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
Belarus Olympic Committee Soviet Union. Until that event, Belarus and the other fourteen Soviet Socialist Republics' Olympic activity were controlled by the Olympic Committee of the USSR, which did not disband until 1992. During that same year, Belarus competed in the 1992 Summer and Winter Olympics as part of the Unified Team. Granted temporary membership in 1992, the NOC RB was not granted full membership until the 101st International Olympic Committee Session in the year 1993. Also in 1993, Vladimir Ryzhenkov, who was at the time the Belarus Minister for Sport and Tourism, was elected to the post of President of the NOC