History
Fast Facts
Host City: Athens, GreeceNations: 20
Athletes: 877 (870 male, 7 female)
With his beloved Olympic movement in disarray, Baron de Coubertin felt the best way to restore it to health would be to return to Athens as soon as possible.
Rome had been selected as the site for 1908 games, but Coubertin entered into a tentative agreement with the Greek government that Athens would host interim or "intercalated" games in 1906 and 1910, with the possibility that such games would be held every four years thereafter.
The IOC as a whole wasn't particularly pleased with the idea, so Coubertin withheld formal sanctioning of the 1906 games. Despite that fact, however, and despite the fact that the program was cut back substantially from those of 1900 and 1904, more than 900 athletes from 20 countries competed in Athens.
Among them was Virner Jarvinen, the first Finnish competitor. He won the Greek-style discus event and finished in the standard discus. He was welcomed home as a national hero, which inspired many young Finnish athletes to strive for future Olympic glory.
The United States won 11 of 21 track and field events, led by Paul Pilgrim, who won the 400- and 800-meter runs; Martin Sheridan, the winner in the shot put and the standard discus; and Ray Ewry, who won the standing long and high jumps.
Archie Hahn, who had won medals in the 60-, 100-, and 200-meter dashes in 1904, repeated in the 100, but the other events weren't on the program in Athens.
Swimming events were cut way back, from ten in 1904 to only four, and gold medals went to four different countries, Austria, Great Britain, Hungary, and the United States.
The lack of archery competition was more than made up for by a wide variety of target shooting events. In fact, there were so many of them that five different athletes won four or more medals in shooting.
The "intercalated" games were discontinued after 1906, and the IOC doesn't consider the 1906 games official. Nevertheless, Coubertin was grateful to Athens for celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Olympics with a well-organized and well-run program that helped restore belief in the movement.
