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Who helped revive the modern Olympic Games?

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A woman in a white pleated dress lights the Olympic torch from a large flame in a gold cauldron, with a crowd seated in the background at Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. — Olympic Games An actress playing the role of an Athenian high priestess lights the Olympic flame in Athens, October 31, 2017. The torch was later carried to Pyeongchang, South Korea, for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

While Pierre de Coubertin is widely recognized as the primary architect of the modern Olympic Games, the revival was the result of the collective efforts and ideas of several individuals over many decades.12

The concept of a modern revival was first proposed by the Greek poet Panagiotis Soutsos in 1833. Subsequently, Evangelis Zappas founded modern Greek Olympiads in Athens beginning in 1859. In England, Dr. William Penny Brookes also spent decades advocating for international Olympic Games, having organized his own British Olympiads starting in 1866.2

Coubertin drew inspiration from these predecessors, particularly after meeting Brookes and reviewing his documentation on previous athletic festivals. In 1894, Coubertin successfully led a congress at the Sorbonne that resulted in the formation of the International Olympic Committee. He was supported in this effort by key figures such as Dimítrios Vikélas, who became the first IOC president, and Professor William M. Sloane of the United States.21