| History - Overview |
This August, over 10,000 of the most talented sportsmen and women in the world will gather in Beijing for the largest event on the sporting calendar - the Olympic Games.
It is 112 years since Athens staged the first Modern Olympiad, fulfilling the dream of Baron Pierre de Coubertin. De Coubertin, founder of the International Olympic Committee in 1894, believed that the Modern Olympic Games would provide a platform for friendly competition in which all difference of status, religion, politics and race would be forgotten. Over a century later, the values held by de Coubertin are still very much in evidence with the Games providing a unique opportunity for tennis players to represent their country among athletes from other sports.
It is often forgotten that tennis was one of the original nine Olympic sports in Athens in 1896. Ireland’s John Boland defeating Dionysios Kasdaglis of Greece to become the first Olympic tennis champion, while four years later Charlotte Cooper became the first woman ever to win an Olympic medal in any sport with the introduction of women to the Games. The sport continued to be staged at the Games until 1924, with Laurie Doherty, Suzanne Lenglen and Helen Wills among the more notable winners.
Tennis withdrew from the Olympics after the 1924 Games but returned as a 21-and-under demonstration event in 1984. This followed a determined campaign by the then ITF President Philippe Chatrier, ITF General Secretary David Gray and ITF Vice President Pablo Llorens, and great support from IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch. The success of the event was overwhelming and the IOC decided to reintroduce tennis as a full medal sport at Seoul in 1988.
Since its return the tennis event has gone from strength to strength. At Athens 2004 the event attracted record participation by the top players and drew capacity crowds for every session.
Many of the sport’s biggest names have won medals at the Games, from 2000 singles champions Venus Williams and Yevgeny Kafelnikov to Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Goran Ivanisevic, Lindsay Davenport, Steffi Graf, Gabriela Sabatini, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Serena Williams.
Wheelchair tennis was introduced to the Paralympic Games in 1988 as a demonstration sport and achieved full medal status at 1992 Barcelona. It remains one of the highest profile events in the Paralympic Games and, in September 2008, all the top players will be competing.
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