Bronze medal from the Athens Olympics

The modern Olympic Games were revamped in the late 19th century after the archaeological discovery of the site of Olympia on the Peloponnese peninsula and in a movement to reform the education of European youth by promoting sport and physical exercise. Thanks to the actions of Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1927), the first new Olympic Games were held in Greece in 1896. 10 years later, in 1906, Greece organized another Olympics, against the wishes of Pierre de Coubertin and the International Olympic Committee. The King of Greece insisted on imposing his ideas on the IOC, despite their refusals. As a result, unlike the Olympics of 1900 and 1904, the extra Olympic Games of 1906 were not accompanied by a world’s fair.

Although not official, those games were important to the genesis of the Olympics because they marked the beginning of the ceremonial traditions, namely the parade of athletes and the awarding of medals. This bronze medal was awarded to the Greek team for its third place finish. The iconography on both sides of the medal – the Acropolis in Athens on one side and Zeus on the other – refers to the ancient games and establishes a connection between Modern Greece and Ancient Greece in a context of consolidation of national awareness in the face of the Ottoman Empire.