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1896 Athens Summer Games
311 Athletes, 13 Countries, 43 Events

The first modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece attracted 241 men from 14 nations. The American team was made up of 12 men, all from the Ivy League either Columbia, Harvard or Princeton. Harvard, reluctant to send its own team, advised its competitors to travel under the banner of the Boston Athletic Association, the group that today administers the Boston Marathon. Princeton allowed its team to go under the university's banner as a Princeton classics professor, William Sloane, was part of the international committee led by Baron Pierre de Coubertin that sought to revive the ancient Games.

The entire team traveled together on a steamship, with the exception of brothers John B. Paine (Harvard '92) and Sumner Paine (Harvard '90). John Paine left separately for Paris (the other athletes were headed to Naples) in an effort to recruit Sumner to enter the shooting competitions with him. It should be noted that Robert Garrett, Jr. (Princeton '97) paid the way to Greece for his fellow Princetonians Herbert Jamison '97, Francis Lane '97, and Albert Tyler '97.

The Games turned out to be successful for almost all of the Leaguers. James B. Connolly (Harvard '96) won gold in the triple jump, silver in the high jump, and bronze in the long jump. The gold made him the first person to be crowned Olympic champion since the ancient Greek Games over 1,500 years prior.

Garrett won gold in the discus and shot put, and finished right behind Connolly in the high jump and long jump. He had practiced the discus with one he fashioned from history books regarding the ancient Greek Games. But when Garrett reached Athens and found the true weight of the disc to be much lighter, he beat the favored Greeks to the dismay of the crowd. Columbia's Thomas P. Curtis claimed gold in the hurdles.

Please note, while we refer to athletes being awarded gold, silver and bronze medals at the 1896 Games for recordkeeping purposes, firstplace finishers were actually given a silver medal, an olive branch and a diploma. Runnersup received a bronze medal, a crown of laurel and a diploma.