An overflow crowd of some 80,000 spectators packed the historic Panathenaic Stadium in Athens on April 6, 1896 to witness the opening ceremonies of the first Olympic Games of the Modern Era.

Determined to win the inaugural Olympic marathon, the Greek organizers staged qualifying races to determine the best long-distance runners in the country, as shown here. Their efforts paid off as a Greek national, Spiridon Louis, won the first ever Olympic marathon.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French educator and historian, believed physical fitness and athletic competition played an essential role in developing individual character and general well being; and, on an international level, had the potential to promote world peace. Blessed with abundant skills as a diplomat, organizer and tireless promoter, de Coubertin was the driving force behind the modern Olympic movement. He would serve as president of the International Olympic Committee from 1896 to 1925.

Paris was the center of Europe in the Belle Epoque era at the turn of the century, and the logical choice for the location of the Games. Above, a street scene in the Montmartre section of Paris.

Great Britain’s Charlotte Cooper became the first women’s Olympic champion when she won the Paris 1900 singles tournament.

A panoramic view shows the layout of the fairgrounds in central Paris. Most visitors entered via the Porte Monumental (lower middle), which led to (right to left) the Grand Palais, the Tsar Alexander III Bridge, the Esplanade des Invalides, and (upper left to right) the Salle des Fetes, Champ de Mars, and, across the Iena Bridge, the Trocadero.

Finland’s Otto Hepoaho poses with the long birch skis he used to become the firs Olympic cross-country Gold medal winner. Finns tended to use much longer skis, which performed better on the long flat courses, than their Scandinavian neighbors.

Geronimo, a former chief of the Chiricahua Apache tribe of southeastern Arizona, was a living relic of America’s frontier days. Captured in Mexico in 1886 after leading a 10-year guerrilla war against the U.S. government, he was imprisoned in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, from which he was granted leave to take part in a Native American school exhibition at the St. Louis world’s fair.

An exhausted Paul Pilgrim crosses the finish line of the 800 meters a step in front of James Lightbody. A double-gold medalist at St. Louis 1904, Lightbody was the favorite in the middle distance races at Athens but, thanks to Pilgrim, was only able to defend one of his titles.

The tennis competition was primarily distinguished by the fact that it was organized by Dwight Davis, a St. Louis native and future U.S. secretary of war, who organized the tennis events. Davis lost in the second round of the Olympic tournament, but remains a tennis immortal for the Davis Cup trophy, which he donated as the award for the team championship. The Davis Cup tournament is still contested today.

Official 1908 London Olympic Games program.

American athletes and officials march through the stadium during the Parade of Nations at the opening ceremony. America sent 83 athletes to London, making it the fourth-largest contingent at the Games. The largest was the team from Great Britain with 226 athletes, followed by Denmark with 126, and Sweden with 111.

Officials come to the aid of Dorando Pietri, who collapses just before the finish of the marathon. Pietri started in the fourth and last row of runners, but had moved to the front of the pack by the fourth mile. He took sole possession of the lead at the 23rd mile and looked a sure winner before faltering in the stadium.

Looking very stylish, Howard Drew, 22, from Springfield, Massachusetts, was the first of a long line of great African-American sprinters. At the Olympic trials, he beat Ralph Craig at 100 meters in 10.8 seconds, equaling the Olympic record. But in the Olympics he suffered an injury that prevented him from competing and the gold went to Craig

An aerial view of Stockholm in the early 1900s gives evi­dence of its development as a prosperous and tidy city that has already adopted the automobile as a familiar means of transportation.

Knees together in the less efficient style of the day, Jim Thorpe makes an attempt in the long jump. Thorpe's best mark reached (7.07 meters), which was the top perfor­mance of the day and gave him the pentathlon lead after the first of five events..

Albert Hill, a double-gold medalist at Antwerp, gets a champion’s ride. The two victories represented a remarkable turnaround: the 31-year-old had finished sec­ond to Bevil Rudd in the 880 a month earlier in the British championships and was unable to start in a mile race.

