Revival of the Modern Games

Although the revival of the Olympic Games began in the mid–19th Century; multi–sport events with titles such as "Olympick" or "Olympian" Games had been held as far back as the 16th Century. These events included an "Olympick Games" that convened for several years at Chipping Campden in the English Cotswolds. The present day Cotswold Games trace their origin to this festival.Another example of European attempts to emulate the Olympic Games was a European Olympic Festival held annually from 1796–1798, L'Olympiade de la République was held in France. The competition included several disciplines from the ancient Greek Olympics. The 1796 Games marked an introduction of the metric system into sport.
An "Olympian Class" was begun at Much Wenlock in Shropshire, England in 1850, which was renamed "Wenlock Olympian Games" in 1859 and continues to this day as the Wenlock Olympian Society Annual Games. A national Olympic Games in Great Britain was organized by, Dr William Penny Brookes, at Crystal Palace in London, in 1866.
Greek interest in reviving the Olympic Games, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, was documented by poet and newspaper editor Panagiotis Soutsos (see Alexandros Soutsos) in his poem "Dialogue of the Dead", published in 1833. Meanwhile Evangelis Zappas, a wealthy Greek philanthropist, sponsored the modern revival of the ancient Olympic Games. The first modern international Olympic Games was held in an Athens city square in 1859 with participants from Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Later Zappas paid for the refurbishment of the ancient Panathenian Stadium. The first modern international to be hosted in a stadium was held there in 1870, followed by a third in 1875.
Many years after Zappas revived the Olympic Games in Greece. The French historian Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was searching for a reason for the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). He theorized that the French soldiers had not received proper physical education. In 1890 he attended the "Olympian Games" of the Wenlock Olympian Society, and decided that a large–scale revival of the Olympic Games was achievable. To date attempts to revive a modern version of the Olympic games had met with various amounts of success at the local (one or at most two participating nations) level.
Coubertin built on the ideas of Brookes and the foundations of Zappas. His aim was to internationalize the Olympic Games (one of Brookes' ideas). He presented these ideas at a congress at the Sorbonne University, in Paris, France, held from June 16 to June 23, 1894. On the last day of the congress, it was decided that the first multinational Olympic Games would take place in 1896 in Athens. To organize the Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was established, with the Greek writer, Demetrius Vikelas, as its first president. The IOC's modern Olympic Movement was established, and a Games were to be held in the nation of their origin in 1896.