Summer Olympic Games events vs. the 10 from Greece. Ancient Greece was the birthplace of the Olympic Games, consequently Athens was perceived to be an appropriate choice to stage the inaugural modern Games. It was unanimously chosen as the host city during a congress organised by Pierre de Coubertin, a French pedagogue and historian, in Paris, on 23 June 1894. The IOC was also established during this congress. Despite many obstacles and setbacks, the 1896 Olympics were regarded as a great success. The Games had the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date. Panathinaiko Stadium, the first big stadium in
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games sold. Although the Wii version of "Mario and Sonic" was awarded the "Best Wii game of 2007" at the Games Convention in Leipzig, it received mixed reactions from game critics; the DS version had a similar reception. A common complaint was that Sega and Nintendo failed to set the first matchup between their mascots in the genre that made them famous—platform games. Instead, the two companies threw Mario and Sonic into an Olympic-themed party video game, a move which Tae Kim of "GamePro" criticized as "a marketing tool" to popularize the XXIX Olympic Games. Although the Wii version of the