Rows of coffins filled with American casualties of World War I arrive in Hoboken. In limited fight­ing during the war, 50,585 American soldiers died. Costs and the disorganized state of Europe slowed the retrieval of U.S. war dead. The last bodies came back to America in 1922.

The 1920 Winnipeg Falcons, the first hockey team to represent Canada at the Olympic Games, ironically had few native-born players on it. Except for goalie Walter Byron (third from left), all the Falcons were Icelandic immigrants. The Falcons won three games by the combined score of 29-1 to win the gold.

Paavo Nurmi of Finland, winner of nine Olympic gold medals still stands second on the all time medal winner list of male performers.

IOC President Pierre de Coubertin (second row, right), founder of the modern Games, and French President Gaston Doumergue (second row, left) leave the Sorbonne following a ceremony commemorating the 30th anniversary of the inaugural Olympic Congress. Coubertin saw his vision of an international festival of sport reach full flower during the Paris Games. It would be the last Olympics he would attend.

Duke Kahanamoku of Hawaii, a two-time gold medalist in the 100-meter freestyle, shakes hands with teammate Johnny Weissmuller. The 19-year-old Weissmuller had just usurped the 34-year-old Kahanamoku’s title as fastest swimmer on earth. Weissmuller would win the 100 again at Amsterdam 1928 along with a relay gold, raising his career Olympic-medal total to five golds and one bronze. The bronze was for America’s third-place finish in water polo in 1924.

British teammates carry David Cecil for a lap of honor after his surprising victory. Two British runners have won the 400-meter hurdles in the first century of the Olympic Games. Cecil was the first. The second was David Hemery, who won at Mexico City 1968.

American speed-skating officials carry Irving Jaffee from the ice after he exhausted himself with a final lap flourish that brought him the gold medal in the 10,000 meter race. The effort drained him despite the fact that he won the race in a time that was nearly two minutes off the world record.

Babe Didriksen, rearing back to throw her javelin, was not the 1932 world­ record holder in the event, as many claim. That honor was held by America’s Nan Gindele, but Gindele could only reach 124 feet 6 inches (37.95 meters) with her javelin at Los Angeles, 28 feet 101/2 inches shy of her record and good enough only for fifth place.

Record crowds watch speed skaters compete amid the scenic wonders of the Wetterstein Mountains and Riesser Lake at Garmish-Partenkirchen. Weather conditions were consis­tently good, and Olympic records were set or tied at all four speed-skating events.

Box-office counters over­flow with business as Olympic fever grips Los Angeles. Tickets went for as little as 50 cents, though tick­ets to most events cost $1 or $2, and the opening cer­emony cost $3. The aver­age daily attendance at the Games was almost 78,000.

At the St. Moritz games, Gretchen Fraser of the United States, not expected to compete with the favored Austrian women, pulled off an upset and won the Gold medal in the slalom.

Hitler was an avid specta­tor at the Berlin Games, taking in as many events as his schedule would allow. The sports fans watching with him-(from left)

Demonstrating his unique straight-backed running style, Jesse Owens leads the competition by a yard at the finish of the 100 meter dash. His time of 10.3 seconds would remain the Olympic standard until Rome 1960.

Hjalmar Andersen, skating to one of his three gold medals at Oslo, was unaf­fected by the politics that stirred emotions on the Norwegian speed-skating team. Finn Hodt, a Norwegian qualifier at 500 meters, was dismissed from the squad because he had been a Nazi collaborator.

Bob Mathias breaks from the starting blocks in the fourth flight of the 100- meter dash, the first event in the decathlno. At 17, Mathias would become the youngest gold medal winner in Olympic history.

Head thrown back as she surges to the finish line, Fanny Blankers-Koen wins the 100-meter dash for her first gold medal. Her win­ning time of 11.9 seconds was 0.4 of a second slower than her world and personal best in the event; neverthe­less it was an impressive per­formance considering the muddy conditions of the track.

Austria’s Anton (Toni) Sailer, Olympic Gold Medalist, Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956.

Legs held in perfect position, Viktor Chukarin demonstrates his control on the rings. The vanguard of Soviet excellence in gymnastics, Chukarin would win four gold medals and two silvers at Helsinki.

