Blog

There’s a small museum at the stadium, which is reached by this rather impressive tunnel where the athletes would have once run out from to face their moment of truth.

As the stadium once looked.

Marble cutters merrily cutting blocks, which must have been something of a civil engineering project to put together.

The interior of the museum.

Every Olympic Games now has a torch which all have a unique design which reflects the characteristics and culture of the host nation. Above are torches from the Winter Olympics, which used to be held in the same year as the main Olympics but they are now held two years after them. These torches are from Innsbruck (1976 – Austria), Lake Placid (1980 – United States) and Calgary (1988 – Canada).

A poster from the first Olympic Games that was partly held at this stadium in 1896.

A poster from the 1908 London Games.

I hadn’t much thought about it, but I don’t think that I realised that the Olympic Games were held in Belgium in 1920 although Richard thinks he might remember it. Here are posters from Paris 2024, Belgium 1920 and Paris 1924, as well as the Paris torch from 2024.

Posters from the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam and the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

A poster from the notorious 1936 Olympic Games which were held in Berlin.

The poster from the 1948 London Olympics.

And the torch from 1948.

The torch and poster from the 2012 London Olympics, which feels quite a long time ago now.

This is one of the 204 petals, representing the competing nations who took part, from the single unified cauldron where the Olympic Flame burnt during the 2012 Olympics in London. I did get to see the opening of the Paralympic Games in 2012, so I would have seen this. Well, probably not seen it very clearly, but it was there at the same time as me so that’ll have to do.

This is exciting, the altar from where the High Priestess lights the Olympic Flame for its journey to the city that organises the Olympic Games.

This is a replica of the concave mirror which is used to catch the rays of the sun which start the Olympic flame.

It was an interesting museum and the walk to it added to the excitement of the whole arrangement. There was some information and exhibit from every Olympic Games that have yet been held, with the posters from each of the events being interesting to show how design had changed over the decades. Maybe I’ll come back in a few years and see what they have from the 2028 Olympics which are being held in Los Angeles and the 2032 Olympics which are being held in Brisbane, not to mention the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, the 2030 Winter Olympics in France and the 2034 Winter Olympics in the United States.

This is the impressive current stadium, built on the same site as the original Panathenaic Stadium.

The stadium’s reconstruction was a significant undertaking, spearheaded by the Greek government and funded by the rather generous donation of Georgios Averoff, a wealthy Greek businessman who was based in Egypt. Times have changed somewhat from this era when men such as Averoff and the great Andrew Carnegie generously gave money to improve culture, literature and education. Today, we have Elon Musk, although I mustn’t drift too far into politics. The architect Anastasios Metaxas meticulously planned the reconstruction, drawing inspiration from the stadium’s ancient design. The stadium was rebuilt entirely with white marble from Mount Penteli, the same material used to construct the Acropolis. Having now experienced the stadium myself, this marble might not be the softest thing to sit on, but at least it stayed cool in what is often a hot general environment. This ambitious project was nearly completed in time for the 1896 Games, making the Panathenaic Stadium the only major stadium in the world built entirely of marble, with the unfinished bits sorted out not much later.

Despite being very brave, I do have a fear of heights and I wondered for a while if I would make it up to the top. However, after watching Richard positively sprinting up, I knew that I’d be able to manage it one way or another.

On 6 April 1896, the Panathenaic Stadium witnessed a historic moment as it hosted the opening ceremony of the first modern Olympic Games. The stadium was adorned with Greek and Olympic flags, creating a rather vibrant and festive atmosphere. King George I of Greece and his family were among the estimated 60,000 spectators, along with athletes from 14 nations, a sizeable arrangement for the time. The Games were officially opened by Crown Prince Constantine, marking the revival of this ancient tradition although I can’t imagine that they could have foreseen how big the games would become. The Panathenaic Stadium served as the venue for four of the nine sports that were contested at the 1896 Olympics, namely athletics, gymnastics, weightlifting and wrestling.

Perhaps the most memorable event was the marathon, won by Spyridon Louis, a Greek water carrier and his victory was a source of immense national pride and cemented the stadium’s place in Olympic history.

The first lap of honour by members of the various nations.

In the mid to late 1960s, the Panathenaic Stadium served as the home ground for AEK Basketball Club and this period marked a departure from the stadium’s traditional use as a venue for athletics and Olympic events.

The stadium witnessed a historic moment in basketball history when it hosted the 1967–68 FIBA European Cup Winners’ Cup final on 4 April 1968 when AEK Athens emerged victorious against Slavia VŠ Praha in front of a record crowd of approximately 80,000 spectators which seems an insanely large number to me. It was also used at the 2004 Olympics held in Athens when the archery events were held here and it was the end of the marathon event.

And an athlete from today.