Abstract

Greek people celebrated their own Olympic Games after independence from Turkey. It was in 1859 that they celebrated the first Olympic Games at Athens. They also celebrated it in 1870, 75, and 89. And they held Panhellenic Games in 1891 and 93. Most of the historians have ignored the importance of these Greek Olympics. They have said that Greek Olympics had been local festivals and nothing to report. They misunderstood the truth, because thirty thousand people came to the stadium to watch the revival of the Olympic Game sin 1870. It was not a local festival. Most of the historians did not investigate the Greek historical reports and materials, and they could not find the truth. It was D. YOUNG that found the importance of Greek Olympics with the Greek historical materials. The author of this paper has also investigated some Greek materials, especially Chrisafis book Modern international Olympic Games (1930, Athens). The following conclusions were derived; 1) Greek Olympics were held as a revival of the ancient Olympic Games. 2) The experience of these Greek Olympics made the first modern Olympic Games successful. 3) Coubertin knew the Greek Olympics, but did not recognize the importance. 4) Greek people insisted that Olympic Games should be held in Greece forever, because they had celebrated the Greek Olympic Games at Athens. 5) Greek people much contributed the revival of the modern Olympic Games as a result. Verf.-Referat