Legs held in perfect position, Viktor Chukarin demonstrates his control on the rings. The vanguard of Soviet excellence in gymnastics, Chukarin would win four gold medals and two silvers at Helsinki.

Murray Rose with coach Sam Herford. Rose achieved mythic status as a swimmer, having won numerous NCAA swimming events as a collegian at University of Southern California, and later winning numerous Olympic medals and world records.

Snow statues line the Avenue of Athletes at Squaw Valley. Several California and Nevada cities donated $2,000 to pay for the con­struction of the statues and for the right to have the community name inscribed on the base. The statues were the inspira­tion of filmmaker Walt Disney, who was in charge of decorations and pageantry at the Squaw Valley Games.

Olympic gold medalists Olga Fikotova of Czechslovakia and American Harold Connelley are married, flanked by Emil and Dana Zatopek. Despite her country being behind the Iron Curtain, Olga was allowed to emmigrate to the United States.

Australia’s Dawn Fraser, Olympic Gold Medalist, Melbourne 1956, Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964

America’s Rafer Johnson and Taiwan’s Yang Chuan-kwang, collegiate teammates at UCLA, warred an epic battle for the gold medal in the Decathlon.

Olympians, tourists, and Catholic pilgrims gather to hear Pope John XXIII in St. Peter’s Square on August 24, 1960, the day before the Gamesbegin. This was Pope John’s first open-air benediction, and he delivered it despite complaints that it would turn the Games into a religious event.

Spectators strain for a view of an airborne Jean-Claude Killy during his downhill run. Killy competed in every Alpine event at Grenoble, winning three gold medals. Today’s Olympians rarely do, preferring instead to specialize in downhill or slalom .At the 1968 Grenoble Winter games, hometown favorite Jean Claude Killy won three gold medals in the ski events.

Larissa Latynina flattens into her approach during the vaulting competition at Tokyo. Latynina would claim two golds, two silvers, and two bronzest at Tokyo to raise her career Olympic medal total to a record 18, the most ever for any athlete, a record that would stand until broken by American swimmer Michael Phelps.

An exultant Billy Mills breaks the tape at the finish of the 10,000. His surprising victory overshadowed the milestone of the second-place finisher, Mohamed Gammoudi, who became Tunisia’s first Olympic medalist. Gammoudi would become his country’s first Olympic champion by winning the 5,000 at Mexico City 1968.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos stand on the podium with black-gloved clenched fists in protest of racism in the United States. Both Smith and Carlos, along with gold medal winner Lee Evans were teammates at San Jose State University in California.

Holland’s Ard Schenk won three gold medals at Sapporo, dominating the men’s speed skating events.

The thin air of high-altitude Mexico City influenced many track and field events, the most notable being the long jump. In one incredible leap, Bob Beamon, not long out of his teens, shattered the world record by leaping an astonishing 29 feet 93/4 inches.

Poised at the starting gate, Franz Klammer constitutes Austria’s last hope for the downhill championship. Despite Klammer’s efforts, Toni Sailer, coach of the Austrian ski team and a former triple gold medalist, resigned his post at the end of the Innsbruck Games because of the poor performance of the Austrian skiers.

The Soviet Union’s Lyudmila Bragina heads a tight pack of finalists in the 1,500 meters, a race making its Olympic debut for women. The front was a familiar spot for Bragina, who lowered the world record for the distance every time she ran it at Munich.

Surging in the 200-meter butterfly, Mark Spitz (leading) begins to show his superiority. Although he had set a world record, Spitz wasn’t that impressed with his time in the race. “If it had been doing or die,” he told a reporter, “I could have broken 2 minutes.”

The celebration begins after the U.S. hockey team holds on to beat the Soviet Union, 4-3. To secure the gold medal, the Americans still had to beat Finland, which they did the next day. The U.S. team had a record of six wins, no losses and one tie during the tournament.

An exultant Kornelia Ender celebrates winning her fourth gold medal of the Games. Montreal brought the career of the seven-time Olympic medalist to a close. She retired late in 1976 amid accolades proclaiming her the greatest woman swimmer of all time.

