April 22, 1906: First intercalated (unofficial) modern Olympics kick off in Greece

The little-mentioned and now often-ignored Olympic Games of 1906 — also known as the first-ever Intercalated Olympic Games — kicked off on April 22, 1906 in Greece. Today, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) no longer recognizes those games, and no records achieved at them count in official Olympic history.

In 1896, the French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin revived the idea of a modern Olympics. Those first games, held in Athens, were considered a success and paved the way for an international competition every four years. But there was a dispute: Greece wanted to host every Olympics, while Coubertin and the newly-formed IOC wanted the host country to change for each Games. A compromised was reached wherein Greece would host an Intercalated (basically meaning “placed between”) Olympic Games in the years between the rotating-city Olympic Games.

Because the compromise was reached in 1901, hosting a 1902 event between the 1900 and 1904 Olympics was deemed to be too soon. The first Intercalated Olympic Games in Greece were then scheduled for 1906.

Those 1906 games may have saved the Olympic movement. The 1900 Olympics, in Paris, were overshadowed by the world’s fair there and thus largely considered a failure. The 1904 Olympics in St. Louis faced a similar fate in light of the St. Louis World’s Fair. These games were also spread out over months and failed to garner public support. By contrast, the 1906 games in Athens were condensed over two weeks, featured an opening ceremony that a large crowd watched in the official stadium, included the first-ever closing ceremony, and helped to renew interest in the modern Olympics.

Four years later in 2010, when it was again Greece’s turn to host an off-season games, the country failed to make the deadline. The 2014 games garnered little support, and the IOC changed its mind about the whole thing. The 1906 Olympics were retroactively downgraded and no longer considered official — though they may have saved what is now one of the most popular sporting events in the world.