After the Olympics were abolished in Ancient Greece, it was not until the late 19th Century that the Games would be revived to resemble the mass event we recognise today.
The most significant attempts to recreate the Ancient Olympic Games came from France, England and Greece.
- In Revolutionary France, the L’Olympiade de la République was a festival held annually from 1796 to 1798.
- In 1860, Dr. William Penny Brookes founded the Wenlock Olympian Society in England. An annual sports festival in the small town of Munch Wenlock that still continues today. One of the mascots for the London 2012 Summer Olympics is named Wenlock after the town.
- The Zappas Olympics were held in Athens, Greece in 1859, 1870 and 1875. These were sponsored by a wealthy businessman, Evangelos Zappas. He provided the funding to coordinate the events and to reconstruct the ancient Panathinkaiko Stadium that was used for the events in 1870 and 1875.
Frenchman, Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after attending the 1890 Wenlock Olympian Games and is considered as the father of the modern Olympic Games. Inspired by the ideas and work of Dr. Brookes and Zappas, he set out to internationalise the Olympics. The first Olympic Games held under the IOC was in 1896 hosted by Athens in the Panathinkaiko Stadium that Zappas had refurbished.
Now held every two years alternating between the Summer and Winter Olympics including the Paralympic and Youth Olympic Games, the event has grown from 241 athletes and 14 nations in 1986 to 10 500 athletes and 204 nations expected for London 2012.