Stamata Revithi
The 1896 Olympic Games were the first held in the Modern era and the most important international multi-sport event Greece had ever hosted. The rules of the Games generally excluded women from competition. Influenced by both his times—in the Victorian era women were considered to be inferior to men—and his admiration for the ancient Olympic Games, when only men were allowed to participate in the events, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the visionary of the modern Olympic Games, was not in favour of women's participation in the Olympic Games or in sports generally. He believed that a woman's greatest achievement would be to encourage her sons to be distinguished in sports and to applaud a man's effort.
Special Olympics
The Special Olympics World Games is a major event put on by the Special Olympics. The World Games alternate between summer and winter games, in two-year cycles, recurring every fourth year. The first games were held on July 20, 1968 in Chicago, Illinois, with about 1000 athletes from the U.S. and Canada. International participation expanded in subsequent games. In 2003, the first summer games held outside the United States were in Dublin, Ireland with 7000 athletes from 150 countries. The most recent World Summer Games were held in Los Angeles, California (The largest event in LA since the 1984 Olympic Games), from July 25, 2015 to August 2, 2015. This was the first time that the Special Olympics were part of ESPN daily coverage. The next World Summer Games will be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in March 2019. These will be the first Special Olympics World Games to be held in the Middle East.