Boris Onischenko takes a stab at Great Britain's Jeremy Fox in the fencing tournament of the modern pentathlon. In a sport that has disqualified athletes for using alcohol, amphet­amines, and other drugs, Onischenko added a new way to be removed from competition: He was caught using a rigged fencing blade.

Boris Onischenko takes a stab at Great Britain's Jeremy Fox in the fencing tournament of the modern pentathlon. In a sport that has disqualified athletes for using alcohol, amphet­amines, and other drugs, Onischenko added a new way to be removed from competition: He was caught rigged fencing blade.

On a chairlift or on the slopes, the Mahre brothers, Phil (left) and Steve, are hard to pick apart. The identical twins were both attracted to the technical demands of slalom racing. Phil won the Gold and Steve the Silver medal at the Sarajevo games.

Arms locked in a perfect legal lift, Sultan Rakhmanov snatches 429 pounds (195 kilograms) to take control of the super heavyweight lifting competition. The 30-year­old native of Uzbekistan had the heaviest jerk total to win the gold medal and unseat two-time Olympic champion Vassily Alekseyev.

Japanese swimmers Saeko Kimura and Miwako Motoyoshi demonstrate the beauty of synchronization. Duet and solo synchronized swimming events, for women only, joined the Olympic program at Los Angeles.

American Edwin Moses glides over a barrier in a heat of the 400-meter hurdles. His dominance in the event was unchallenged. In his career he had already run the race in under 48 seconds 27 times. Only three other athletes in history had clocked a time that fast, none of them more than three times.

At the Calgary 1988 Winter games, Canada’s Brian Orser dazzles with an airborne maneuver. His long program, though spectacular, was only good enough to assure him the silver medal.

America’s Steve Timmons leaps for a spike as Soviet players move into defensive positions in the volleyball final at Seoul. The Soviets were the 1980 Olympic volleyball champions. The Americans were gold medalists in 1984. The two teams hadn’t competed against each other in the Games since 1976

Twisting in the air just before he lands, France’s Edgar Grospiron was a popular gold medalist at Albertville, the first Winter Games to add Freestyle skiing as medal sports. Grospiron scored the highest marks on his jumps in the mogul event to outscore teammate Olivier Allamand.

Silke Hörner churns into the lead in the 200-meter breaststroke final. Hörner and her fellow East German women swimmers put on another dominating performance in the pool—they won 9 of 13 events—leading to more accusations of doping from the competition.

China's Fu Mingxia prepares to enter the water after diving from the platform. The 13- year-old, had competed in national diving meets since she was nine, and became the youngest gold medal winner ever in any Olympic games.

The Soviet Union may have been fractured, but its former gymnasts were able to cele­brate together as the best all­-around team. It included Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians, who would com­pete as the Unified Team.

Cubans celebrate the final of nine straight victories, completing an undefeated run for the gold medal in the inaugural Olympic baseball tournament. Baseball was a demonstra­tion event at six Games before gaining medal status at Barcelona.

Donovan Bailey exudes the joy that comes with victory as he wins the 100-meter dash. Bailey was the 100- meter world champion in 1995. The 1996 track season turned Namibia's Frank Fredericks into the pre-race favorite. Nevertheless, a surging fin­ish made Bailey the first Canadian to win an Olympic 100 meters since 1928.

Opposing reactions to the clock make it clear that Popov was the winner in his showdown with American Gary Hall Jr.Popov won both head-to-head individ­ual sprint matchups against Hall, who had to settle for a share of beating the Russian in two relays.

Italy's Gunther Huber (left) and Antonio Tartaglia (second from left), and Canada's David MacEachern (third from left) and Pierre Lueders, celebrate together on the top step of the medal podium during the awards ceremony for the two-man bob­sled at the 1998 Nagano Winter games. The Italian team led the event by 0.03 of a second going into the fourth and final heat. The Canadians finished in front of the Italians by that exact measure on their last run to create the first co-gold medalists in Olympic bobsled history.