As the Olympics are about to get underway with the opening ceremony on Friday night, it's worth remembering how much they've changed. The first modern Olympic Games — which started 120 years ago —included something more commonly associated with entitled children than ancient Greeks: a participation trophy. All 250 participants went home with a bronze medal. That's not the only way the first modern Olympics, which revived a 1,500-year-old ancient Greek tradition, differed from today's glitzy, highly produced, occasionally corruption-soaked spectacle. Although the first modern Olympics were unrecognizable in many ways — there were no women, no national teams, and only nine sporting...
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