1896.
VENUES
| 1896 Athens | 1932 Los Angeles | 1976 Montreal |
| 1900 Paris | 1936 Berlin | 1980 Moscow |
| 1904 St Louis | 1948 London | 1984 Los Angeles |
| 1906 Athens* | 1952 Helsinki | 1988 Seoul |
| 1908 London | 1956 Melbourne | 1992 Barcelona |
| 1912 Stockholm | 1960 Rome | 1996 Atlanta |
| 1920 Antwerp | 1964 Tokyo | 2000 Sydney |
| 1924 Paris | 1968 Mexico City | 2004 Athens |
| 1928 Amsterdam | 1972 Munich | 2008 Beijing 2012 London |
* Intercalated Games held in1906 at Athens as the tenth anniversary celebrations of the 1896 Games.
XIX Olympic Games - Mexico City - 1968 |
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XX Olympic Games - Munich - 1972 |
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| History: Hockey is the oldest known ball and stick game. Records exist of it having been played in Persia in 2000 BC. The name hockey probably derives from the French hocquet, or shepherd’s crook, and refers to the crooked stick which is used to hit a small ball. The game became more organised late in the 19th century and became an Olympic sport in 1908.Until the 1970s, the game at international level was mainly played on natural grass, but has become an even more exciting and Skilful India dominated the sport for three decades, winning all six Olympic gold medals and 30 consecutive games from 1928 to 1956. The first Balbir Singh, who was followed by four more players of the same name who also played for victorious Indian teams, scored five goals in a 6-1 gold-medal victory over the Netherlands in Helsinki in 1952. XXI Olympic Games - Montreal - 1976 | |
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