The

1896 Summer Olympics The 1896 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 1896, Therinoí Olympiakoí Agónes 1896), officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 1ης Ολυμπιάδας, Agónes tis 1is Ol ...

, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, were a summer

multi-sport event A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of interna ...

held in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

, the capital of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

, from 6 to 15 April 1896, and were the first

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

of the Modern era. A total of 241 athletes from 14 nations participated in 43 events in nine sports at these games. Ten of the fourteen participating nations earned medals, in addition to three medals won by mixed teams, i.e. teams made up of athletes from multiple nations. The United States won the most gold medals (11) with 14 athletes participating, while host nation, Greece with 169 athletes participating, won the most medals overall (47) as well as the most silver (18) and bronze (19) medals, finishing with one less gold medal than the United States, having 155 athletes more than the US. In the early Olympic Games, several team events were contested by athletes from multiple nations. Retroactively, the IOC created the designation " Mixed team" (with the

country code Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes (geocodes) developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have been developed to do this. The term ...

ZZX) to refer to these group of athletes. Some athletes won medals both individually and as part of a mixed team, so these medals are tabulated under different nations in the official counts.

Dionysios Kasdaglis Dimitrios written also as Demetrius Emmanuel ( el, Δημήτριος Εμμανουήλ) Kasdaglis written also as Casdagli(s) ( el, Κάσδαγλης), (10 October 1872 in Salford – 6 July 1931 in Bad Nauheim) was a Greek- Egyptia ...

, an athlete of Greek origins living in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

, is listed by the IOC as Greek during both his competition in the

singles tennis Traditionally, tennis is played between two people in a singles match, or two pairs in a doubles match. Tennis can also be played on different courts, including grass courts, clay courts, hard courts, and artificial grass courts. Standard types ...

competition and the

doubles tennis Men's doubles, Women's doubles or Mixed doubles are sports having two players per side, including; * Beach volleyball * Doubles badminton * Doubles curling * Footvolley * Doubles pickleball * Doubles squash * Doubles table tennis * Doubles ...

competition along with his teammate, the Greek athlete

Demetrios Petrokokkinos Demetrios Stephen Petrokokkinos ( el, Δημήτριος Πετροκόκκινος, 17 April 1878 in Ilford (registered at birth in England as Demetrius Stephen Petrocochino) – 10 May 1942 in Cape Town) was a Greek tennis player. He ...

. During these inaugural Olympics, winners were given a silver medal and an

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ' ...

branch, while runners-up received a copper medal and a

laurel Laurel may refer to: Plants * Lauraceae, the laurel family * Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel People * Laurel (given name), people with the given name * Laurel (surname), people with the surname * Laurel (mus ...

branch A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term '' twig'' usuall ...

. The IOC has retroactively assigned gold, silver and bronze medals to the three best placed athletes in each event to comport with more recent traditions. Three ties resulted in medals being shared between athletes, increasing the medal count of various nations. These include ties between

Francis Lane Francis Adonijah Lane (September 23, 1874 – February 17, 1927) was an American sprinter who competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Greece. At the time of the 1896 Summer Olympics Lane was in his junior year at Princeton University and was ...

of the United States and

Alajos Szokolyi Alajos János Szokolyi (also referred to as Alajos Szokoly, ; sk, Alojz Sokol; 19 June 1871 – 9 September 1932) was a Hungarian athlete, sports organizer, sports manager, archivist and physician. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics, wi ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

, for the third place in the

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

; between

Evangelos Damaskos Evangelos Damaskos ( el, Ευάγγελος Δαμάσκος) was a Greek pole vaulter. He was born in Acharnes, Athens, Greece. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. Damaskos competed in the pole vault Pole vaulting, also kno ...

and

Ioannis Theodoropoulos Ioannis Theodoropoulos ( el, Ιωάννης Θεοδωρόπουλος) was a Greek pole vaulter. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. He was born in Evrytania. Theodoropoulos competed in the pole vault. He tied with fellow Greek ...

of Greece in the

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the M ...

; and between

Konstantinos Paspatis Konstantinos Paspatis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Πασπάτης) (5 June 1878 (registered at birth in England as Constantine George Paspatis) – 1 July 1903) was a Greek tennis player. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics The ...

of Greece and Momcsilló Tapavicza of Hungary, in

. In addition, bronze medals were not awarded in a number of events where there was no third-place finisher.

Medal count

This is the full table of the medal count of the

, based on the medal count of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...

(IOC). There are sources, besides the International Olympic Committee (IOC), that display variations in the medal totals, but as the governing body of the Olympic Games, the IOC is considered the most authoritative source for the purposes of this article. These rankings sort by the number of gold medals earned by a country. The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If, after the above, countries are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically. This information is provided by the IOC; however, the IOC does not recognise or endorse any ranking system.

References

External links

* * * {{featured list

Medal table The Olympic medal table is a method of sorting the medal placements of countries in the modern-day Olympics and Paralympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not officially recognize a ranking of participating countries at the Olympic ...

1896 Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that ...