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How the Olympics Were Brought Back After a 1503 Year Break
The story of the first modern Olympiad
The official name of the modern Olympics is the Games of the Olympiad with the number of the games included. Most people will simply call the 2020 Summer Games or Tokyo 2020 but the true name is the Games of the XXXII Olympiad. The new naming scheme reflects the length of the modern Olympic games which did not recommence until 1896 after a fifteen-century hiatus.
Now, the Olympics are a massive multinational spectacle that occurs every two years in a repeating pattern of summer games and winter games with a rotating host city and nation. It is the most prestigious athletic competition in the world and it brings in big money for the media companies that cover it.
When Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894, he had no idea that his creation would grow to be the behemoth that it is today.
A noble vision
Pierre de Coubertin was a historian and French aristocrat who famously believed in the spiritual power of sports. He believed in a creed “all sports for all people” and he…
