Evangelos Zappas
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Evangelis Zappas aka Evangelos Zappas (1800–1865) was a Greek businessman, philanthropist, and founder of the modern international Olympic Games.
He was born in Epirus in 1800 and moved to Bucharest in 1831. In 1856 he wrote to King Otto of Greece offering 400 shares in the steamship company so that the dividends could be used to establish the Olympic Games, the Olympiad, and to provide prizes to the Olympian victors. In 1859, he succeeded in reviving the Olympic Games in a city square in Athens, Greece. These Games were not held again during Zappas' lifetime, but due to his bequeathing a large part of his fortune to future editions of the Games, they were held again in 1870, and 1875 at the Panathenian stadium in Athens.
Evangelis Zappas funded the refurbishment of the Panathenian stadium and the building of the first indoor Olympic arena called the Zappeion. The head of Zappas is buried beneath his memorial outside the Zappeion. Baron Pierre de Coubertin made a similar gesture by having his heart buried at Olympia.
The Zappas Games were the first modern international Olympic Games. Zappas re-established the Olympic Games for the first time since they were held in ancient Greece and these were the groundwork, the foundations, for Baron Pierre de Coubertin and the International Olympic Committee (that he founded in 1894). Competitors attended the Zappas Games from both Greece and the Ottoman Empire making them international in 1859, 1870, and 1875.
Olympic Games were held in the Panathenian stadium in 1870, 1875, 1896, 1906, and archery and the finish of the marathon were hosted there in 2004. The Zappeion was used as the Olympic Press Center during the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
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