The reputation of the Panellinios Athletic Club soon surpassed the boundaries of Greece. It was not by chance that it was the only athletic club to be invited to participate in the International Athletic Conference on 16 June 1894 in Sorbonne which was to discuss the revival of the Olympic Games. The Conference was held on the initiative of the French Baron de Coubertin, an ardent admirer of the Classical Greek spirit. The proposal of the Greek representative, Demetrios Vikelas, that the first Olympic Games of modern times take place in Athens in 1896 was enthusiastically accepted by the 2,000 participants. It was also considered an extraordinary honour that Vikelas was voted President of the International Olympic Committee with de Coubertin as General Secretary.

Members of the first International Olympic Committee
chosen at the International Conference in Sorbonne.

In the same period, the spread of physical education and sport in Greece was brisk and the foundation of new athletic clubs are a testament to this. In Patra, members of Panachaikos set up the Athletic Association of Patra. In the same year, 1896, youth activists set up the Piraeus Association, which, included gymnastics among its other athletic activities.

The coach Ioannis Chrysafis

A few months after Athens was awarded the organisation of the Olympic Games, a special committee was set up to supervise the training of the Greek athletes that were to take part. In aid of this, Ethnikos Athletic Club organised games on 15 August (the Feast of the Dormition of the Virgin) 1895 in Tinos to honour the feast day of the Virgin. These Pan-Hellenic games were named the Tinia and were a great success under the supervision of I. Chrysafis. There were thousands of spectators as their numbers were swelled by the approximately 20,000 faithful who had come to worship the miraculous icon of the Virgin. The Tinia games were a watershed in the history of Greek sport as it was the first time that an organised athletic competition was held with rules and the participation of many athletes. The events took place according to the regulations of the IOC, but chronometers for the races and measures for the jumps were not used. It was also the first time that athletes from the clubs of mainland Greece and Asia Minor came into contact and exchanged views on techniques and methods of training. From 1895 it began to be clear that there was a need for a central organisation to guide and coordinate the continually increasing number of athletic clubs and which could form the team of athletes, which would represent Greece in the Olympic Games.

In January 1896 the clubs were already on the home straight before the big moment. Despite the harsh winter, the athletes patiently persevered in their training with noble rivalry and, naturally, the honour of distinction as their incentives. The Hellenic Olympic Committee decided to hold Pan-Hellenic Games in 1895 in order to choose the athletes that would make up the Greek delegation.

The games, which took place on 9 and 10 March, consisted of 20 events. The Athletic Club of Athens made the best appearance, while the Panellinios Athletic Club and the Ethnikos Athletic Club came in second and third. The athletes' achievements were recorded for the first time. Naturally, the event that most sports fans were interested in was the marathon. A second qualifying marathon race was held in order to complete the delegation which numbered 31 athletes.

The special programme issued for the first Pan-Hellenic Games

The cover of Charles' Beck's book was considered to be the first Olympic poster

The opening of the Olympic Games took place in a crowded Panathinaikos Stadium on 25 March, a symbolic date for the Greek people as it was the anniversary of the start of the Greek War of Independence. Greek sports fans celebrated the victories of the Greek athletes who won a total of ten gold and 19 silver medals. The victory which was celebrated as no other was that of Spyros Louis who won the marathon race. As the athlete from Maroussi ran into the Stadium, the whole area rang with the cheers and screams of 10,000 Greek and foreign spectators. When the national delegations returned to their countries, their compatriots awarded them the honours due to Olympic champions.