The first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896 from 6 to 15 April in Athens, Greece. Maintenance of the first Olympic Games were awarded to Greece because of the symbolism of the ancient Olympic Games. The venue is determined at the Congress in Paris in 1894. At the same Congress was established by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The first Olympic games had 43 events in nine sports.

The first Olympic sports were:

Athletics (100m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 110m hurdles, marathon, high jump, high jump with a pole vault, long jump, triple jump, shot put, discus throw).

Cycling (road race, sprint, 333.3 meters, 10 km, 100 km, 12 hours).

Fencing (Foil Foil for trainers, saber).

Gymnastics (shaft loom, pommel horse, leap, circles, line, loom Team Team returned).

Archery (military rifle, gun free elections, military pistol, rapid fire pistol, gun free choice).

Swimming (100 Freestyle, Freestyle 500, freely 1200 m, 100 m freestyle for sailors).

Tennis (singles, doubles).

Weightlifting (one-handed, two handed).

Wrestling (Greco-Roman style)

At the first Olympic Games, competitions were only in the men's category. Women started to participate in the Olympics of 1900 and other Olympic Games held in Paris.

At first Olympics athletes do not get medals, a third did not bring any reward.

Which country was the most successful is difficult to define because contestants competed for themselves, they did not represent the state, also a country did not exist.

Modern statistics despite the problems it found that the most successful athletes were from America who have won 11 first places, or by current standards gold medals, others were Greeks with 10 gold and Germans third with 6 gold medals.

The most successful athlete was Karl Schumann from Germany with four gold medals.