President of the International Olympic Committee congress. Athens was approved to host the 1896 Olympic Games, being the original home of the Olympics, and Vikelas was duly chosen as the first President of the IOC. Pierre, Baron de Coubertin, took over the IOC presidency when Demetrius Vikelas stepped down after the Olympics in his own country. Despite its initial success, the Olympic Movement faced hard times, as the 1900 Games (in de Coubertin's own Paris) and 1904 Games were both upstaged by World's Fairs—Exposition Universelle in 1900 and Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904—and received little attention. The 1906 Intercalated Games revived the momentum, and the Olympic
National Olympic Committee of the Azerbaijani Republic president of the committee since 1997. The National Olympic Committee of Azerbaijan was established in 1992 and recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1993. For the first time Azerbaijan took part at the Olympic Games as an independent state in 1996 and since then sends sportsmen to all Olympic Games. Earlier, Azerbaijani athletes competed in the Olympic Games in the team of the Soviet Union from 1952 to 1988, but after a collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan became a part of the Unified Team at the Olympics since 1992. Azerbaijani sportsmen won, in sum, sixteen medals at the