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DID YOUR KNOW?
THE EMBLEM of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games is a wreath made from an olive tree branch.
It represents the four values of the 2004 Games - heritage, participation, celebration, human scale - in a uniquely Greek design.
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THE MASCOT for the Games is Athena and Phevos, two modern children, brother and sister.
The boy named after Apollo, the God of light and music and the girl after Athena, the Goddess of wisdom.
They symbolise the unbreakable link between the modern Olympic Games and Greek history.
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THE FIRST title of the modern Olympics was won by James Connolly (USA) at the 1896 Games. There was no gold medal awarded, only silver and bronze then. He won the hop, step and jump with a leap of 13.71 m, despite arriving only a day before the Games. He arrived by ship to France and then by train to Athens.
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ANOTHER STAR of the 1896 Games was Spiridon Louis (Greece). The 30-year-old shepherd won the marathon in front of his king in 2 hours 58 minutes, 50 seconds.
As a reward from the nation he got a silver cup, a laurel wreath, an antique vase. He turned down gifts like sewing machine and free hair cuts but did accept a horse and cart which he needed to carry water back home.
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