The bitterness of Greeks at the destruction of Smyrna was evident even in people's daily lives. Sport, although a source of joy, had also been “wounded” by the uprooting of the Greeks from Asia Minor. In the months that followed the Disaster, athletic events were cancelled to honour the memory of the thousands of victims. SEAGS's proclamation on 20 January 1923 of an intra-Club steeplechase race to be held on 4 March was greeted enthusiastically as it seemed to signal a return to normality. The Board and the President, M. Mindler, attended the six kilometre race held at the Stadium. The race was regarded as a success despite the fact that very few athletes took part. Sports lovers were keen to attend competitions-a fact which was made clear by the thousands of spectators at the Panathinaia Games in April and March of the same year.

Athletes from the women's section of AEK

Seeing that the Pan-Hellenic Games would once again be postponed, SEAGS organised the District Games. Despite the fact that the participants were mainly high school students, the Games were a great success. Patissia and Kolonaki won most of the events. It was in these Games (1923) that women took part for the first time, marking the beginning of women's participation in classical athletics in Greece. The revenue from these games, as from the others that followed, was given to the refugees.

Inevitably, both the superb athletes who had lived on the shores of Asia Minor and in Constantinople and their clubs came to Greece as refugees. Following a brief period to reorganise themselves, the clubs began their activities anew, either with their old names or under new names. Among the most active in Athens was Panionios, which in 1923 organised a meet at which the recently drafted IOC regulations were implemented. The Panionian Games of September in the same year were also a great success. The members of the Games Committee were also members of SEAGS and the Hellenic Olympic Committee.

The financial status of many clubs was poor. The causes for this were that the state was unable to provide backing, there was a lack of new members, and the fact that the clubs had been inactive because of the many years of war and upheaval. Two of the oldest clubs in Greece, Panachaikos and the Athletic Foundation of Patra, which had had an intense rivalry for approximately thirty years, decided to merge so that they could "rebuild" sport in the Peloponnese.

The year ended with the approval of the new Charter. The main amendment involved the “decentralisation” and “autonomy” of the sections of the different sports. The members of the Committees would no longer be appointed by SEAGS, but by the representatives of the specific events. This meant that sports would henceforth be in the hands of an expert in the particular field.